Born in San Diego on July 29, 1951, Gary Thomasson and his family moved to Oceanside in 1955. Following a stellar athletic career playing baseball and football for the Pirates, Gary, at the age of 17, was selected in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball draft by the San Francisco Giants. Hitting .285 in his first full season with the Giants, Gary was named to the Topps 1973 All-Star Rookie Team. He would go on to play a total of nine big league seasons, with his most productive year being 1977. During that campaign, Gary slugged 17 home runs and drove in 71 runs while playing in a career-high 145 games. The following year, Gary joined fellow Oceanside High graduate and OHS Hall of Fame member Chris Chambliss as a teammate playing for the 1978 New York Yankee World Series champions. With the exception of the Yankees, Gary played his entire major league career in California, from the Giants, to the Oakland A’s and the Los Angeles Dodgers, his final stop in the big leagues.