Archive for March, 2011

“Big Breck” Is In!!

Posted: March 29, 2011 in 1991, Big Breck
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We’ve located one of the workhorses from our ’91 Team Big John Breckow.  Ahhh Breckow!!!  Big Breck led the Team in innnings pitched that season with 42….in wins with four…and sported a 3.62 ERA.  It was great hearing his voice and he’s FIRED UP to be at the Verdugo Reunion!

I also made email contact with Jason Chandler today and should be in further contact with him over the next few days. 

Even ‘Ol Hank has been battling behind the scenes for the Verdugo Reunion….sending out links to our Blog to both Damon Martin and Vic Ramirez…..

I have also sent an email and left a voicemail with Ivan Moreno…….

We need to find McBride and Frost…..any help would be appreciated.

We just might have as many as 30 former Players at this Bash!

Ahhhh Verdugo!!!!!!!

Once Again…VERDUGO is on the Cutting Edge

Posted: March 26, 2011 in Behind the Scenes
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We’ve had 260 hits on this Blog in the last two days….another record.  I don’t know who is out there reading these stories but it’s an AWESOME feeling!  This is the FIRST BLOG of its kind.  There are no other Blogs out there like this one!!  Many will copy and follow our lead…but let it be known…….VERDUGO was the FIRST to put together a Blog like this one!!!!!!!!!!

I am determined to make this Reunion the best it can be.  We are tracking down more and more former players and their answers are all the same:  “I’m IN!!!!!!”

I’m getting more FIRED UP every day!!!!!!

How about you?

Willie Rivera!!!!!!

Posted: March 25, 2011 in 1990, 1991, Chili
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We called him “Chili.”  He could do it ALL.  I found him on Facebook.  Willie was one of the “Founding Fathers” for us who endured the 22 game road-trip in 1990 and also played with us in 1991.  He pitched masterfully for us both seasons.   I sent him a message.  And he’s coming to the Verdugo Hills Reunion!!  And he’s gonna help us find Chandler……..

It was great hearing his voice.  He REMEMBERS!!!!  Every name I mentioned from the 1990-91 teams he REMEMBERED!!!  He was a great player, a great teammate….he’s FIRED UP for the VERDUGO REUNION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Willie!!  We look forward to seeing you there!!!

BELIEVE IT Gentlemen…..this thing is coming together!!!!!!!!!

“Hey 2-3 Your BARN’S ON FIRE!!!”

Posted: March 21, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Chili, Games, Rags/Trash Talk, Rogers, Sammy, Spongy
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So we picked up our first win against Burbank after losing a heartbreaker in the Season’s Opener to Panorama City.  Then we got blown-out by Glendale 13-2, and had played Notre Dame to a 3-3 tie.  The following week we traveled for our first time up into Antelope Valley where we split a double-header with another team that ultimately reached the playoffs:  Lancaster.  I wasn’t happy we split.  I felt we were better than they were.  We should have swept ’em.

Remember, the 1990 Team played ALL 22 games that season ON THE ROAD.  And the weekend of June 16th and 17th we had THREE games to play in two days.  A Saturday trip to Quartz Hill, a Sunday trip to North Hollywood, and another game against the Glendale team Sunday night at Stengel Field.  We came into that weekend 2-3-1, but the TIE game was the Notre Dame game that would ultimately be decided in a couple of weeks.  This was a huge weekend for us, to say the least.

The Saturday game against Quartz Hill was one of the greatest dogfights in our history.  It was over 100 degrees that day.  There were 368 pitches thrown in that game.  Six pitching changes.  A wind that got as high as 40 MPH.  A FIRE broke out in the middle of the game.  Yes, a FIRE broke out in the middle of the game.  The lead exchanged hands six times.  We made 10 errors that game.  They stole 15 bases off of us.  We turned three double plays that day…one was a 5-2-5-4 DP….one of the craziest plays I’ve ever seen.  But somehow we just kept battling.  We pounded out 18 hits and in the end prevailed 13-12 in extra innings.  Oh, and by the way…..the game lasted FIVE hours and 45 minutes.   Although we made the drive all the way up there….we were the home team that day and DOGPILED again on someone else’s field. 

It started out simple enough.  I’m out there hitting pre-game drill.  Canale is shagging for me while I hit to the outfielders.  There was a plastic/rubber lid about five feet behind the mound that was about a foot wide and two feet long.  It was there to cover up the water tap so the grounds crew could water down the field.  But the damn thing wouldn’t sit flush.  Canale was trying to fix it so no one would trip over it.  He’d step on the left side of it…and the right side would pop up.  He’d step on the right side of it…and the left side of it would pop up.   He tried a few times to fix it and then we heard a couple of guys from their bench say “Just leave it alone!”…….

Canale was a rookie….he was sixteen years old.  And he had a chaw going.  It was our seventh game.  And you know what he did?  He looked right into their dugout and said to all of ’em “Fuck You!!!”

I loved it!  I’m thinking………..”we’re gonna be just fine today”……….

But this was the amazing thing about the 1990 Team.  They would always quickly acclimate themselves to wherever they were playing.  This was a world up here in the Antelope Valley that most of us didn’t even know existed.  I mean, this was a 150 mile round-trip into the middle of NOWHERE.  Just about every field we went to that year none of our guys had ever even SEEN, let alone play on.  And some of the time, the fields were not very well maintained by the opposing team’s coaching staff.  Some of the conditions were brutal.  But to the great Warriors we had playing for us…it didn’t matter.  That Team was truly a bunch of animals who had been let out of their cages (as Nance said)…………and we were ALWAYS looking for an opportunity to “mark our territory.” 

Quartz Hill had a great team that season…finishing 19-4 and reaching the Playoffs.  And we dogpiled right there on their field.  I remember late in the game as I was walking off the field from the third base coaching box towards our dugout on the first base side their Head Coach said to me “where are you guys from?”……

He didn’t ask that question to me trying to find out where we were from geographically…..he KNEW where we came from.  He wasn’t expecting the kind of dogfight we put him through that day.  The way he asked me was almost in disbelief……maybe he thought we were something “otherwordly”…or “from hell”…….I don’t know what he was thinking.  I just kept on walking.  I didn’t answer him.  I just kept walking towards the dugout.  Cold-eyed stare.  Never even LOOKED at him.  That was kind of my way of saying to him “No matter how hard you hit us….we’re gonna keep getting up….and when the dust settles….we’re gonna be the ones standing.”

And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.  We trailed 9-8 going into the bottom of the seventh.  Sammy Vaquera had a clutch base hit to tie it 9-9.  Damon Martin came up with two out.  And promptly BOMBED a two-run shot to left.  As soon as Damon hit that thing I was barking at it to “GET OUTTA HERE!!”  I left the third base box and was on the outfield grass talking to that thing when it finally cleared the fence.  Fuck I was FIRED UP!!!

They took a 12-11 lead into the bottom of the ninth.  Vic Ramirez walked and stole second.  Again, Martin came up and delivered a CLUTCH base-hit to bring in Vic.  That tied it up and sent the game into extra innings.

Canale went out to the mound and threw one of the most impressive innings he had thrown all season.  And they had their 2-3-4 holes in their lineup coming up.  It was exactly the type of thing I knew he was capable of.  He struck out their leadoff hitter on three pitches.  He snapped off the nastiest curveball I may have ever seen for strike one…..threw him a fork-pitch that dropped about a foot and a half for a called strike two…….and then just flat out threw it right by the guy for the called third strike.  He walked the next guy on four pitches….retired their clean-up hitter on a 4-3 groundout…and blew a fastball for strike three to another one of their big guns to end the top of the tenth. 

Chili Rivera led off the bottom of the tenth for us with a hard hit double up the gap in left center.  It was Chili’s fourth hit of the game.  John Rogers came up and blasted a 2-1 fastball over their right fielders head and we were dogpiling again!!!  It was Rogers’ third double of the game.  I remember lumbering down the third base line following Chili towards home plate.  Chili ran out to congratulate Rogers with everyone else.  I just kept going towards our dugout.  I tried to do one of those “forward-roll” front flips and ate shit.  But it didn’t matter.  I lied there on the ground on my back…..looking up into the smoke-filled sky…..two arms extended up towards that sky with clenched fists and thinking to myself “this is gonna be a fun ride home!”

As the game had gone on we realized which one of the Quartz Hill guys had yelled at Canale to “Leave it alone!!” when Josh was trying to fix that rubber lid before the game.  In 1990 he was still “Canale”…he didn’t become “BullOxen” until 1991.  Well, it was number 23 who had said it.  He was one of the two guys Canale mowed down on strikes in the tenth inning.  Canale…being Canale….couldn’t resist saying to the guy “Hey 2-3 your BARN’S ON FIRE” when that fire broke out in the middle of the game.

It was time to drive back down the hill.  We left a trail of carnage that day and it was only fitting that as we drove home….and looked back…the skies of Antelope Valley were blackened with smoke.

A Great Quote from Nance….

Posted: March 19, 2011 in Behind the Scenes
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I finally got ahold of Nance tonight.  Got to speak with her on the phone for about a half an hour.  Laughing the whole time with great Verdugo stories…..

She said one thing that stuck with me.

She said….”These kids didn’t have ANY fun playing for their High School Teams.   So when Verdugo Hills came around it was perfect.  It was like letting the animals out of their cages!!”

I couldn’t have said it any better………..

Exorcising The Demons…….Our First Win

Posted: March 13, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Chandler, Chili, Games, Hank, Spongy, Vic
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Sounds pretty heavy.  “Exorcising the Demons.”  Well, to me …it was.  That’s about the only way I could describe it.  I mentioned in my last post that I was a paid assistant coach at Burbank High in 1990.  You know, when I got that job it was one of the proudest moments in my Baseball life.  My friend, Dave Johnson had been hired for the Head Coaching position after a lengthy and bitter interviewing process.  There were ALOT of people that wanted that job, but Dave got it.  We were both hired as walk-on coaches who were not members of the faculty.  We were really, really excited about working there.  Little did we know about the scumbags that were lurking in the shadows, lying in wait, seeking out every opportunity to undermine and discredit us behind our backs. 

While my Grandfather Harry Leroy Magee had taught me the love of the game….Coach Johnson TAUGHT ME THE GAME.  Working with him that one season was an incredible opportunity to watch one of the greatest coaches I have ever been around in action.  He had hired me to assist him, and he probably knew that about the only thing I brought to the table was fire, and a love of the game.  But he brought me on board, and like I said before…we were REALLY excited about working with the players.

Unfortunately, there were SEVERAL people who were extremely bitter about us getting hired.  Two of them, one guy who called himself “Pops” and another guy I’ll just call “Weasel” did everything they could that first season we had there to make our lives miserable.  They knew all of the players and really went to some mind-boggling lengths to get the players to turn on us.  But there’s an old saying….Good ALWAYS triumphs over evil.  And that’s exactly what happened.

Out first season at Burbank was a disaster.  We went 3-12.  BUT….. by the end of the season, the UNDERCLASSMEN were on our side.  Halfway through the year we pretty much wrote off the seniors on that team.  So Dave and I were worried about what would happen during summer-league.  We REALLY didn’t want those two guys undoing all we had done with the players that season.  One summer with those two guys would have wrecked everything we had tried to accomplish.  That’s why in the summer of 1990…I coached TWO TEAMS.  We put together another Team in Connie Mack League that had players from both CV and Burbank.  All we knew is that we DID NOT want those two guys talking to our kids, and if I had to coach TWO Teams that summer to protect our guys from being poisoned by them…then so be it.

While I might not have contributed much to the Burbank Program, you gotta give me credit for ONE THING.  Being a HUMAN SHIELD between our players at Burbank and Pops/Weasel.

I really had NO IDEA that I would end up getting hired at CV in 1991.  But the summer of 1990 was instrumental for the Burbank program.  Why?  Because we shielded our players from Pops and Weasel and those players got to hang around some of the kids up here from La Crescenta.  I’ll tell you…WINNING and the way you carry yourself is contagious.  And after Jason Chandler and Chili Rivera had spent most of the summer around our Legion Team…I began to see a BIG difference in the way they carried themselves.  They evolved into WINNERS.  Chandler and Rivera were NEVER losers….they were ALWAYS awesome in my mind…..but after our disatrous first season at Burbank a change in scenery was needed, and THE PLAYERS of Verdugo Post 288 seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.   I personally CANNOT take any credit for it, but it was a wonderful thing to see everyone from both schools get along so well.

Yes, I went on to get hired at CV in 1991 and we had a pretty good season and made the playoffs.  But you know what happened in Burbank?  They WON the League TITLE OUTRIGHT.  You know who was in their League?  HART.  Yes, that’s right………..HART.  The accomplishments of the 1991 Burbank High School Baseball Team are absolutely incredible.  Coach Johnson did a masterful job, and I was happy for him and REALLY proud of the kids over there.  Chandler and Rivera dominated that season.  Awesome!! 

Our 1990 Legion Team lost the first game in our history to a team from Panorama City that ultimately went 18-5 and made the playoffs.  We took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning….they tied us and we ended up losing in the 10th inning 6-4.  I thought we had played a great game.  Certainly we had played well enough to win.  I was wondering how our Ballclub would respond to such a devastating defeat.  Alot of teams would have just thrown in the towel right there……..but not Verdugo.

So now here we were…the Verdugo Hills American Legion Team…playing the SECOND GAME of our existence.  And guess who we were playing?  That’s right…Burbank.  And guess who I was coaching against?  That’s right…Pops and Weasel.  Plus several of the guys I had coached that season at Burbank High were on that team.  Most of them were seniors who had graduated, the guys who we had pretty much written off as insubordinates.   Coach Johnson and I pretty much had realized that any instructions we tried to give these guys in particular was like asking them to eat a plate full of HAIR.  They all had “season tickets” in the second-guessing section, if you know what I mean.   So there was plenty of bitterness going into this game. 

Pretty much EVERYBODY on the other side of the Diamond that day HATED ME or RESENTED ME.  And they knew I was going TOTALLY out of my way to keep Chandler and Rivera away from them.  And the coaches of the Burbank team now were going to get their chance to teach me a lesson.  They had fantasized their whole lives about coaching the kids at that school….and myself and Coach Johnson had “taken” that from them.  I could hear their petty comments from the moment I arrived at the field…………

So you know who I gave the ball to that day?  Jason Chandler.  The hot-headed and wild-throwing Chandler.  And you know what he did?  He beat ’em.  We never led until the FINAL PITCH of the game.  And we had our first dogpile.  And we dogpiled right on THEIR field…..right in front of the guys who HATED ME.

They threw Mark/Mike? Rossiter at us that day.  Probably the best local pitcher that was drafted in 1991.  Canale came up in the second inning.  My old third baseman Jeremy Sparks and I were making a little small talk with each other in the early part of the game.  When Canale came up I told Sparks “See this guy here?  He’s only a sophmore”….

Sparks, being the arrogant guy he is who had the listening skills of Helen Keller then said as Rossiter dealt to Canale “Hey what do you say FROSH?”

Canale then hit a ball then went about 450 feet.  It was great to watch one of those bitches from the Burbank team who never listened to a word from myself or Coach Johnson have to go and fetch that ball.   We all know about BullOxen’s lack of speed.  It would have been a home run if there was a FENCE there but Canale ended up with a triple.  He scored on a wild pitch.

Chandler kept his poise the entire game.  He threw only 99 pitches.  His only walk was a hit-batter.  Was it an intentional DOSE?  I’ll never say……….

All I know was that when we rallied to win in the bottom-of-the-seventh inning……when that ball Martin hit fell in….I had to hold back tears.  The newspaper didn’t get all of the facts straight…the guy who got his glove on it and dropped it was one of my former players at Burbank high who we threw off of the Team for failing to call/show at a carwash fund-raiser we had.  That made it even SWEETER.  Yeah, we kind of burst their bubble(s) that day…..I guess you could say “‘Pop’ goes the ‘Weasel'” after this win………….

Yeah…we exorcized the demons that day.  And we had our first win.  If you’d like to read the story in the papers Click Here

The Collective CHIP on our 1990 Shoulders….

Posted: March 8, 2011 in 1990, Behind the Scenes, BullOxen, Chandler, Chili, Frost, Hank, McBride, Rogers, Sammy, Spongy, Turner, Vic, Weapon
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When we started this thing in 1990 I went in to the Post and somehow got them to sponsor our Team…something Verdugo Hills Post 288 had not done in about 30 years.  For more info on how that came about read my earlier Post titled “From $1000.00 to a Team Bus?”  While I was excited to have been “hired” to coach Post 288 (for no pay)…….I had just ONE PROBLEM.  I didn’t have any players……

I had just finished up my first year as a PAID coach at Burbank High.  So I was planning on taking a couple of pitchers with me from that school……our tough little right-hander Chili Rivera and left-hander Jason “White” Chandler.  But that’s really all I had.  I knew some of the kids from CV and had coached many of them in Colt League in ’88 and ’89.  Alot of those guys had already verbally committed to joining us but I still had many slots on the Roster to fill. 

So I started picking the brain of one of the players from my 1989 Colt Team..John Rogers.  Rogers was smart, funny, and most importantly…he could SELL.  In reality, Rogers was the GM for our Team the first year of our existence.  He kind of bridged the gap with a lot of these players we wanted to recruit for the Team and he really opened up the lines of communication with these players.  Rogers had already played for me for a couple of years and had a feel for how I liked to run a program and I think he did an unbelieveable job SELLING this to the players who ultimately ended up on our Roster.  But being the new guy, I still had ALOT of selling of my own to do.

Glendale had a powerful program going on, and I am sure many of the guys who played with us that first year (if given the choice) would have played for them instead of us.  But there was something going on behind the scenes that worked in our favor.  Glendale was trying to recruit the guys who ended up on our Roster as “Filler” players.  They wanted them on their team, but they wouldn’t make any commitments to these players as to how much (or little) playing time they were going to get. 

Most of our guys probably felt (and rightfully so) that they could be STARTING for the Glendale team.  As I spoke more and more with these players that we ended up with, I realized that they were pretty pissed about the whole thing.  This kind of worked to our advantage.  And in the end, they decided that PLAYING for us was better than SITTING for anybody.  I started to realize that this was a great group of guys….they all kind of had a CHIP on their shoulders and wanted to prove Glendale (and the rest of the world) that they were WRONG.  And I think that our guys more than accomplished this.

Glendale wanted all of the BIG NAME players.  The marquee players, if you will.  Hell, I’ve always said just give me nine guys who want to play hard and I’ll do fine with whoever it is.  Even if we play the entire season ON THE ROAD like we did. 

One of those Marquee players was Vic Ramirez.  The Glendale team was trying to get me to sign off on a waiver sheet and effectively “release” Vic over to them.  I had two words for the Glendale team when that was proposed to me…..those two words were “Hell NO.”  It looked like Vic might not even play that season at all.  But thanks to Hank, BullOxen, and some of the other guys doing a little behind the scenes “selling” Vic ended up playing for us and having a great season. This is the reason the Glendale team had it in for us and wouldn’t let us use Stengel Field at all in our first season.  And I’ll bet you if they did acquire Vic from us they would have won the District.  So Glendale may have ruined our plans of having a home field…but we ruined their season……….

You know what I say?  Canale is a marquee player.  Damon Martin is a marquee player. Weapon is a marquee player.  Hank is a marquee player.  Rogers is a marquee player.  Same with the pitchers we brought over from Burbank.  And the guys we filled out our Roster with were great players, too.  At least this is how I SAW IT.  And as far as I’m concerned, I SAW IT and the guys running the Glendale program missed it.  This is why Verdugo Hills had the greatest players….we had the guys who had HEART.  We had the guys who ate, lived and breathed the game.  So from our inception we had this great group of kids who felt they had kind of been OVERLOOKED.  They had a nice, big, fat CHIP on their shoulders.  And over the next several posts…I’m gonna tell you all about it!  I’m getting fired up right now just writing about it!!

It kind of goes without saying the chip I had on MY SHOULDER.  It was the perfect union…a coach who wanted to prove he could win at this level and a bunch of players who felt like they had been overlooked and wanted to prove that they could PLAY at this level.  Well, I think we proved our critics WRONG by the end of that first season.  Take a look at the stats from the 1990 Team when I post them here and try to tell me these guys were not players.  Canale as a 16 year-old made the ALL-STAR TEAM.  He had 88 Plate Appearances that season…..and he struck out ONE time!!!  

Yeah…..we all had a one big, fat, CHIP on our shoulder.  And I frickin’ LOVED IT.  While the rest of the league certainly didn’t label us as the new bully in the block…. I will say this….after just a few games they all were paying VERY CLOSE attention to US……….and there was a LOT of whispering going on behind the scenes about this New Team in the 20th District called Verdugo Hills……a Motley Crew of no-names who didn’t back down to ANYBODY.

 

Thanks Haggs…..

Posted: March 6, 2011 in Behind the Scenes, Haggs
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Haggs sent me a text this week on how to get ahold of Fielder, Gantt, Jackson, and Lee.  I found Jackson on my own…I called the contact phone number I had for him back in 1992 (I wrote them in at the front of our Team scorebook)…….and his Mom picked up the phone!  Wiley’s in NYC and I’m sure will find a way to be at the bash. 

Then, TODAY I got home and checked the Blog and we heard from both Fielder and Gantt…AHHH!!!………They both made comments on the blog so I’m looking forward to getting in touch with them.  Oh, and by the way…Haggs told me they could all be found on Facebook.  Thanks Haggs…….

I haven’t found Garrett yet but it’s just a matter of time.  If any of you are in contact with him…send him the link to this Blog and advise him to comment….that way we will have his email address.

Alot of you are wondering why I am spending so much time ranting and raving about the 1990 Team.  That’s because those guys were the TRAILBLAZERS for this whole thing.  That Team played all 22 games on the road that season.  Those guys started most of the rivalries….and were the original players who introduced the 20th district to “How We Roll.”   Some of the greatest dogfights ever played went down with that Team.  I will never forget the effort those guys put forth…and I think most of you will get a kick out of hearing about the shit we did that year!  It was CLASSIC!!

I will try to move through our History chronologically.  I may jump ahead in some spots….but I want to give TOTAL PROPS to the 1990 squad!!  What they did that season shall NEVER be forgotten!! 

I have a lot to write, and I’m excited about writing it.  I keep a list with me now and when a story idea comes up I write it on that list so I don’t forget.  We have over 30 posts so far on the Blog here.  I looked at my list Today and counted…I have AT LEAST 80 more to write.  And I’m sure I will remember more as time goes on….

PLEASE make yourself available in case I need to INTERVIEW you about something.  We can do an interview by phone or email.  I plan on doing feature stories on every single guy who we are inviting to this reunion…..

Keep in mind that not all the guys who wore our uniform are WORTHY of The Reunion.  Just the True, Loyal Warriors of this Ballclub who bled Verdugo.  Hank, Weapon, BullOxen, General, and myself are the five-member “Review Board.”  We came up with an original list of who we want to invite and we will pretty much stick to that list.  We’re all excited…and when we do it…we will DO IT RIGHT….VERDUGO STYLE. 

Thanks again Haggs….

Hopefully more of you will make some comments on the Blog soon.  We are closing in on 1000 hits already!!!!!!!!!  What are you guys gonna do when this thing goes “viral?”

Impromptu Bullpen Session

Posted: March 3, 2011 in 1990, Behind the Scenes, Chandler, General, No Way!
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I am going to write a story (probably in the next post) about one of the greatest games we ever played.  It was in our first season, The 1990 Team.  We beat Quartz Hill that day 13-12.  The game lasted FIVE HOURS and 45 minutes.  Add in an hour and a half drive EACH way and, well, you just might understand why General and I stopped off at the store to pick up a six-pack.  And NO…we were not drinking in the car.  Let me put it to you this way…..it was so frickin’ hot that day that the TIPS OF MY EARS had blisters on them for about a week from the sunburn!!!

General was driving and we decided to go down Angeles Crest on the way home.  There were three players who were in the back of Generals truck.  Ironically, they were all pitchers.  General’s truck had one of those cool sliding windows so we opened it up and were talking to the pitchers as we drove.  We were all laughing about how we had just ruined Quartz Hills’ day.  We got about half-way down the Crest and General needed to “go.”  So we pulled over on the side of the road, got out, and looked for a place to “go.”  Everybody got out of the Truck and was kind of milling around.  I took the opportunity to crack a beer.  Damn it tasted good after that long day!

I looked over off of the side of the road and saw a road sign.  One of those yellow signs that gives instructions to the drivers coming down the road. I can’t remember what the hell it said but it quickly evolved from a sign into a TARGET.  It was in a weird spot.  You could barely see it from the road.  It was about 10 feet BELOW us on the roadside.

“Hey I bet you guys I can hit that sign before you do”  I said to the pitchers.

“You’re on” one of them said.

These guys then started picking up these small rocks and throwing them at this sign that was about 45-50 feet away.  Remember, it was 45-50 feet away…but it was below us.

None of them hit it.  Everybody was missing above it.

“Stop!” I said.  “You guys aren’t throwing the right sized rocks.  Now before we start this competition let me check something out.”

The pitchers watched as I climbed down the embankment with a beer in my left hand, and a BIG BOULDER in my right hand.  I got up to about 10 feet from that sign and totally unloaded on it with that boulder.  CLANG!!!!!!  It sounded so awesome…it echoed out in the middle of nowhere.

Everybody was busting up.  “I win!” I announced.

“Bullshit!” they said.  “You cheated.” 

“Well, all I said was I was gonna hit it before you did….and that’s exactly what I did.  If you want to believe my bullshit about how I’m gonna ‘check something out’ on that sign just so I can walk up to it like that and unload on it…….then that’s on you!” 

We all got a kick out of the noise that sign made when we hit it and soon enough it turned into quite a competition.  Guys were cheating…everything….it was beautiful.

Then we moved back to about 50 feet.  Guys kept throwing OVER it.  They were missing high with everything…..kinda like what gets a pitcher in trouble in games….missing HIGH, getting the ball up in the strike zone.

So I started coaching ’em right there.  “Split your hands quicker!”….CLANG!!……….”Get that thing out in front of you!”….CLANG!!!……”shorten your stride up a little!”………….CLANG!!!………..”There it is!!!”

These guys started bringing the ball down and beating the shit out of that sign.  They dented the crap out of it.  Every time someone would nail it we would start busting up.  It was so loud!!  CLANG!!!  CLANG!!!  Echoing through the canyon!!!  Big dents in that sign…paint coming off of it.  They were getting it.  By the time we were ready to leave that sign was only held up by one screw.  It was just dangling there…dented….most of the paint gone…………swinging in the wind.

“C’mon Gee….let’s knock it all the way off!!!!!!” 

“No…we gotta get outta here.”  I said.

Then a car drives by.  This guy pulls over and sees these kids throwing boulders at a sign….and me standing there drinking a BEER!!

“What the %$#$ are you doing?”  He asked.

“We’re working on our control.”  I said……..pointing to the destroyed sign.

The guy just shook his head and drove off.  We started laughing again.

“C’mon Gee, let’s knock it all the way off.”  The pitchers kept asking.

“No….we gotta get outta here……besides, that wouldn’t be very considerate of us to do that now would it?”  I smilingly asked them.

They got the joke……….

Coaching pitchers is a LOT easier when all you got laying around is some boulders and a metal sign…………..

I can’t remember which three pitchers were there that day with us.  I know for sure that one of them was Chandler.  Maybe you guys can help me out with who the other two guys were………….

OK Gentlemen…Step up to the microphone

Posted: March 2, 2011 in Behind the Scenes
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I remember just a couple weeks ago I was excited that we had 500 hits on this Blog.  Well…today alone we’ve had 99.  And over 200 hits in the last 4 days!!!  Verdugo’s ON A ROLL AGAIN!!!  I gave the address to this Blog to about 15 people.  So where are all these hits coming from?  I don’t care, but I love it!!  This is turning out just like our Ballclub!! 

I have told so many VERDUGO stories over the years.  95% of the people I tell this shit to don’t believe a word I say!  But we know the truth….

All our Ballclub ever needed was a stage.  You guys were all natural-born performers.  The bigger the stage…the brighter the lights….the better you guys performed. 

Well…here we are almost 20 years later.  And it looks like we’ve got ourselves yet another stage!!  When I first started this thing, I said to myself  “If you build it, they will come”…………………….

Well, gentlemen, it’s time to step up to the microphone.  Let the new fans of Verdugo out there hear from YOU.  Tell ’em what this team meant to you.  Tell ’em how Verdugo shaped your life!  Or whatever you want to tell ’em!!  From what I can see….with all of the hits on this Blog…..we’ve got some fans out there who can’t wait to hear from YOU!!!!!  And besides…they are probably getting sick of hearing from ME!!

‘Ol Gee is gonna be 51 TOMORROW!!!  Let’s keep this ball rolling!!  There’s a BIG wave right here on this Blog…so let’s RIDE IT….VERDUGO-style!!!!

We have built this Blog…..and they have come……you’ve got your stage now……..It’s time for the light of VERDUGO to SHINE!!!!!!!………….it’s time to step up to the microphone………it’s time to tell The Greatest Story in Baseball Never Told!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!