Taft’s Tobak Finds a Major Inspiration

Watching professional sports isn’t always the best learning instrument for teenage athletes. There’s too much cussing, fighting, loafing and pouting.

Every so often, though, a magical performance resonates, inspires and teaches.

For Eric Tobak, watching the Masters golf tournament on television on Sunday and seeing Phil Mickelson make a 20-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win his first major in 47 tries provided the Woodland Hills Taft senior with a defining moment.

“Seeing him not even flinch or show any emotion, that takes a lot of talent,” Tobak said. “That’s inspiration for me. A lot of us tend to get nervous.”

Tobak, runner-up at the City Section golf championship last season, said Mickelson’s breakthrough victory offered lots of pertinent lessons, from convincing competitors not to give up despite repeated defeats to dealing with pressure-packed moments.

“I’ve been coming in second and third, so it does give me a lot of inspiration,” Tobak said. “His energy level was pretty extreme. I felt for him, and the rest of the golfers felt for him. You love to see it come down to the last hole and the last putt. Hopefully, I can make the putt just like him.”

Tobak will get his chance at next month’s City final. He has been a four-year varsity golfer for the Toreadors and has worked hard at improving his accuracy on drives.

“I’ve been practicing five hours a day,” he said. “I’d rather be accurate and short than long and all over the place.”

Tobak shot a three-under-par 69 on the final day of last year’s City final and made a 25-foot birdie putt on his final hole but still fell three strokes short of winning.

“Making the birdie on the last hole I thought was going to give me a victory,” he said.

That day can still come, and Mickelson’s example offers Tobak guidance on how he might pull it off.

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Terry Anzaldo has an intriguing idea that figures to generate excitement among fans of high school basketball in Southern California. He wants to put together a 64-team, double-elimination alumni basketball tournament this summer featuring former players from high schools in Los Angeles County.

Imagine the best ex-players from 16-time City champion Crenshaw taking on the best from Verbum Dei.

Inglewood could put together an alumni team featuring Reggie Theus, Ralph Jackson, Harold Miner, Paul Pierce and Jay Humphries. Loyola could build its team around the Bailey brothers, Toby and Ryan.

Former Crenshaw and UCLA standout Kris Johnson already has agreed to put together a team of ex-Cougars. The question is, will his father, Marques, the 1973 City player of the year, be able to start?

“I think he can go up and down the court a couple times, but he might be a sixth man,” Kris said.

Especially if Kris is able to recruit the likes of John Williams and Stevie Thompson for the alumni team.

“It’s a question of getting the guys together,” he said.

Anzaldo organized a 16-team alumni tournament in the San Fernando Valley in 1989. Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame player Jamie Dixon, now the coach at Pittsburgh, was the most valuable player.

The champion of this year’s tournament will be the alumni team with the most players in shape.

Reseda Cleveland Coach Andre Chevalier, a former All-City guard, intends to organize a team of ex-Cavaliers.

“The big question is who’s been taking care of their bodies in the last 10, 15 years,” Chevalier said.

Anyone interested in putting together an alumni team can contact Anzaldo at www.alumnibball.com.

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San Pedro (15-3) is emerging as a possible challenger to Chatsworth (20-0) for the City baseball championship. The Pirates are 5-0 in the competitive Marine League and have three excellent senior pitchers in Matt Kretzschmar (5-0), Steve Taylor (3-1) and Eric Thacker (5-1).

“We’ve been getting great pitching performance after great pitching performance,” first-year Coach Grady Sain said.

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Effective next season, City Section teams that win a league championship will no longer be guaranteed a spot in the City Championship playoff bracket.

The new playoff criteria, approved by the Interscholastic Athletic Committee, will prevent having to put a champion from a weak league into the 16-team championship division.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.