Meritorious Service Award Recipients—

Gary Brooks and Sandy Mollzan

Gary Brooks

Gary Brooks had an up-close baseball experience as a pitcher at the University of Puget Sound in the early 1990s. Then he got another up-close view of the sports world, as a writer on the award-winning sports staff of the Tacoma News Tribune through the end of 1998. He coordinated the TNT high schools coverage for a few years, worked as Larry LaRue’s primary backup on the Seattle Mariners beat and wrote a baseball Q&A column called Ask Brooksie.

With the emergence of the internet, to start 1999 Brooks became the Major League Baseball editor at CBSSportsLine.com, which at that time was the content provider and site manager for MLB.com before Major League Baseball created its own advanced media team. For the All-Star games, playoffs and World Series, Brooks traveled and wrote for MLB. com. That put him in the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium when the champagne was being sprayed and players were celebrating after the New York Yankees swept the Atlanta Braves in the 1999 World Series.

In 2000, he left sports journalism to work at Russell Investments. Eventually, he became a Certified Financial Planner and, since 2008, has owned a financial advisory practice. But he didn’t stay away from the inside view of baseball for long.

Marc H. Blau Meritorious Award Recipients

2022 Gary Brooks Sandy Mollzan

2017 Whit & Shirley Hemion

Owen Shackett, Jr.

2015 Craig Lowry

2014 No Banquet

2013 No Banquet

2012 Jeff Buhr & Dick Pollen

2011 No Banquet

2010 Tony Milan

2009 Harland Beery

2008 Bob Christofferson

2007 Gary Nicholson

2006 Clarence Seman

2005 Walt Jutte

2004 Jack Murphy

2003 Tony Anderson

2001 George Quigley

2000 Ken Wilson

2000 Bob Maguinez

1996–99 Not Awarded

1995 Joe Hemel

1994 Jerry Geehan

Don Hill

Clay Huntington

1993 Tak Ikeda

Pat Steele

1992 Dr. Sam Adams

Dr. Robert Johnson

Dr. Robert O’Connell

1991 Maurice Turnbull

Bill Turnbull

Dave Turnbull

Donald Turnbul

Doug Turnbull

Since 2006, Brooks has been an official scorer for the Tacoma Rainiers. He splits duties with other scorers, now working a limited set of games each year just to have a reason to keep going to the ballpark. The official scorer keeps the record of the game and makes decisions regarding hits vs. errors, unearned runs, and other rules for how plays are scored. Occasionally, that leads to differing views with a manager or player, some less pleasant than others.

A 1990 graduate of Battle Ground High School, Brooks has been a frequent writer/editor of programs and website content for events like this one. He is a member of the executive board of the Shanaman Sports Museum of Tacoma-Pierce County. He was also a contributing writer for the book “Playgrounds to the Pros— An Illustrated History of Sports in Tacoma and Pierce County.”

Brooks is a lifetime member of the Tacoma Athletic Commission and a member of the TacomaPierce County Baseball-Softball Oldtimers Association event committee. He’s also a member of selection committees for the Tacoma Athletic Commission’s Distinguished Achievement Awards and the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.