verdugo288

4,000 Hits in this Blog!

Now that’s what I’m Tawkin’ ’bout!!!!

I think this whole “Dr.  Jules Rush” deal has created quite a surge in hits the past couple of days.

My next move is to knock his website out of commission!

I got a three day weekend coming up here.  And for those of you who have lost faith in ‘Ol Gee’s ability to produce, just WATCH how many new Posts I have come this time Tuesday morning!!

4,000 Hits!!!  And once again, they’ve done it!

Everybody knows VERDUGO is, was, and always will be The undisputed, outright, absolute KINGS of American Legion Baseball!

We were 230 tons of Cold Blue Steel barrelling down the train tracks.  That Train kept-a-rollin”……until we decided to let it crash!  And then we all walked away from that crash unscathed!  We exited from the carnage of that crash….shook hands….and we all went fishing for the winter!!  Ahhh Verdugo!!!!!

It was amazing how even back in ’93……before the advent of the Internet……we were already talking about doing a Reunion Blog back then!!!

That Train was barrelling through anything that crossed its path.  That was one hell of a party on that Train!  I was talking to Weap last night and Weap said “We didn’t even know that we were doing shots with the guy who was supposed to be driving that Train!  We thought it was just some Verdugo-fan who had stolen the Engineer’s hat!”

That’s right….230 tons of Cold, Blue Steel.  Bashing and Buffalo-ing its way through anything that got in its path!!!

Ahhh Verdugo!!!  Once again………They’ve DONE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We never wanted it to come down to this.  But I have no choice.  The fans of Verdugo out there reading this Blog are now going to get a chance to see the kind of ragging skills we bring to the table!

Hey Dr. Rush…I’m unleashing the hounds on you!

And mark my words..Your Blog will be out-of-commission by the time The Reunion hits!

I encourage all of you to show “Dr.” Rush and the rest of the world of what we’re REALLY capable of!

COMMENT ON HIS BLOG and let’s send HIM to the nuthouse while we’re at it!

Ahhhh Verdugo!

Okay Guys……GO GET HIM!!!!!

www.verdugocrimes.blog.com

Yeah I was all jacked up this evening to write about “Heart.”  And I will get around to it….

It seems like there’s someone out there who’s not real happy with Verdugo and this Blog!

Some guy by the name of Dr. Jules Rush.

Hey “Dr.” Rush……you can kiss my ass!

Check this shit out www.verdugocrimes.blog.com

I’ve thought about a THEME for this BASH for many months now.  The word “HEART” is the one word that just won’t go away.  It is the only single-word I can think of that embodies what Verdugo was all about……..

Check-in later tonight to this Blog…….I’ll be discussing that one word.  HEART. 

That’s what Hank was saying the whole game to the Montclair Prep players or coaches.  You gotta love Hank.  Hank was like the “WWF” character for Verdugo.  Hasbro should have made and sold “action figures” of Hank (like G.I. Joe) featuring Hank in various poses….Taunting the crowd…..clinging to a chain-link fence as he bellowed-out the words “fuck-yeah!!”, or maybe even one where he would be posing in his “Between-inning-hockey” stance…all complete with goggles and game face!  They would have made Millions!!!

But for this game…Hank was in the dugout coaching with us instead of on the field.  And we had a new guy in the dugout that day for Verdugo.  CHILI.  Chili was back in a Verdugo uniform, this time to stay!  He was well rested and ready to go.  But we gave the ball to the high leg-kickin’ BIG BRECK for this BIG GAME.  Montclair Prep had a few names on their roster that later became “household names.”  Russell Ortiz.  Brad Fullmer.  Yeah, these guys were good…and coming into this one…they were 6-0.

And of course, on the way to the field in Encino that day….one of the cars got lost.  Sammy, Turner, and Chili were in that car.  Sammy and Turner were scheduled to start, and Chili was going to pitch at some point that day, so I was a little worried.  I was thinking at this point how cool it would be if we all had those “Gordon Gekko” cell phones from the movie “Wallstreet.”  I had also decided that as soon as the game ended I was going to go home and invent this thing called “The Internet” and open up a website called “Mapquest.”  Unfortunately, I never got around to that…..Too busy coaching Verdugo!!!

So now I’m all stressed out about the missing car.  The umps basically told me to pound sand.  “Too Bad” they said.  “The game will start on time as scheduled.”

So I’m making out the lineup.  We only got like NINE guys there.  NANCE then comes up behind me and says “J.R. can play shortstop.”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked.

“He can hit, too.”

Well, it wasn’t like I had any choice.  J.R was going to play shortstop that day….or at least until the other car arrived.

And, just for the record……..this was the LAST day we ever called him “J.R.” again.  Let’s just say that “someone else” was born that day….a guy that breathed quite a bit of life into our Program for the next three seasons.

That’s right.  His name was no longer “J.R.”  His New name was “HACK.”

Ahhh Hack!!!

Even though this game was played at their yard….for some reason or another we ended up being the Home Team that day.

The first two batters got base hits, but Brett Miller gunned the leadoff hitter down at SECOND BASE.  Moose then blew down the guy on first trying to steal second.  Let’s just say that sent a little message to the boys over at Montclair Prep.  Dont’ even try to run on Moose.  They didn’t try to steal a base on us the rest of the game!  Bases were now empty.  “Cheeseburger” Shaw came up and flied to right to end the inning.  Ahh!

Our “ad-hoc” lineup came out and raked away.  Miller led off with a single.  Moreno moved him over on a groundout and BullOxen drove in Miller with a base hit.  Moose and Cowsill walked.  Up came ELMO Geoghegan with the bases jacked.  Elmo drew a walk and it was 2-0 Verdugo.  You could tell….this was the first time these guys had ever trailed in a game.

It remained 2-0 until they scored a run on a Sacrifice Fly in the third inning. 

We added to our lead in the fourth when Elmo led off with an infield single.  Parker sacrificed him over.  Up (now for the second time in the game) came HACK. 

Hack then proceeded to hit a foul ball that went about 400 feet.  DEEP into the weeds.  He kind of looked down at me a little wild-eyed after that one.  What was cracking me up about this guy was the RIP he would take at the ball. 

We even commented on it between innings.  “Did you see the ‘Hack” that guy takes at the ball?” we’d ask one another…laughing.

While Hack grounded out that particular at-bat, he moved Elmo to third.  Miller then came up and stroked a single and it was 3-1 Verdugo. 

And it stayed 3-1 until the top-of-the-fifth.  They scored a couple of runs to tie it.  It was a GREAT five innings by Big Breck.  Meanwhile…the lost car showed up.  Chili got loose in a hurry.  I watched him in the bullpen.  He was throwing frickin’ BB’s.

Big Breck had done exactly what we needed him to do.  He kept us in the game and didn’t give anything away.  Five innings….six hits….ONE walk…three K’s…and two earned runs.  He worked ’em pretty damn good.

In the bottom-of -the-fifth, BullOxen led off with a base hit.  Moose flew out DEEP.  Rogers sacrificed Bull over.  “B” was walked intentionally.  Yeah, they KNEW who “B” was and the damage he could inflict.  They wanted to get to Elmo.  So what does Elmo do?  He draws a walk. I thought Elmo put together a great at-bat for us right there.  He fouled some shit off, worked the count, and drew the walk.  It was clutch.

Mike Parker then came up and laced a single that scored two runs. 

Up came HACK.  By then, that was his name.  Everybody was saying it to him “Let’s go HACK.”

So HACK…feeding off of it all….rips a shot for a base hit and it’s 6-3 Verdugo. 

“No 7-0″……….”No 7-0″…….guess who was prowling around the sideline saying that?

Chili came out to throw the sixth.  They scored an unearned run off of him, but that was all they scored the rest of the day.  He owned ’em.

We added to the lead when BullOxen led off the bottom-of-the-sixth with a towering double.  Rogers walked.  “B” moved both guys over on a ground ball out.

Turner had come in for Elmo to take over the DH’ing duties.  Turner promptly ripped a SHOT for a base-hit that scored Bull, but Rogers got thrown out at the plate.

Usually there would be a momentum swing after a throw-out at the plate like that.  But these guys were unraveling.

All I kept hearing was “No 7-0″……..”No 7-0″……..

We never got to face Fullmer that day.  For some reason he never even entered the game until the bottom-of-the-seventh. 

Chili had it going.  Even BullOxen was telling me that he was having trouble at FIRST BASE catching the ball when Chili would pick-over.  That’s the sick kind of stuff Chili had.

They never really threatened the rest of the way.  We finished the game with a textbook 4-6-3 double-play, Rogers-to-Workman-to-BullOxen!

It was true.  “NO 7-0.”

And they weren’t happy about it.  The coach was over there arguing with his players and his little brother (who our guys were calling “Cheeseburger” all day) was pouting away.

And once again….They’ve DONE IT!

This team we just beat WON the 20th District that year, and advanced DEEP into the playoffs.  They won the State Title that year.  And we worked ’em right there in their own yard.

I was feeling better.  I’m thinking “Maybe we should lose a car before EVERY game.”

And I liked what I saw from HACK.  It seemed like the vibe on the field was different when he was out there.  In a good way.

And I was really happy to see Chili back in a Verdugo uniform, and the way he and BIG BRECK had worked ’em that day.

I went home…thought about that deal with The Internet and Mapquest and decided I was having WAY too much fun with Verdugo to waste my time with anything else!  I made a decision right then and there to let someone else steal my Internet idea.  “Screw it” I decided………”I’ll wait about 20 years and just do a BLOG about this Team.”

I liked us being 5-3………and over the next eleven games…..we were about to make a pretty impressive run.

AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!  VIC!!!!!!!!!

VIC’S IN!!!!!!

We’re bringing ’em in from all over the world for the VERDUGO BASH!

This thing is coming together like a miracle!!!!!

But everyone…and I mean EVERYONE…….ALWAYS underestimated Verdugo!

And that’s a pretty BIG mistake to make!

It’s starting to become clear with all the people coming to this thing……..that after all of these years………..we still have ONE MORE MIRACLE in us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHH  VERDUGO!!!!!!!!

The KINGS of American Legion Baseball !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And by the way…….we’re closing in on 4,000 HITS on this BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!

Special Thanks to Moose for 1.) having Vic’s number and 2.) Giving me that number

Ahhh Moose!

We found another guy last night.  Where was he?  Exactly where you’d find any former Verdugo tough-guy.  At a PARTY!

I got his number from Moose.

Do I call or do I text?  That was the question.

I’m calling.  It rings.  All I hear is really, really LOUD music and a bunch of people talking.  I could then barely hear his voice.  “Hello?”

“C’mon VIC!” I barked.  Just like the days from 1990.  “C’mon now VIC!”

What does VIC do?  He hangs up on me!

I’m thinking….”Ya know?”

Ok.  Plan B.  Text!

TEXT NUMBER ONE:  “C’mon now Vic you’re gonna hang up on Gee after all of the great ink I’m giving you on the Verdugo Blog?  Damn That hurts!”

No response.

TEXT NUMBER TWO:  “Don’t make us come find you and drag you to that reunion!  We can’t have it without you!”

No response.

TEXT NUMBER THREE:  “Even Ernie Diaz wants to be there and he didn’t even play for us!  Same with Shane Cowsill!  Now let’s go!”

I wait about five minutes.  My phone makes that “Incoming Text” noise…….It’s VIC!

“Sup coach?!!!  At a party…don’t have your number in my phone!  Love the Blog!  Boys of summer!  Makes me think of why I played the game!  Give you a shout!”

AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s Go VIC!!!!!!  We need to hear just a couple of words from you……..the words are “I’m IN.”

And we’re still trying to make contact with a few others out there.  We never give up at Verdugo!!  I have a feeling this is going to end up being a pretty big event by the time we’re done.  We got guys who didn’t even play for us that want to go to this thing. 

Yes-sir-ree…………..Word is getting round……that Verdugo’s coming to town!!!!!!

Yeah Buddy.  We got another confirmation just the other day.  Brancheau…..He’s IN for the Verdugo Bash. 

AHHHH Yves!!

Yves live down in the San Diego area now.  He’s one of quite a few Verdugo alumni who will making “The Road Trip Home.”

Yves was one of only FIVE players we had who played three seasons for us.  The others?  BullOxen, Hack, “B”, and TURNER.

Ahhh Yves!

I made a couple of changes in the lineup for this game.  “B” came into the season as a rookie and had played most of the season at CV as a shortstop.  He started for us at shortstop as well in the early part of the season.  But I liked “B” as a third baseman.  He had a cannon of an arm.  I moved him over to third.  Not because he was a bad shortstop.  But because I thought he would be a GREAT…and I’m talking GREAT third baseman.

I moved Yves to shortstop for this ballgame.  Yves had a damn good arm as well.  I moved Rogers over to second base, and Robb Turner played first.  That’s what was so great about the Verdugo Teams.  Interchangeable players who you could mix in at different positions on the diamond.  Rogers could play ANYWHERE for you.  In fact, in both ’90 AND ’91, he played EVERY position on the diamond for us. 

One of the few regrets I had about ’90 and ’91 was not giving Rogers an opportunity to play all nine positions on the diamond in the SAME GAME.  I always told him I was going to do it…but it never happened.

So a well-rested BullOxen was going to get the start against a new team in the league Las Virgenes.  It was quite a drive over to the Calabasas area for this one.  But this new team made me look GREAT.  How so?  Well, I remembered all the ragging our players gave me about our uniforms in 1990.  These guys from Las Virgenes showed up in basically Plain-White Tee Shirts!!  It was pretty bad.  But they had a nice facility and the field was in great shape.

BullOxen was coming off the magnificent 20 strikeout performance against Palmdale.  So what did he do?  He went out and struck out six guys in the first two innings!  Think about that one….26 whiffs in the first 11 innings of the season!  By the time this game had ended he had blown down a total of 13.  

Las Virgenes came out raking in the third and jumped out to a 4-0 lead. 

Yves led off the fourth with a base hit.  BullOxen reached base on an error and Moose stepped up and ripped a base-hit to score Yves.  We trailed 4-1.

In the fifth, ‘B” led off with a single.  Sammy reached base on an error.  Cadena sacrificed them over.  Yves then grounded out for an RBI.  Then Yvan Moreno came up and roped a base-hit to score Sammy, closing the gap to 4-3. 

Meanwhile, BullOxen was rolling along.  He shut them off in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings…increasing his strikeout total to eleven.

We opened it up in the seventh.  Sammy reached base on an error.  Brett Miller came up and laid down a bunt that the pitcher couldn’t handle.  First and second no out.

Yves ripped a base hit to tie the score at four.  Moreno singled to give us a 5-4 lead.  Then BullOxen came up and BOMBED a three-run HOMER!!!!

Ahhhh Verdugo!!  8-4 just like that!

They scored an unearned run in the 7th but Bull was just too much for them. 

They mounted a little threat in the bottom-of-the-ninth.  Runners were at first and third with one out.  The batter hit a ball up the middle and Yves turned a 6u-3 DOUBLE PLAY to end it. 

And once again….They’ve DONE IT!!

Yves had a great game.  Two hits, two RBI.  Yvan Moreno picked up a couple of hits.  Bull Homered.  Moose had two hits.  “B” had two hits and a sting. 

Great win.  This put us at 4-3.  And three of those W’s were come-from-behind victories.

But a BIG test awaited us.  Montclair Prep was next on the schedule…and they were 6-0.  And it was a road game. 

But we had an old friend coming back to join us.  A guy who got pulled from our ’90 Roster.  And he was coming back to play with us (this time) for the REST OF THE SEASON.  All the paperwork had been finalized.  CHILI was coming home to Verdugo….just in time for Montclair Prep!

Yeah, that’s a stat you always want to keep an eye on.  Left On Base.  NOT!  At Verdugo, we never really had to keep track of that stat.  It was never a problem for us.  I don’t ever remember a game where on the drive home I actually sought out the scorebook and counted them.  15.  I couldn’t believe it……

We rolled into Granada Hills to play the squad from Kennedy High School.  We got a GREAT outing from Big Breck, who was making his first start of the year for us.  Big Breck was “dealing” that day.  Six and a third innings, scattered six hits, three walks, six K’s.  He gave up five runs…..ALL UNEARNED.  Josh Willis came in to relieve Big Breck in the seventh and threw an inning and a third of shutout ball.

Yvan Moreno singled, as did Moose, BullOxen, and Rogers.  The rookie Brendan “B” Cowsill rocked a triple.  Just a couple of problems in this game.  We made six errors defensively and were 0-17 at the plate with runners in scoring position.  We left 15 guys on base.  We got beat by a weaker team 5-4. 

John Rogers had a great game from left field gunning down two runners at the plate.  He also “drove” in a run for us when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. 

I got tossed from the game around the seventh inning.  We threw a guy out at third base from the outfield by about five feet and the Blue called him safe.

I just sat there.  I said “what did you call that guy?”

The Blue walked all the way over to our dugout and said “I said SAFE!”

He was really hamming it up…trying to show me up and the whole bit.  Whatever, dude.  I just looked at him and turned my hat sideways.

“You’re outta here!” he said.

Okay now I’m pissed.  I didn’t say shit.  Never left my seat in the dugout.  I asked him what the call was and turned my hat sideways. So what?

I get up and start following his ass towards home plate.  I’m thinking “Oh you don’t like the shit I do with my hat?”

I had this move I always worked on every time I walked into my apartment those days.  The hat would come off…and I would “frisbee it” across the room and try to land it on top of a coat rack that was about 12 feet away.  Through the years I had gotten pretty good at what I called “The Hat Trick.”  I usually could land it right on top of that pole at the top of that coat rack about five out of every seven attempts (you know how I love to keep stats on EVERYTHING!).

I’m thinking as I’m following him towards home plate…”Do it Gee, DO IT…HAT TRICK HIM!”

Why the hell not?  He just ran me.  I mean, what’s he gonna do?  Throw me out TWICE?  So I did it…… I frisbeed that hat….and it landed RIGHT ON TOP OF HIS HEAD!

The fans were all laughing now.  He was walking around in circles trying to see what they were laughing at.  Finally, it fell off of his head.   The base ump came in and picked it up off of the ground.

“Keep it” I told the guy.  “Since it bothers you so much, you can have it.”

I don’t know whatever happened to that hat.  But I got that Blue GOOD.  I was putting on a show that day…..

After all….I had earlier in the game BRANDED BullOxen.  Bull had scored a between-inning-hockey goal on Hank and the ball came within inches of ripping off my face and then rattled around the inside of our dugout.  So I picked up a ball from the ball bag, and from a seated position in the dugout drilled ‘Ol Bull in the ass with a perfect throw!  See our earlier Post “BullOxen gets Branded.”

Then the Granada Hills coach got thrown out.  We were both standing in the parking lot together, watching the game.  Like two guys from different Hockey teams that had been thrown into the same penalty box!

He had played Pro Ball…one of the Tagliaferri brothers.  I think he played in the Detroit Tigers system but his playing days were over.

We were standing out there and he says…..”Man, I’ve seen a lotta shit in my days..but I’ve NEVER seen a guy get tossed for turning his hat sideways.  And by the way, I saw that throw you made the bench.  Nice!  Were you aiming for his ass?”

“Of course I was” I said…….lying through my teeth. “What did he throw you out for?”

“For looking at him.” 

I believe that was the ONLY time I ever coached a game where I was spotted laughing my ass off with the enemy!

This was a tough loss…….dropped us to 3-3.  If there was ONE game I’d have to pick in ’91 that I can say we should have won, THIS would be the game.