It’s all coming back to me now. “They burned their bodies” the night we clinched a playoff spot for the first time. We had taken it down to the final days of the ’90 and ’91 seasons and were knocked out of the playoffs. So when we clinched a spot in ’92…needless to say, it kicked off quite a celebration. We clinched on a Friday night at our other home field Glendale High, beating Fat Bitch from Sun Valley for the second time in 10 days. The problem was, we had a game to play Saturday morning at 10 AM against Panorama City……but that was the least of our worries………it was time to PARTY.
And PARTY we did. As was mentioned in an earlier post by Colin James, ALOT of the players came over and we were all drinking and smoking cigars. That’s when the “GAR-BURNS” happened. Then the players went home…and General and I went out drinking at a local bar where we ran into a couple of moms from The Team. Now don’t get any ideas out there you readers……it was a great time drinking kamikaze shots till the bar closed with a couple of parents from The Team. They were as elated as we were. I was drunk when I got to the bar..and must have done AT LEAST another 10 kamikaze shots. OUCH!!!! And General was hanging tough as always…matching me shot for shot!!!
I wouldn’t have woken up for the game but my phone rang about 9 AM Saturday morning. It was General. All he said was “gonna be late…still drunk”………..
Here it was SEVEN hours later and we were still totally ripped!!! He showed up about 9:30 AM. I loaded the gear in the back of his truck, and got in. General was NOT looking good. General drove about 10 feet, stopped the car, opened his door…leaned his head out of the truck and puked!!! Somehow we made it to the game. I think this was the first time the players were at a game before the coaches.
I got to the game and heard that one of the moms had brought some doughnuts. Those were the best doughnuts I have ever eaten in my life! We all needed something to get us going and those doughnuts did the trick. Somehow, with the hangovers, the cigar burns and everything else…we were ready to go. Wiley Jackson was on the mound.
You never would have thought we were up partying all night when we rolled a four in the first inning….picking right up where we left off the night before. I was thinking “these guys are unstoppable…they’re on a mission!!” ‘Ol Wiley shut ’em down, scattering six hits and striking out seven in a 11-1 victory. But the REAL STORY was what happened in the 6th inning.
BullOxen came up in the 6th with one out. He took the first pitch for a ball. The next pitch he fouled off. Then he looked down to me for a sign. I gave no sign…All I did was mouth the word to him “BOMB.” He looked back at me. I did it again. I mouthed the word “BOMB.” He looked at me as if to say “okay, no problem”, and got back in the box and waited for the pitch. And sure enough, the NEXT FRICKIN’ PITCH he BOMBED it over the left field fence and into the netting that surrounds the bullpen for a HOMERUN. He smiled at me as he rounded first. That is the ONLY TIME I ever gave someone “The Homerun Sign” and it was also the last. Bull hit six homers in his three-year career with us but this one was special.
Later I said to him…”Shit, if I knew it was THAT easy, I can think of about 50 other times the last three years I should have asked you to do that!!” He just smiled.
Great moment. Great Team. Great Kid…………TRUE STORY…………..
verdugo288 