Les Haserot

Lester Elihu Haserot

• Bats Unknown, Throws Right

• School Occidental College
• High School Hollywood High School

• Born April 19, 1904 in Ohio USA
• Died May 23, 1957 in Los Angeles, CA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Les Haserot was a multi-sport star in high school and college, playing baseball, football and basketball at Occidental College. He chose to play baseball as a professional and played a couple of seasons in the Pacific Coast League. A shortstop, he was in 5 games for the Mission Bells in 1927, and in 1928, he hit .160 in 45 games for the Portland Beavers. He was fine on defense, but he could not hit the curveball. He thus quit as a player to accept a job as the baseball coach of John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles, CA in 1929.

He was known to train his teams with an intensity worthy of a professional, and players who passed under his tutorship appreciated him for that. Bobby Doerr, Gene Mauch, Catfish Metkovich and Nippy Jones are among the many players he coached, while winning city championships in 1932, 1933, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947 and 1948. He began to suffer from leukemia in the 1950s and had to quit his job in 1956. The following year, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

He was elected posthumously to the Los Angeles City Sports Hall of Fame.

Further Reading

• Rick Obran: "The Sandlot Mentors of Los Angeles", in Jean Hastings Ardell and Andy McCue, ed.: Endless Seasons: Baseball in Southern California, The National Pastime, SABR, Number 41, 2011, pp. 23-27.