Lyle Spencer was a wide-eyed kid when he began covering baseball in 1971, unwittingly taking Maury Wills seat on the Dodgers private plane headed toward Vero Beach — and getting verbally flogged by the great shortstop for being so foolish. All these years later, Spencer always takes the right seat and tries to do the right thing, being as honest as possible. A UCLA graduate in political science, Spencer began his long, strange trip to MLB.com with the Santa Monica Evening Outlook in his hometown. He subsequently took his typewriter/laptop and ideas to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Rocky Mountain News, San Antonio Light, New York Post, National Sports Daily and Riverside Press-Enterprise for a 35-year run as reporter/columnist before returning to his baseball roots in 2005 with the Padres, moving to the Angels in 2007. A few of Spencers personal faves: Bruce Springsteen, Muhammad Ali (who once threw about 25 jabs into his face after a sparring session), Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (heck, the whole 80s Laker crew), Dusty Baker, Fernando Valenzuela, David Cone, Khalil Greene, Chris Young (the pitcher and hoops aficionado), Garret Anderson, Torii Hunter and, of course, the Angels outfit he feels privileged to cover on a regular basis. Spencer lives in Temecula, has two grown and beautiful daughters (Kim and Rachael) and can be found walking the streets with his dogs, Eddie and Benny.