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When you’re building a Ballclub…you gotta always keep an eye on the future.  I liked the nucleus we had coming back from the 1990 Team.  BullOxen, Sammy, Rogers, Turner, Moose Saltsman, and Big Breck.  Through a rather strange set of circumstances, we even got Chili back on the Roster.  I’ll explain the details of how that came about later.  But this was a great group of players coming back for the ’91 campaign.  “Moose” had seen limited action in the ’90 campaign from an injury he received while being bowled over by a baserunner at the plate in the first game of our history.  Heroically, he held on to that ball.  He was an All-League catcher in ’91 at the High School and led the Pacific League in Homers with Nine.

In Legion ball you gotta have three pitchers you would throw against ANYBODY.  Three guys you had the confidence in that they could (on any given day) beat any team.  We had that…with Bull, Big Breck and Chili. 

We still needed depth for the staff and I liked who we picked up in the off-season.  JR Workman, Brendan Cowsill, Brett Miller were great acquisitions.  We all know about Workman’s career with Verdugo.  Cowsill was playing on the Basketball team at CV and I knew up front that he would see limited time with us that first season.  But still….you gotta love “B.”  Brett Miller was a football star who threw pretty well and had a great attitude.  These were three guys I felt would develop into GREAT pitchers.  They were all only 16….once again…our future was looking bright.

You can never have enough pitching in Legion.  I learned that in 1990.  We added in Josh Willis, another Basketball star.  We didn’t expect to see much of him that summer either but he had a live arm.  I still was leary about what happened to our pitchers in 1990…I didn’t want to have to go through that again.  I also picked up Paul “Go-Go” Gomez from St. Francis.  He had thrown about 60 innings that season for their Varsity Squad.  While he wasn’t a “stopper” by any stretch…he had shown that season he could rack up some innings.  I was planning on using him against some of the weaker teams to give the other guys a rest if need be.

We also had Rogers who could throw an inning here and there and not hurt you and I also brought along a left-handed junior-to-be from my JV squad at CV named Eric Cadena.  There’s an old saying with Pitching…you can never have enough of it, and you can never have too many lefties.  While Cadena never developed into what I thought he might become, he did keep coming to the ball park that summer.  He was a great kid,  had a great attitude, and worked hard.

We had a hell of a lot of guys who could pitch on the ’91 squad.  But still, the Roster was too big.  We had eighteen guys at the start of the season.  I must say I really liked the economy of the ’90 Team.  At the end of that season…we had about 11-12 guys.  Everybody had a role…and they understood what that role was.  Going to the Ballpark was for those guys just like going to work.  It just…..worked.

I also brought along a couple of other players from my JV Team at CV that summer that probably didn’t belong on the Roster. 

We picked up a couple of GREAT position players as well before the ’91 season.  Ivan Moreno, an outfielder/first baseman from Maranatha and Yves Brancheau, a second baseman from St. Francis.  Moreno was also a Football star at Maranatha. 

I rounded out the Roster with Mike Parker….the starting catcher for the CV Baseball team in 1990.  Parker had red-shirted his freshman year at a college in ’91, and I felt he could help us.  Defensively he was a very good catcher.  He had a reputation off all-defense, no-hit…..and he had a little chip on his shoulder about his hitting. I liked that.  He definitely had something to prove about his hitting so it was going to be interesting to see how he panned out.  Moose Saltsman was going to be our catcher this season, but Parker was going to be a solid backup.  Rogers was a damn-good back-up catcher as well.  Behind the plate, we were going to be solid.

It was a pretty strong Roster.  But we still were going to have scheduling conflicts.  The conflicts were going to arise when Cowsill and Willis were at Basketball functions and also when Moreno and Miller were at Football functions.  It was what it was…and I was prepared to deal with it. 

We had a new look with the uniforms.  The Post had given us about $1500.00 that season.  We had our own catchers gear.  We had our own helmets.  And we had THE GATORADE cooler.  By the way, I still have that thing in my garage!  Ahhh Verdugo!!!!

We also had a year of experience under our belts, so we kind of knew what to expect. 

They moved us into a new Division.  The Northern Division.  What did that mean?  More traveling into Antelope Valley.  Yep…Lancaster, Quartz Hill, Newhall-Saugus, Palmdale, Little Rock.  Load up the shit boys cause we were gonna be driving up the 14 Freeway every time we turn around.  The other squad in our division?  San Fernando.

And while we didn’t get our own field like we wanted…there was a coaching change for the Glendale team.  And the new guy wasn’t much cooler than the old guy.  He was going to “let us” use the field for a total of four games that summer.  Wow……..how generous.  And I had to kiss some major ass to get those four games.  But it was better than nothing.  But behind the scenes, ‘Ol Gee was getting to know the Parks and Recreation Director from the City of Glendale.  He took a liking to me.  I just kind of did my best to develop a good relationship with that guy and waited for the Glendale coaches to make a mistake with the field (which they ultimately did). 

Yes-sir-ree………it wasn’t a PERFECT season for us…but it was a damn-good season.  And by the time it was over…..I had STOLEN Stengel Field from the Glendale Team.  There were a couple of other pieces in the puzzle that we had to find before our break-through year in ’92, but hi-jacking their field was HUGE!!!!!!!!!

We had two more additions to the ’91 Team.  Coaches.  Hank and Weap joined the staff.  What great additions.  It made life a lot easier for ‘Ol General and I.  Hank and Weap….there couldn’t be a Verdugo game without those guys being a part of it.  They were all geared up for it too!  They wore the new uniforms proudly.  They had earned it.  And it was an honor to have them want to be a part of the future of Verdugo.  Yes indeed, a great tradition was starting to evolve……and we all had front row seats!