Flashback: Larry Christenson, Marysville, Class of 1972

High-school rewind: Christenson participated in football, cross country, basketball and baseball at Marysville (now Marysville-Pilchuck) High School. Early on, he wanted to play basketball in college, and was recruited by almost every school in the Pac-8. Then baseball scouts started showing up — 50 or so at every game he pitched his senior year. Christenson had a 0.28 earned-run average that season. He first developed back problems in high school, and one doctor told him to start playing the violin.

After high school: The Philadelphia Phillies selected Christenson with the third pick in the 1973 draft and he became the youngest player in the major leagues one year later. His career spanned 11 seasons, highlighted by four All-Star Game appearances, a World Series championship in 1980, a 3.79 ERA and more than 1,400 innings pitched. Christenson retired at 29 after five elbow and two shoulder operations and multiple back and leg injuries.

After athletics: Christenson was an investment consultant the past 10 years. Last month, he started his own company, Christenson Investment Partners, which sells investment services. He does charity work with multiple sclerosis, leukemia, heart disease and diabetes foundations. And he has Phillies season tickets behind home plate.

Personal: He lives in Malvern, Pa., in a large house on a secluded property 20 miles outside Philadelphia. Divorced, Christenson has two athletically inclined daughters, Libby, 11, and Claire, 9.

Fast forward: Christenson used to tell friends there was no place like the one where he grew up. He still has property in Winthrop and Leavenworth and family in Marysville and Stanwood, and visits almost every summer.

"Tell everybody in the great Northwest I said hello," Christenson said. "There's no place like it. I used to play baseball in cow pastures. But I'd still tell people that that place was the most beautiful place in the world."

— Greg Bishop