Saturday afternoon was shaping up to be perfect for baseball in San Francisco, with the Giants and Tigers set to face off under sunny skies and a light breeze. The 115th game of the season for each club quickly became an afterthought.
In a corner of the Oracle Park press box was a small memorial. “In loving memory of Michael Wagaman,” read a note, accompanied with three photos of the beloved sportswriter alongside his son, Michael Joseph Patric Wagaman, and his ex-wife and best friend, Loretta Abeyta.
Wagaman, who has written for a number of outlets across Northern California including the Turlock Journal, passed away in his Vallejo home on Friday night at the age of 59. Better known as “Wags” or “Wag” by those who worked alongside him throughout a career that spanned 42 years, he was unquestionably one of the most beloved characters in the industry.
Emphasis on character.
For as great a writer as he was, he was an even better man who was constantly smiling and cracking jokes. To be engaged in his banter meant you were a friend. And he made everybody a friend, even if he had just met you seconds prior.
By some quick research over the weekend, the first time his name appeared in a newspaper was in the Sept. 9, 1983 edition of the Vallejo Times Herald within a season preview for the Hogan High School football team. The defensive end graduated in 1984, and at that point had already done some work for his hometown paper.
Wagaman would soon make his share of friendships right here in Turlock. He joined the Journal as a sports reporter in the spring of 1989. Less than a year later, he was promoted to sports editor, a role he served in until early 1995. A daily newspaper at the time, Wagaman consistently churned out content about high school sports, Stanislaus State athletics and area athletes making their way through the collegiate and professional ranks. As a young staff writer, he contributed to the Journal’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Loma Prieta Earthquake and its local impact.
In 1996, Wagaman began covering a number of professional and college sports — football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, boxing, MMA — primarily for the Associated Press. He became a mainstay at the Oakland Coliseum for his in-depth coverage of the Raiders for Silver & Black Illustrated.
Wagaman was sidelined in 2022 when he had a pair of major surgeries to remove a brain tumor. Despite suffering two strokes and a seizure during his three months of recovery, Wagaman found himself back in the press box for the following baseball season, continuing to freelance for AP and beginning to contribute to NBC Sports Bay Area. Just this year, he was hard at work covering the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup.
The Giants honored Wagaman with a moment of silence ahead of Sunday’s game at Oracle Park. In the press box were Abeyta and their son.
The A’s returned from an east coast trip on Monday and also honored Wagaman’s life during the pregame in West Sacramento. In the Sutter Health Park press box were flowers placed over his seating assignment badge alongside photos.
The press box covering the Athletics is where I first met Wagaman in July of 2023. He had many questions after he tracked me down in the Coliseum press box, but one took priority: “Is Javi’s still open?”
Wags loved tacos, and he had such an affinity for Javi’s Mexican Restaurant on E. Monte Vista Ave. across from the Stan State campus. And he was always sure to eat at Jura’s Pizza each time he returned to hang out with old friends.
Over the years, many of our conversations would begin by me updating him on the latest Turlock gossip. The love he had for this town is shared by the community, evident in the number of texts and calls I received from former coaches, school administrators and athletes regarding his passing.
Nevertheless, the conversations always came back to tacos and his wild nights at Javi’s. The Turlock restaurant has since closed, but I’ll be sure to order a plate over at the Hilmar location in his memory.
