Baseball | October 30, 2019

LOS ANGELES--Ron Fairly, the home run and RBI leader on USC's 1958 national championship baseball team who then had a 21-year major league career that included stops with the Dodgers and Angels before becoming a long-time baseball broadcaster, died today (Wednesday, Oct. 30) in Indian Wells, Calif., of cancer.  He was 81.
 
Services will be private.
 
Fairly played varsity baseball at USC only in that 1958 season, but made the most of it. He hit .348 with team highs of nine home runs and 67 RBIs while lettering as a sophomore center fielder as the Trojans won their second College World Series championship. He was an All-District 8 selection that season.
 
Fairly went from USC to the major leagues (after two brief minor league stops), where he played first base and outfield for 21 years with the Dodgers (1958-69), Expos (1969-74), Cardinals (1975-76), A's (1976), Blue Jays (1977) and Angels (1978). He played in four World Series with the Dodgers, winning in 1959, 1963 and 1965. In his 2,442-game pro career, he hit .266 with 1,913 hits, 931 RBI and 215 home runs. He was named an All-Star in 1973 and 1977.
 
After his playing days, Fairly became a radio and television broadcaster.  He started as a sports anchor at KTLA in Los Angeles in 1979, then called games for the Angels (1980-86), Giants (1987-92) and Mariners (1993-2006, plus occasionally in 2007, 2010 and 2011).
 
He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.  In 2018, he co-authored a book, "Fairly at Bat:  My 50 Years in Baseball, from the Batter's Box to the Broadcast Booth."
 
Fairly is survived by his sons, Mike, Steve and Patrick.