Paul Hanley was my baseball teammate for Key Chevrolet Expos Los Altos Hills Senior Little League when we were 15, in summer of ‘79, that is to say, forty years ago.
Today David O’Such told me of Paul’s passing, which was actually in 2016 — I hadn’t spoken to him likely since 1979. We David and I gabbed for about 20 minutes, mostly about the old days but also about real estate trends — he’s a VP with the former Cornish and Carey.
(He also mentioned the too soon passing of another of The Expos Don DeGrasse).
Tim Hanley, soccer goalie and coach…*
Joe Cannon, 342 appearances in the MLS. — I don’t think we’ve ever met, though I clearly recall Albertin Montoya touting him, ranking him equal to his NCSU roommate Kyle Campbell. Montoya and Cannon won the U-19 national championship.
Which leads me to peeping out two short videos of Allie Montoya, age 15. who scored 20 goals as a freshman at Mountain View High and reportedly has already verbally committed to play for Stanford.
I Remember Paul as the Madison Bumgarner Of our team, the stopper. He was also a stalwart Of Los Altos basketball, alongside Joe Cassin and Ken Runte. (Stalwart, whereas I got on the court only after Gunn went ahead by 20 — I scored 0 points but missed a free throw, which got my name in the box score, 1981 SCVAL championship game, Gunn vs Los Altos, at Foothill College).
Condolences to friends and families of Paul and Don; kudos to The Montoyas, Albertin, Erin and Allison; I forget what made me notice Nolan O’Such’s name — he’s an agent at APA — such that I left a VM for his dad.
And1: O’Such and I spoke for exactly 18 minutes. I also spoke to Steven Bernstein today, also for 18 minutes In both cases, that’s an auspice, in that “18” in Hebrew numerology means “life”.
* edited for brevity, which I’ve never done :
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 
I am Michael Cohen I knew Paul Hanley very well! I went to purrissama school with him in 5th grade and was also on the Expos Los Altos baseball team with him. He was my good friend and my catcher. Paul was a great athlete and great friend he was such a nice guy and all of the kids back then liked him. He was also very smart. When I heard of his passing I was shocked and saddened. I miss him. You never have such close friends as the ones you make in school.
Editor: I would add this: if you die at 18 or 19, like Jason Bermel or Jerry Dowd, it’s a tragedy. If you die in your 50s like Paul Hanley or Mark Leland, it’s merely very sad.
All and all, I am glad you are doing well, Mike. PS, somewhere I have archived or maybe published a tape of a famous guitar player doing a tribute to Leland by running thru the riffs of Van Halen as I describe my memories of us stealing hooch from the Lelands’ liquor cabinet and using our tennis racquets as air guitars…