Memorial Service for Tommy Hanson Schduled for January 16, 2016 at RCC Baseball Field

RIVERSIDE -- Former Riverside City College (RCC) baseball player Tommy Hanson, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, who died Nov. 9, will have a memorial service in his honor on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, at 12 p.m. at the RCC Baseball Field.

Hanson, 29, who suffered "catastrophic organ failure" after slipping into a come on Monday, Nov. 9, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta, died that same day. He had been hospitalized since early Sunday morning.

His major league career was sidetracked by a shoulder injury and the death of his step brother in 2013.

Hanson pitched for the RCC Tigers during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. His name appears in several RCC pitching single season and career categories.

He is third on RCC's list with 16 strikeouts in a game (twice in 2006) against Cuesta and Sacramento City Colleges. In 2006, Hanson set a RCC record with 154 strikeouts in a season. Elsewhere on RCC's single season lists, he is tied for third in starts (17) and tied for seventh in victories (11). On RCC's career pitching lists, Hanson is first in strikeouts (233), third in games started (31) and eighth in innings pitched (202.2).

A 6-6, 220-pounder with an amiable personality, Hanson last pitched in the major leagues in 2013 with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He spent nearly a month away from the club that season as he coped with the sudden death of his stepbrother.

He finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2009, when he won 11 games and posted a 2.89 earned-run average for the Atlanta Braves.

Shoulder discomfort bothered him in 2010, and limited him to just 22 starts in 2011.

While Hanson made 31 starts and won 13 games for the Braves in 2012, they traded him to the Los Angeles Angels that off-season for reliever Jordan Walden. When Hanson's stepbrother passed away that spring, Hanson took six days off from the team, made one start, and then realized he needed more time away to mourn.

He returned to the Angels three weeks later.

"I was having mental issues with the death of my younger brother," Hanson, then 26, told reporters then. "I was just trying to get through it. I didn't know how to handle it.

"That was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me. I didn't know how to cope with it."

He made 13 starts for the Angels in 2013, and made his final major league appearance, a relief outing, on Sept. 28.

-30-