Santa Monica salutes Tyler Skaggs with mural near Samo

Samo alumnus and starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, Tyler Skaggs (’09), suddenly passed away at the age of 27 on July 1, 2019. According to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office toxicology report, the cause of death was recorded as “alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.” Skaggs stood out as a star pitcher for the Samo Vikings before graduating as part of Samo’s 2009 class. The same year, he was selected in the first round of the MLB draft, beginning his professional baseball career. Skaggs’ passing touched the Samo community and faculty who knew him as a student and watched his climb in professional baseball, including his mother, Debbie Skaggs, a physical education teacher and department co-chair at Samo. To commemorate Skaggs’ death, a mural was painted on the wall of Red’s Pizza at the intersection of Pico and 7th street. The large, vibrant image of Skaggs, adorned in his Angels jersey and tossing a baseball, looks out over the street towards the Samo campus and can be easily seen walking or driving by. The artist, Santa Monica local Jonas Never, began his career with graffiti and has since moved on to large, realistic portraits. His work depicting local icons can be seen all around Los Angeles. As a baseball player himself and a fellow student of Skaggs, Never painted the mural to honor his classmate.   “I want to have Tyler looking over the school forever and for the Santa Monica community to have a place to remember him,” Never said to The Santa Monica Daily Press.  Non-profit Art Without Boundaries worked together with Never to organize the creation of the painting. With donated materials and supplies, the mural was completed in July over the course of three days. The mural is a way by which students and faculty can remember Skaggs, not only as a professional baseball player, but as a Samo alumnus and member of the community.