FORMER SAN QUENTIN INMATE ED ANDERSEN FOUND LIFE, LOVE & GOD ON OUTSIDE
Now he’s a hall of famer
My friend Anthony “Bruno” Caravalho, San Quentin inmate number BC-9503, has been regularly telling me about how much joy he has found writing for The San Quentin News. As followers of Our Lord Jesus Christ can tell you, true freedom can be found anywhere, including a jail cell.
But recent events prompted me, at Bruno’s urging, to contribute to the SQSP newspaper with a story you can relate to.
If you can get any kind of elevation allowing you to look beyond the prison walls you will see your surroundings, Marin County. About a mile as the crow flies due west, just on the other side of the 101 Highway, is Redwood High School.
Once upon a time (1972-75), a young stud named Eddie Andersen was one of the finest prep pitchers in America at Redwood. A second round draft choice of the Houston Astros, Eddie signed in 1975 and played a number of years in the Houston and New York Yankees organizations.
Without the structure of baseball and baseball coaches, however, Eddie was quickly lost. A high school classmate had managed to cross from Colombia to Miami with a large quantity of drugs. Suddenly a kingpin, he employed Eddie as a “mule.”
One day a drug deal went bad. There was gun fire. Exactly what happened I cannot say for sure, but Eddie was caught. He refused to “rat out” his so-called “friend,” and was sentenced to a long haul at . . .
SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON.
Exactly what happened to Eddie within the very walls many of you reading this currently live in, I cannot say. You more likely can answer that better than me. Let me just say Eddie did what he had to do to survive. He was six-feet, four inches tall, 220 pounds, a rugged ex-football and baseball player, and as tough a dude as you will ever come across. A fearless SOB.
You can use your imagination.
But Eddie, who was a kind, generous-hearted teammate of mine at Redwood, who never “big leagued” younger or lesser players, who always had something nice to say about anybody, had to put his humanity away. He had to hide the gifts God bestowed upon him.
He had to accept the punishment of the state and believed it was punishment from God, too.
He survived “the Q,” and some two decades ago was let out. He found himself adrift in Marin County, his old jail visible from the very baseball field he once starred on. He would walk around Corte Madera with his prison tats, and when approached tell people, “You don’t want to know me anymore.” He knew only shame.
“I know hell exists,” he said, “because I lived in it.”
But you cannot keep a good man down. He prayed, and God delivered to His child Eddie Andersen a beautiful lady who understood his pain, and was happy to make it her mission to help him relieve himself of it.
They are married and today live in Idaho. Eddie is a respected contractor, thriving.
“I know the temptations of the devil,” he said. “I know the only escape from his clutches is through God.”
Long denied entrance into the Marin Athletic Hall off Fame because of his past, Eddie’s present day success and rehabilitation inspired the people in charge to reconsider, and on November 2 Eddie Andersen will be inducted into the 2024 class.
If Eddie could survive San Quentin and find life beyond its walls, so can anybody reading this. There is hope.
His name is Jesus Christ.
P.S. The high school “friend” who employed Eddie was nailed by the DEA in the 1990s.
Steven Travers is a former screenwriter who has authored over 30 books including the upcoming Best Sports Writing Ever. He is a USC graduate and attorney with a Ph.D who taught at USC and attended the UCLA Writers’ Program. He played professional baseball, served in the Army JAG corps in D.C., was in investment banking on Wall Street, worked in politics, lived in Europe, and was a sports agent before finding his calling as a writer. He has written for the San Francisco Examiner, L.A. Times, StreetZebra, Gentry magazine, Newsmax and MichaelSavage.com. He lives in California and has one daughter, Elizabeth. He can be reached at USCSTEVE1@aol.com or on Twitter @STWRITES.