VETERANS: Dodgers Honor Palisadian as ‘Veteran of the Game’

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jonathan Chang has loved baseball ever since he grew up playing the sport in Pacific Palisades, where he went to school at St. Matthew’s Parish School. He’s even got a classic “only in the Palisades” anecdote about his team’s coach, “Coach Keaton.”

Halfway through one season playing baseball in the Palisades, Coach Keaton left. Chang asked his mother why the coach left, but she wouldn’t give him an answer. At the end of the season, Coach Keaton returned and threw a party for the team at his home.

“Where’d he go?” Chang asked his mom.

“John, your coach is Batman,” said his mother, explaining that his coach, the actor Michael Keaton, had been off filming the Batman movie.

It’s only fitting that the Los Angeles Dodgers honored baseball fan Chang as the Veteran of the Game on Aug. 15 at Dodgers Stadium during a series home stand against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“It was unreal,” Chang said. “It was more than I ever could have dreamed up.”

Chang said he got to meet Dodgers catcher Drew Butera. He also got to talk to outfielder Scott Van Slyke and shook hands with Carl Crawford and SportsNetLA reporter Alanna Rizzo.

“It was just very cordial,” he said. “Everyone I met at Dodgers Stadium who works there was just awesome and polite and friendly,” Chang said. “Unfortunately, I did not get to meet Clayton Kershaw. That was my one wish. Him and Zack Greinke.”

With the Dodgers currently sitting in first place in the National League West standings, more than four games ahead of San Francisco, Chang is counting on their continued success.

“They’re going to the series,” Chang said. “I’m already saving up for the World Series.”

The experience on the field at Dodgers stadium was quite a change from Chang’s experiences in the field with the military.

Chang completed Officer Candidates School in 2008, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and went on to become an artillery officer.

He served in Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010. While there, he served in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine (2-6).

Chang’s accolades include a Combat Action Ribbon, Afghan Campaign Medal and Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat Distinguished Service.

In the 2-6 in Afghanistan, Chang was deployed as a field observer. He called in artillery mortar rounds for ground troops as well as aviation assets, including rotary gun helicopters, 6th air mobility wing jets and unmanned aircraft, also known as drones.

“The caliber of individuals that I had the opportunity to serve with is amazing,” Chang said, noting he lost friends and comrades in the fighting. “Everyone I served with, they are truly heroes day in and day out. Whether it was 140 degrees or 18 degrees. By the time we left, we had been patrolling 24-7 for seven to eight months straight and no day off. It’s incredible to serve with individuals like that.”

Chang is currently a company commander with the Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and is responsible for the training, welfare and unit readiness of more than 100 Marines.