There are plenty of folks out there who are “checking out” our Blog here (some on a daily basis) who know nothing about US or our PROGRAM. We are now averaging about 50 hits every day and should go over 2,000 hits today or tomorrow. So this story is to you strangers out there who have become fans over the last couple of months. We, here at Verdugo Hills certainly can understand why you have become fans. The only thing we DON’T understand here at Verdugo Headquarters is why we aren’t getting 50,000 hits every day!!! Well, we’re sure it will happen soon enough!! After all, we ARE The Kings of American Legion Baseball. So we just wanted to send one very important message to all of you out there who love us as much as we love ourselves. And the message is this: “Get a Life!!!”
No…all kidding aside…..we are actually humbled that you “identify” with us…and I figured it would be only fitting to let you strangers out there know what all of these nicknames mean, and the jersey numbers they wore. So hopefully, by the end of this post you will understand things a little better. I will begin with “The Founding Fathers” of our four years of glory….the original members of the Motley-Crew, Rag-Tag Group called Verdugo Hills 1990!!!!!!!!!!! The brilliant nicknames of 91-93 will be posted soon for all of you fans out there!!!
General: We named him “General” after Gene Mauch. Didn’t they call Gene Mauch “The Little General” or something like that? Mauch was the former Manager of the Minnesota Twins and later the California Angels. We first started calling him “The General”…then it kind of evolved into “General”….later, it became “Gen”….and even later, some other derivatives we CANNOT PRINT HERE! ‘Ol General, yes-sir-ree….Number 49 on his jersey!!!
Hank: His Real Name is Henry…but we also called him “Double-Ott” (his uniform Number was “00”). The opposition had ALOT more nicknames for him than we ever did, and I certainly can’t PRINT any of them here. Due to the things he did on the field and SAID on the field, he was for sure the most HATED player to ever wear a Verdugo Uniform, and I’m sure no one is prouder of that than ‘Ol Hank himself!!!
The Weapon: For those of you who don’t know what a weapon is…..I don’t know what to tell you. There are lots of different kinds of weapons. This guy was not a tire that you light on fire and roll down the street at somebody…..no, no. He wasn’t a broken bottle you drunkenly swing at someone when you’re in the middle of a bar room brawl. No, this guy was a very sophisticated piece of human machinery that was designed to deliver the final knockout punch. The bomb that WHEN it gets dropped on the opposition ENDS the war if you know what I mean. Within a short time of “Weapon” delivering……. the opposition would quickly begin to hoist their tattered white flags!!!!!!!!!! ‘Ol Weapon…Number 22!!!
BullOxen: Well, we all know what a Bull is. And an Oxen is slightly larger than a Bull. Both are “pulling” animals. First, he was “Canale”….then for a short while he was “Bull”…but he was STILL GROWING you know? After a while, he was bigger than a Bull. We certainly couldn’t change the name…so we added “Oxen” to the end of it. The two names MUST run together and the “O” in Oxen MUST be capitalized! Got it? BullOxen was a perfect name for this guy….because there were many games where he single-handedly “PULLED us through.” BullOxen….Number 19!!!!
C’mon Vic!!: This guy was such a great player that General and I came to the conclusion that there was really NOTHING we could teach him. But we needed to say SOMETHING to him when he was out on the field, right? We wanted everyone to believe we were actually COACHING HIM so we just kind of started saying “C’mon Vic!!!” every chance we could!!! Sometimes I liked to fuck with the other coaches and say “this guy has never played Baseball before in his life until this season!” They’d say “really?”…and I’d say “Oh yeah, he’s coming along just fine, but he’s still learning.” Then, just before he’s step in the batter’s box I’d say something like “make sure you run to first after you hit it Vic!”……And ‘Ol Vic would give me that smile as if to say “shut the fuck up Gee!” Yes-sir-ree….”C’mon Vic”….Number 28!!!!! And once Vic was on base……you could hear ‘Ol General over in the first base coaching box saying something like “Allright now Vic…don’t forget to BREATHE!!!” SEE??….we actually WERE coaching Vic!!!!
Spongy: He had this thing going on with his hair that led everyone to name him “Spongy.” Number 4!!!!!! Before he played for us, everyone called him “Spongy.” I always called him by his first or last name. It’s hard to call a guy by his nickname when you didn’t have anything to do with the creation of it……..to me, he was “Martin”….to everyone else….he was Spongy!!! To the opposition, he was a MAJOR pain-in-the-ass….because he was either reaching base, driving in runs, or scoring runs!!! Update: It has been brought to our attention by “Spongy” himself that his REAL nickname was TEX!!! So for all of you true fans out there….we may call him “Spongy” on this Blog….or we may call him “TEX.” Unfortunately we don’t have any footage of him at the plate with his signature, slightly bowlegged, wide-stance. But we did find a picture of BullOxen with a towel on his head! So anyone out there with any footage of ‘Ol TEX in his signature stance….please, please send it in to us!!!
Sammy: This was his REAL first name. But it stuck. In fact, if you saw him walking down the street, probably the first name that would pop in your head would be “Sammy.” You see, a guy named “Sam” is a slow guy who is a power hitter. The name “Sam” wouldn’t have worked for Sammy. Sammy was a quick guy. Could steal a base for you. Great speed. Great Defense. Great Hustle. In fact, Sammy was FIFTH in the 20th District with 12 stolen bases!! Sammy!!! Number 2!!!!!!!
Part Two (and the other seven notorious nicknames from the 1990 squad) will be coming soon!!
verdugo288 