verdugo288

Yeah, I want to write about this next game against Woodland Hills East.  But “Before we go any further” I just want to point a few things out.  We started this season with eighteen guys on the Roster.  We were now down to eleven.  But it was eleven guys you could count on.  Eleven guys who ate, lived, and breathed what we were doing. 

We had those Cleveland Indian “Battle Caps” that we wore.  By this time of the season, they were no longer Navy Blue and Red.  First off, it was the cheapest hat money could buy.  But we wore them proudly.  We were all kind of embarrassed about those caps in the beginning but as time went on they became a part of who we were.  We called them “Battle Caps” because they had developed a little “character.”  These hats had been right there with us in some of the greatest battles of all time.  These hats were now kind of light blue and pink from getting sun-baked.  They had bands of white around them from sweat.  Nobody washed them.  They were absolutely filthy.  Guys had written inspirational things under the bills of those caps as the season progressed.  Now, those messages were all smudged up, an unintelligible mess that only the author could recognize…….

Our shirts were cheap T-Shirts with silk-screened numbers on the back.   We were about as rag-tag as it got.  But I’ve never wore a uniform prouder.  A shoe-string budget would have been a step-up for us.  We didn’t even have a fungo until the ’92 season.  No oranges.  No Gatorade Cooler.  Hell no…we lived off of adrenaline!!!!  There were water fountains, and we would bring “some” water to the games….but not like the Glory Years.  This is the kind of shit that pulled everyone together. 

I lived to do the stats after the games.  I loved calling in the stats to the papers.  Players would call up and vent after a loss. 

Yeah, we were down to eleven……but it didn’t matter. 

I didn’t realize it at the time but we were creating something here.  I didn’t know exactly what it was, but whatever it was…it was a Good Thing.

We pretty much played the last 14 games with eleven guys.  Here are their names:  Hank, Weapon, Rogers, Canale, Martin, McBride, Turner, Vaquera, Yoder, Vic, Frost.  Big Breck kept in contact with us, but had basketball commitments.  No, Big Breck never quit.  So it was eleven PLUS Big Breck.

I’m proud of these guys.  I also know Chandler and Chili would have been there for us as well……….

So before we go any further, I just wanted to mention those caps, those uniforms (that most guys never even washed when they came to the yard), the holes in the knees of our pants, the belts that were falling apart, and everything else. 

At the beginning of the season we had the uniforms that I didn’t want to wear.  By the end of the season, because of what we had created and accomplished….I had a uniform I didn’t want to take off!!!!!!!!!!!