It was difficult to get ready for our next ballgame. We were kind of looking in the rear view mirror going into this one. We definitely had a little emotional letdown after the tough loss to Woodland Hills East. So we took our ten-man show out to Valley College for a game against Encino-Crespi. On the mound for Crespi? Jeff Suppan. We all are aware today of Suppan’s brilliant High School career at Crespi High. But this was just his beginning. He was coming off his Freshman season (where he played all season for the varsity), but was still technically a ninth-grader when we faced him.
Has was only 15 years old. And he beat us.
He had a great curveball and he threw strikes. But make no mistake about this……BullOxen had a nastier curveball than Jeff Suppan.
It wasn’t like he was untouchable or anything. Both teams had six hits. He only struck out six guys. The difference in this game was our pitching staff walking eight guys. In fact…Crespi had scored SIX times on us by the third inning….on ONE HIT.
This loss dropped us to 8-9. So what does Verdugo do when our record drops to 8-9? Well….we rattle off FOUR wins in a row to get back in the Playoff hunt. I’ll be covering those four wins as well.
Vic tripled, Martin and Weap doubled, and Frost, BullOxen, and Rogers all singled. Rogers drove in two runs and Vic had an RBI as well.
I don’t know if I would have predicted Suppan to make it to the Big Leagues after watching this game. Over the years, we got to see a few other guys who also made it. Randy Wolf, Brad Fulmer, Russ Ortiz to name a few. That’s what was so great about Legion Ball. It really WAS (in the early to mid 1990’s) the best summer-league Baseball competition out there. All the scouts were there, and it gave the kids some great exposure for Professional or even College Baseball.
Sure, we ALWAYS wanted to win. And I was certainly trying from the first game I managed to build the most feared Team in the 20th District. And ultimately, we did that. But at the very least…I was also there to make sure OUR GUYS got as much exposure as we could possibly get. That’s why I always got the stats called in to the Newspapers. And it definitely paid off. The Scouts started coming around to watch us in ’91. Once we started really kicking some ass….there was pretty much at least ONE scout at every game we played from the middle of the ’92 season forward.
Yeah….”Soup” beat us. But if you were to sit him down today and ask him if he remembers a Team from his Legion Ball days called Verdugo Hills, I’m sure he would be able to tell you EXACTLY who we were. The Verdugo-Crespi “rivalry” continued on in ’92 and ’93. I liked their program. I liked their coach. And I liked their kids. The coach and I never got into it too much. But there was a respect we had for one another. And when we went toe-to-toe on the field, Coach Muckey and I were both looking to kick each others’ ass. I have to say, overall…..he was a good guy. And he’s probably about the ONLY guy I coached against in that League that I would say that about.
Now…let’s talk about these FOUR IN A ROW we rattled off!!!!!!!
Ahhhh Verdugo!
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