Now we traveled out to San Fernando High School for a Sunday Doubleheader. I’ll never forget the condition of the field when we arrived. It was the most brutal war zone I have ever seen. Not only had the field not been dragged……..I don’t think it had EVER been dragged. No chalk lines…..nothing.
I was greeted by a smiling old man who was (I guess) coaching the San Fernando team. From the looks of the field…I knew he HAD to be the coach (the dress-shoes he was wearing gave it away).
“Are you gonna drag the field?” I asked.
“No, no, no it’s good” he told me.
I saw a couple of guys from his team now trying to dig into the ground to find the anchors for the bases. I gotta give him credit…he DID have some bases.
“Look” I said, “I will personally drag the field.”
“No, no it’s good” he said.
I then tore three empty pages out of our scorebook and handed them to him.
He then looked at me as if to say “what the hell is this?”
“Really…..you’ve gone to alot of trouble this morning here I can see……..why don’t we just use THESE as the bases today?”
THAT……… pissed him off! But I didn’t care. And I think I made my point with that guy. Somebody was gonna get hurt with the field like that…………jeez.
I’m not real picky…but the condition of this field was the worst I had EVER seen in my life. And it was a decent facility. All it needed was to be taken care of. Incredible.
I hit everybody HIGH CHOPPERS during Pre-game so no one got hurt.
We took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning of the first game and they rolled an eight on us. We dropped the opener 9-3. We only had three hits in the first game. Frost hit a two-out triple in the second inning but we couldn’t bring him in. Vic had a two-RBI Double in the third, and an RBI triple in the fifth. Apart from that we didn’t really get anything going in that first game.
The San Fernando team was pretty loose, and had a good squad. They were having fun out there on the field. Some of you guys may remember they had a pitcher on the mound named “Bobby.” All I remember is pretty much the whole game I had to listen to their team saying “Hey Bobby”…..”Hey Bobby”….it actually was kind of funny. Well, it wasn’t THAT funny. The way I saw it I just lost a game to a guy who was not only wearing DRESS SHOES, he didn’t even have enough respect for the game to drag the ‘effin field!! Fucker……..yeah, I was pissed!
The second game was a different story. We took a 2-0 lead on them after two innings keyed by RBI singles by BullOxen and Vic. McBride started BOTH games of the doubleheader on the mound. San Fernando then scored five unearned runs against us in the bottom of the third to take a 5-2 lead.
Tex wasn’t at the field that day………YET. He said he had some sort of commitment he had to be at and told me he would get to the field around 3 PM. Sure enough…around 3:00, in rolls TEX. I immediately got him into the lineup. Tex then stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning with that bow-legged stance of his and promptly ROPED a two-RBI double up the gap in left-center. All of a sudden, we were right back in it.
The Verdugo attitude was starting to kick in. Guys were getting pissed. Canale had thrown a couple of great innings of relief and was getting tired. I was reluctant to give the ball to Hank, because he had thrown about 90 pitches the day before at Chaminade. Vic stepped up….he didn’t ask for the ball, he DEMANDED the ball.
I asked Vic when the last time it was he had pitched. “Back in Babe Ruth” was his answer. That was NOT the right answer………now I was getting sick to my stomach. It was then that Vic uttered the phrase the players kept telling me all year…….”Don’t worry Gee.”
Vic went out and threw two innings of no-hit ball. The problem was…..he walked SEVEN guys in those two innings. But only ONE guy scored….and we now trailed 6-4.
The Verdugo attitiude was now in full effect. I kept hearing guys saying shit like “C’mon! NOBODY sweeps Verdugo!”
All of a sudden we were TOTALLY into the game. Frost led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple. Hank laced a base hit and it was 6-5. We tried a hit and run with Canale but the shortstop made a great play to nip the Bull at first. Hank got wild-pitched to third. Up came Weapon. Weapon grounded out, but Hank scored. It was 6-6 and closing in on 100 degrees. I was starting to get really worried about Turner….he had caught every inning of both games. I’d tell Turner “Look we gotta get Rogers in there you’re gonna die back there.” Turner just kept saying to me “Don’t worry Gee I got it.”
This is the type of shit I’m talkin’ bout! Total Verdugo!
Hank was getting really worked up. All he said was “Gimme the ball.” I told him “hell no”…. he had just thrown 90 pitches the day before. So what does Hank say? “Don’t worry Gee.” So we sent him out to pitch the top of the seventh. And he fucking struck out the side!!!!!!! AHHHH Hank!!!!
We started a little one-out rally in the bottom of the seventh. Tex drew a walk, and Vic singled. The centerfielder misplayed the ball allowing Vic to get to second base, but we had to hold Martin at third. They intentionally walked Frost to load the bases. Then the fiery Hank came up and hit into an inning-ending double play! Fuck was Hank pissed!
After hitting into that double-play (a 5-2-3 Double-play where he was out at first by a half a step), I was no longer worried about Hank. He was pissed now, and he wanted this win.
So we sent Hank out to pitch the top of the eighth. And sure enough, three up, three down. Ahhhhh Hank!!!
Hank was just about as pumped as I’ve ever seen him. BullOxen led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk.
Weapon then stepped up and CRUSHED a 1-0 fastball over everyone’s heads…..
And we were DOGPILING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a win!!!!!!!!!! That ball Weapon hit was hit just as hard if not harder than the ball he hit at North Hollywood where he was robbed of a homerun. This one would have been an inside the park homer. So I guess Weap SHOULD HAVE had two homers in 1990 for Verdugo….he kind of got robbed twice.
Somehow……….we had found a way. Again. What a win!!!!!!!!!
That’s all I can really say………and I’m shaking my head and smiling as I write this (in a good way) WHAT A WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes it was hard….and it usually defied logic…..but now, when the guys were telling me “Don’t worry Gee”…I was actually starting to BELIEVE them.
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This was TRULY a VERDUGO WIN!!! I remember that fucking day….It was Hotter Than Hank In uh Brothel!!! Weapon and I have shared many a beer to this one….We definitely got hogswaggled that first game…..but that second game…after we had 20 minutes to look at each other and NOT LIKE WHAT WE WERE SEEING…..We fuckin’ took a stand… I remember some drunk fucker saying.. “Shoot ’em brother”….all day every time we would be up to bat in that game (that pitch threw a solid game)…. but I swear I was so into the games that I’m glad we have Gee to make some sense of it all… All I really remember is when we WON or lost (but still won somehow)…….Ahhhh!!! But that game…..I remember pure heat and the undying need to not get swept!!! I remember every time we would go into a Double Header..Gee would say: “Double Headah’s…..It’s so hard to sweep, yet so easy to get swept!!”…….. I can’t write all night…but when I read these stats I realize how hungry and proud our squad was….the score book does not lie…ESPECIALLY “NANCIE’S SCOREBOOK”….Man are we lucky for that shit!! Finally, I want to say two things..that I’ve never mentioned….#1 The two guys that found a way to get us that game were guys that embraced me when I first moved to the Glendale/La Crescenta area….I moved up there at a crazy age (6th or 7th grade) and the first guy I met was Weapon….He was a stout blonde kid with a gun and a range at shortstop that was unequaled… Had it not been for a 70% Ball In The Dirt Ratio he may have been the next Furcal….but he had Hank at first to dig it up!!!! But that powerful bat and knack on the base paths and later the outfield made him what he WAS…A WEAPON….. Anyways, Weapon and I had the luxury of being on the same team “Book Knook” (who by the way won it all)…and on the Arch rival team was “Victor Ramirez”…(Dominique’s Pizza)….I used to see that fiery, fast, tough fucker out there on the field and quickly realized a few things….This guy was confident, quick, hungry, and hated to lose… The funny thing was so were Me and Wep!!! LOL…. We actually had a better squad, but VIC was a true leader….Wep and I always respected Vic….but we loved the fact that we got the CHAMPIONSHIP that year…ANYWAYS, it all ties in to the fact that both those guys played huge parts in my life and made it possible for me to settle into the new surroundings and get after the one thing I loved….WINNING BASEBALL GAMES….and I will go to my grave forever grateful to them and their families….#2………….Wep and I used to talk to each other on the bench between innings and try to figure these bitches out (I need to make it clear that we were not just a shit talking team…we would share information after at bats or figure out batters and their weaknesses between innings….we weren’t some squad that didn’t respect the game….sometimes it could be a simple stare in the eyes, sometimes it could be a hard slide into second, but we ALWAYS picked each other up in the dug out and THAT is HUGE……..BUT…. sometimes we’d simply be having fun and reacting, with no worries, about what the fuck they were gonna throw at us…But one thing was for sure..We trusted each other… and that guy (Weapon) got me out of more jams than any other ball player in my life….He’s the reason I had that “smoke and mirrors” 5-0 record my senior year and got me on the All CIF Team …(which didnt’ mean shit to me cuz I wanted League)…but he did it…when….a “FEW” people were asked if they could “GO” and THEY (In typical Glendale Legion Fashion) said “NO”……He smashed one over the fuckin’ fence and got me off the hook!!! Anyways…I once again Digress….THE SAN FERNANDO GAME….when THE WEAPON hit that bomb, after VIC (Our True Leader) came in and went back to his old days of a crafty, fire ballin’ lefty and got us in the dug out) I just remember seeing the ball fly off of The Weapons bat and simply yelling out a big…. “OH MY GAWWWWWWD”…….IT WAS A FUCKEEEEEEEN BOMB!!!!!!!! That shit almost went off the concrete grade that gave way to the basketball courts!!! That shit made Ritchie Valenz roll in his grave!!!! Those tough bastards from S.F. have to remember that shot!!!!!!! AHHHHH to EVERY PLAYER IN THAT DOUBLE HEADER….IT WAS A TRUE BATTLE THAT DAY…..SAN FERNANDO IS ONE OF THE SQUADS I RESPECT THE MOST OUT OF OUR WHOLE SEASON…AT THE END…THOSE GUYS SHOOK OUR HANDS AND LOOKED US IN THE EYE WITH RESPECT…NO EXCUSES….Of course We helped them get THERE!!!!! VERDUGO…I”M OUT!
…..no smoke and mirrors Hank…you were realer than real deal holyfield………..AH!!!!!