The Deck was Stacked? C’mon Gee……are you making excuses for the 1990 team? Hell NO!! Everybody knows that Gee pulls no punches when we’re talkin’ Verdugo! But let’s face it…the Deck indeed WAS stacked in 1990. And it was stacked AGAINST Verdugo! So allow me to point out some of the things we had “working against” our 1990 miracle season. But before we go there, lets give a little thanks to The Good Lord himself for putting in a little “overtime” and creating something pretty special on the eighth day. The eighth day? That’s right…and I’m here to give to you the verse that for some reason never made it into the Bible. Here it is…..”AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, GOD CREATED VERDUGO HILLS!!!!”
Weapon made a great comment on The Blog yesterday. he said “if there is no Genesis…there is no Bible.”
I agree. And 1990 was the “Book of Genesis” in our storied history.
Here are some of the factors that SHOULD have worked against us that first season….but ultimately….they didn’t. YOU be the judge.
Cal Frost did not play any Baseball his senior year in High School.
John Rogers sat out most of (if not all) the 1990 season at the High School with a broken nose.
“Tex” Martin was caught up in some kind of b.s. with the coaches at the High School his senior year and didn’t play most of the season.
“Weap” was caught up in the same scandal…..something about Berger chewing tobacco if I am correct. The coaches up there dragged Weap and Tex into the mess. Weap had to ride a little pine that year as well.
Hank probably didn’t swing a bat his whole senior year at CV…yet he hit .339 for us. Hank TOTALLY caught fire for us at the plate towards the end of our 1990 season…going something like 10 for his last 19 at the plate.
Turner, Big Breck, Sammy, and Yoder had never played any Varsity Baseball before joining the Verdugo Hills squad.
BullOxen sat on the bench most of his sophmore season at CV on the Varsity squad……again, another guy with little or no Varsity experience.
This is what I’ve been talking about. Yet The Daily News and Foothill Leader that year dubbed our Verdugo Hills squad “The Biggest Surprise of The Season.”
I did a quick history check last night. Of all the NEW teams that came into the 20th District from the years 1990-93 there was only ONE Team who had a winning record in their first season. Verdugo. That’s right………Verdugo. We barely did it at 12-10…but we did it!
Add in the fact that we had NO home field. Add in the fact that Chandler and Chili got pulled off the Team around the middle of the season (that HURT). Add in the fact that we really didn’t even know who the hell we were playing, let alone WHERE the field was located. Add in the fact that all of the Umpires were “Local”…meaning that they sent “homeboy” umpires to the games who already knew the players and coaches of the teams we were playing against. You think they gave us any love? Hell No they didn’t!
I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into that first year. I’m old school. Hand me a schedule at the beginning of the season and I WILL BE THERE at every single game come hell or high water. Shit…that first season I even coached a game the day I GOT MARRIED!!!!! Well, not everybody thinks like I do. Some guys go on vacation. A lot of guys weren’t at all of the games. I could have worked out all of that shit BEFORE the season started……..and I learned a hell of a lesson that year. By the time ’92 came around…I had the whole deal figured out. Here’s what you do…you get the schedule…you contact EVERY PLAYER and find out who will be where for the WHOLE summer. Then you call up the other coaches, umpires and League Officials and start telling them a bunch of LIES about why you need to “reschedule.” About two or three days later, the original “schedule” they gave you gets thrown in the trash can. And you make the other coaches STICK to YOUR schedule…not THEIRS. I had no idea that was how it worked.
So while all of these “forces” were working against us….somehow, we had a miracle year. At least that’s what it was to me. A season of (if you will) “Biblical Proportions.”
Of all the teams that made the playoffs that year, Newhall-Saugus had the weakest record at 15-7. We went 12-10. We also BEAT Newhall-Saugus…so if we both finished 15-7……WE would have made the playoffs.
We lost to Glendale (a team that made the playoffs) 3-2 and gave up three unearned runs. We led that game 2-0.
We lost to Sun Valley (another team that made the playoffs) 3-2 the day I got married.
We lost to Woodland Hills East (another playoff team) 10-9………possibly the most gut-wrenching loss I’ve ever had. We led that game 8-0.
We lost to Panorama City (another playoff team) in our season opener 6-4 in extra innings. We led that game 4-1 in the eighth inning.
We lost to Lancaster (another playoff team) 7-5 and we had a bases-loaded rally happening when they recorded the final out.
That’s how close we came. If Chandler and Chili don’t get pulled from the roster at the halfway point in the season….well, things might have been different. We finished the last half of the season with (really) Bull, Hank, and McBride doing all of the pitching. Big Breck had basketball commitments. We just flat-out ran out of pitching. Big Breck courageously ditched a basketball commitment late that season for us and pitched a great game for us. We won that game, but more importantly, it gave Hank, Bull and McBride a much needed day off. Big Breck was worried the basketball coaches would find out so after we won….I DIDN’T call the results of the game into the newspapers.
I could just see the basketball coaches at CV reading the headline “Big Breck Pitches Verdugo to Victory” after he gave them some lame excuse about being sick or something…….
Ahhh Big Breck for chucking that game for us!!!!!!!!!!!
And you know what else was cool about the 1990 squad? They DOGPILED four times! Four times we won in the last inning. Clutch. I’m not taking anything away from any of our other teams……but that was pretty doggone amazing.
The point I’m trying to make here is that we were basically IN every frickin’ game! Battling it out until the final pitch of every game….regardless of the Deck being Stacked against Verdugo!
Yes, it’s true………”if there is no Genesis…there is no Bible.”
1990 and 1991 were kind of like “The Old Testament” of Verdugo-lore. And the characters we had were a hell of alot more entertaining than Moses, Noah, Abraham, and King Soloman.
I’m working hard behind the scenes to finally get that lost Bible verse “AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, GOD CREATED VERDUGO HILLS” back into the Bible. But for some reason, the “powers that be” just aren’t listening to me (what’s their problem?)
1992 and 1993 were kind of like “The New Testament” for us. But we had no Savior. We never did have a Savior. That’s what was so great about ALL of our Teams….no Saviors, no heroes, no egos………..just a bunch of guys playing their asses off…………somebody different every game “stepping up” to carry us.
Yes-sir-ree….The Deck was ALWAYS Stacked against Verdugo. For FOUR YEARS it was. But that never mattered….because ON THE EIGHTH DAY, GOD CREATED VERDUGO HILLS!!!!!!!!!!!
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