verdugo288

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.