I had mentioned in an earlier post about the notorious left field fence at Saugus High. That fence they had that was colored blue and was made of solid wood. On this day in Verdugo History….We were playing Newhall-Saugus…again. This was NOT the day of the infamous “Saugus 500.” No, this was another game. In fact, this was the final regular-season game of the ’92 season and we were going to start the playoffs in a couple of days against…you guessed it….Newhall-Saugus. There wasn’t much at stake this game as both teams had already clinched playoff spots. And what happened on this day may have been one of the top-five laughers of all-time Verdugo lore.
Workman came up and hit an absolute SHOT up the left-center gap. Their left and center-fielders were sprinting towards the ball. I mean these guys were running FULL BORE. It looked like the left fielder might have had a chance to make a play on it. One problem. His teammate, the centerfielder forgot to tell him he was running out of real estate. No warning. The left fielder sprinted straight into that solid wood fence. Unfortunately, there isn’t a word that can describe the sound of when he crushed into it…all I can say is that it was really, really LOUD.
The left fielder went down in a heap. The ball caromed off the wall and our guys were now hustling around the basepaths. Their center fielder was now chasing a ball that was rolling back towards the infield. The guy that ran into the fence was still on the ground and looked like he was dead……….
As our guys were rounding the basepaths and I was “windmilling” guys home from the third base coaching box I heard Robb Turner yell out the word “FENCE!!!!!!!!!!”
I started laughing so hard I fell down………………
That blue fence they had also had that really cool yellow line painted at the top of it. If a ball hit the yellow line and still stayed in the park, it’s a home run. Hack’s shot probably hit the yellow line. It could have gone either way. I wanted to argue about it with the umpire but how could I have put together a convincing case when I couldn’t stop laughing?
verdugo288 
You forgot to mention that it was DEAD silent when the kid hit the ground. As the kid lay motionless, you could hear a collective “gasp” from their crowd. But it was dead silent for a few seconds, which seemed like minutes to that poor kid’s mom as she waited to see if her son would actually get up from the horrific collision with a wood fence at full sprint.
But in that moment of silence out came the loudest “FENCE” call I have ever heard. Talk about comedic timing. The word echoed off the other team’s dugout…only to be followed by an eruption of laughter from the entire VH side, parents included. Till this very day, my old man says that was one of the best, most simplistic rags he had ever heard. Ahhhh, the Angry Reverend!
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Ok, this has to be one of the absolute all time best VH rags! Just reading this again made me laugh so hard I had tears. I retold the story to my wife and she died laughing. Priceless timing Turner!
Ahhhh!
I can’t remember if I waved someone home or held up a runner at third but I remember being about halfway between third and home and I was laughing so hard I went down to one knee hahahaha