Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner walked onto Dodger Stadium on Sunday and turned a baseball game into a family tribute, throwing ceremonial first pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Boston Red Sox. The siblings wore jerseys that read “Reiner” as they honored their late parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
Jake’s throw landed as a strike over the plate. Romy’s went a little wide. Afterward, the two posed with Dodgers outfielder Alex Call and infielder Miguel Rojas, a brief public moment that carried the weight of a family still living with a violent loss. Their parents were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home in Brentwood in December, with death certificates saying they died within minutes of multiple sharp force injuries from a knife by another.
The timing mattered because this was not a random ceremonial nod; it came several months after the killings and during a game that gave the family a national stage. Jake had already made clear how deep the connection ran. In April, he wrote in a Substack essay that his bond with his father was built on baseball, and in May he said on The Incline: Dodgers Podcast that Dodgers baseball was something he had always shared with him. He said then that he would never go to Dodger Stadium again without feeling his father’s presence, and that he could still hear Rob Reiner’s voice explaining why Shohei Ohtani should not bat leadoff.
That public remembrance also exposed how uneven the family’s grief has been. Romy has largely stayed out of the spotlight and has not spoken publicly about her parents’ murders, even as she stepped onto the field beside her brother. Their younger brother, Nick, is behind bars at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles after pleading not guilty in February to two separate charges of first-degree murder. He has been identified as the prime suspect, and the case remains the unanswered shadow over any public tribute.
For Jake, the meaning of the day was already plain before the first pitch left his hand. Dodger Stadium is now tied to both memory and loss, and the family’s appearance on Sunday made that private bond visible to everyone in the ballpark.
