Shining Stars
Midtown walk honors 4 of Sacramento’s best
By Scot Crocker
August 2019
The Sacramento Walk of Stars returns to the Handle District in Midtown to celebrate four superstars from the Sacramento area who have excelled internationally and brought positive attention to the community.
This year’s honorees are Major League Baseball star and manager Dusty Baker, Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders, mixed martial arts champion Urijah Faber, and renowned food and wine expert Darrell Corti.
The honorees will unveil their sidewalk stars on 18th Street between Capitol Avenue and L Street on Aug. 28 at 9 a.m. With a gala dinner that evening at Memorial Auditorium, the community will honor its stars and learn what Sacramento has meant to their success.
The star unveiling is free. Tickets for the dinner are $150 per person or a table of 10 for $1,500. They can be purchased at sacramentowalkofstars.com.
“This is our third year and we are so excited by the group of superstars we are honoring in August,” says Patrick Harbison, chair of the Sacramento Walk of Stars. “We are so fortunate as a community to have people from our region go on to national and international acclaim, and reflect a positive image of Sacramento throughout the world.”
Current stars can be found on the north and south sidewalks on L Street between 18th and 19th streets. They serve as a permanent attraction for residents and visitors.
I co-founded the Sacramento Walk of Stars. A board of directors and steering committee reviews and selects the inductees.
Here’s a look at this year’s honorees:
Dusty Baker graduated from Del Campo High School. He joined the Atlanta Braves in 1968 and was on deck when Hank Aaron hit his 715 home runs to pass Babe Ruth’s record. Baker later spent eight years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and enjoyed a 20-year managerial career with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals.
Many believe Baker helped invent the “high five,” which first occurred between Baker and Dodgers teammate Glenn Burke on Oct. 2, 1977, at Dodger Stadium.
Summer Sanders graduated from Oakmont High School in Roseville. She is an Olympic swimming champion and media star. After her competitive career, she became a sports commentator, reporter, television show host and actress.
In 1991, Sanders enrolled at Stanford, where she won eight NCAA National Championship titles. She won three medals at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Australia. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Sanders won four medals: two gold, plus silver and bronze.
Urijah Faber, “the California Kid,” attended Casa Roble and Lincoln high schools. He’s a mixed martial artist, entrepreneur and actor who fought as a bantamweight and featherweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Faber won the World Extreme Cagefighting Featherweight Championship in 2006.
He founded Team Alpha Male in 2004 to train professional fighters at Ultimate Fitness gym in East Sacramento. He has been a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sacramento, which helps new businesses and invests in the community.
Darrell Corti graduated from Bishop Armstrong High School (now Christian Brothers). He operates the iconic Corti Brothers specialty grocery store in East Sacramento. In the world of food and wine, he’s a global superstar—sought out for learned opinions on everything from truffles to sardines.
A shy man who dislikes self-promotion, Corti has advised everyone from Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse to former New York Times food writer and Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl. He helped create the California-style gourmet food and wine movement.
All four 2019 Walk of Stars honorees are true Sacramento legends.
Scot Crocker can be reached at scot@crockerbranding.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
