Eight months after Michele and Rob Reiner were killed, Jake and Romy Reiner kept the family’s Dodger tradition alive at a game against the Red Sox. Rob Reiner was a season ticket holder for 60 years.
Nick Reiner pleads not guilty in murder of Rob and Michelle Reiner
Nick Reiner appeared alongside public defender Kimberly Greene as he entered a plea of not guilty on murder charges in the killing of his parents.
Michele and Rob Reiner’s children are keeping a family tradition alive.
Siblings Jake Reiner, 35, and Romy Reiner, 28, threw ceremonial pitches to kick off the final matchup of a three-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 2.
Jake Reiner threw a clean pitch to outfielder Alex Call before his sister stepped up to the plate. Romy Reiner’s throw made it over the plate, with infielder Miguel Rojas reaching up to catch the ball as it swung wide.
The Reiners grew up attending Dodger games, a tradition Jake Reiner reflected on in an essay he shared via Substack in April.
“My connection with [Rob Reiner] was first built on baseball. It was my grandfather’s favorite sport, passed down to my dad and then to me,” Jake Reiner wrote. “We loved the Dodgers more than anything. We went to so many damn games.”
He added, “I’ll never go to Dodger Stadium again without feeling my dad’s presence and hearing his voice tell me why Shohei Ohtani should never bat in the leadoff spot.”
“The Incline: Dodgers” podcast cohost recalled how “When I was little, I would cry my eyes out when the Dodgers would lose a regular season game, and he’d say, ‘Buddy, you have to realize, at some point, that there are 162 games. It’s going to be alright.'” Every summer, the father and son went on “baseball trips,” eventually visiting every Major League Baseball ballpark.
“But I would trade every Dodger game, every Broadway show, every vacation, if I could just spend just one more hour talking to them and to say goodbye,” he wrote.
Michele and Rob Reiner’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, is being held in jail without bail after pleading not guilty to murdering his parents. The acclaimed Hollywood director, 78, and his 70-year-old wife, a producer and executive for their production company Castle Rock Entertainment, were found dead in their Brentwood, California, home on Dec. 14. Police allege they were fatally stabbed.
Nick Reiner is charged with two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of multiple murders and use of a dangerous and deadly weapon.
How Major League Baseball paid tribute to ‘longtime Dodgers fan’ Rob Reiner
After Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths became public, the MLB shared a statement paying tribute to the “When Harry Met Sally” director on Dec. 15.
“An Emmy Award-winning actor and Academy Award-nominated director, Reiner was an avid baseball fan. The Bronx native and Los Angeles resident was a longtime Dodgers fan,” the league said. “Reiner made numerous appearances at ballparks around the country and often inserted baseball references into his films.”
Speaking with People while attending a Dodgers game with Jake Reiner on Father’s Day in 2023, Rob Reiner said he’d been a Dodgers season ticketholder for six decades.
“My dad took me to my first game. It’s 1951 at Yankee Stadium, and it’s a doubleheader. The Yankees were playing the Washington Senators. It was Mickey Mantle’s first year in the Majors and Joe DiMaggio’s last,” he said. “I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point.”