Just a friendly reminder for the guys who played for us in ’92 and ’93………Yes-sir-ree……..I still got ’em!!!!!!!!!

On the left is our Team Fungo from the ’93 season….and ’92 is on the right.  For WHATEVER REASON…beginning in 1992 I would bring with me to every game a VICTORY CIGAR to smoke after we would win the game.  Not IF…but WHEN we WON the game…I would light it up and start smoking it.  After it was burning really well…I would hand it to whomever our winning pitcher was and they would BURN a mark into the bat!!!  This is why each bat looks like it has been “Branded” with something.   This ritual went on for the entire ’92 and ’93 seasons….all to the utter CHAGRIN of our demoralized opponents!!! And it happened QUITE OFTEN….as we went a combined 38-5 during the regular season those final two years!!!!!!

Then, depending on how I felt…I might just smoke that “Gar” while I drove home from the game.  Other times…especially if it was an AWAY game….I might hang around the field for a while and make sure the other team saw me enjoying that GAR.   Then as we left the field I would grab the scorebook, the ball bag, and the GAR and walk straight out to their MOUND and STOMP THAT GAR OUT….and leave it there!!!!!!  Boy that used to piss ’em off!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don’t know why they got so irate about that!?!?!  I was just marking our territory before we left!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both fungo bats were taped up just before our season openers in ’92 and ’93 by THUNDER!!!!

I removed them from their case for this picture.  The tape is coming loose on both of them and that needs to be fixed.  I will have another VIDEO shot of the bats when they return to their case.  Case?  What Case? …you are probably asking.  Well…’Ol Gee drilled holes in the ends of both bats.  The bats then sit in a glass case I had made and I can flip a switch and they SPIN inside of the case……ROTISSERIE-STYLE!!!   AHHHHHH!!!!  So I will embed the VIDEO of these historical artifacts soon!!!!  You see….they HAD to end up in a case and SPIN because there are so many “GAR” Burns on ’em that you can’t see ALL of the burn marks unless they are spinning!!!!!!!!!

Now……….(and I am laughing as I type this)………….CALF!!!!!!!!!…………….No more talk about these bats until The Reunion!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Even the Los Angeles Times wrote about our little ritual……..

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL / STEVE ELLING : Verdugo Hills’ Evans Tries to Sweep Aside Memory of Bad Break Against Glendale

We have all kinds of stuff like that going on with this team,” Magee said.A loose bunch? Without question.Before Sunday night’s game with Sun Valley, shortstop-catcher Kirk Hagge (who is 6-foot-6) showed up wearing a blond wig. Reserve John Jackson donned it during the game and paraded around proudly with what he dubbed the “rally wig.””These kids are weird,” Magee said. “But we want them to have fun. We’ve kicked the butts of some Legion teams and their coach will have them out running laps after the game.”We’re out to kick butt, but we have fun doing it.”