By the time the 1992 season came around, believe it or not, we had developed quite a following. We had a hell of a lot more fans than most people realize. Where were all these fans? Well, many tales have been told about the incredible amounts of alcohol consumed by Gee. During the time I coached our Legion Team from 1990-93, I was pounding away like there was no tomorrow. And I did most of my pounding at the local bars in Montrose, California. This is where we had an INCREDIBLE fan base. If anyone was looking for me between 1990-93 after 6PM, I was pretty easy to find. Where? “The Barru”…..”Mike’s Verdugo Room”…”Lady Jane’s”….or “My Way.” No joke….
Looking back on it all, I’m certainly not proud of all of this. But it is what it is. And if there’s one thing this Blog WILL be….is HONEST.
And the fact of the matter is as follows: I ENJOYED being the rebellious, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, controversial, former-musician who coached Baseball Team(s) that were usually at the top or near the top of the standings! Every Damn Season! It was WHO I WAS at that time in my life. I loved beating people. I lived for it.
I am not recommending that anyone reading this “try this at home.” Eventually, all of the “errors of my ways” caught up with me. But let’s face it, it certainly was WHO I WAS at that time in my life. And I truly believe if I had conducted myself in any other manner….that whatever I was selling to the players, NO ONE would have bought it. So I have no regrets. And there have been incredible changes in my life since then. On October 19th, 2012….”Gee” had his 16th birthday completely free of alcohol and drugs. Yes….16 years!!!! Not one sip!!!!
There was a huge following of fans we had who were “regulars” at these local bars. I don’t know if they took an interest in our Team or me. It didn’t matter. They followed all the stories about our ballclub in the local paper “The Foothill Leader” or “The Glendale News Press.” Since there was nothing going on in High School sports over the summer, Legion Ball got quite a bit of ink from the “Los Angeles Times” as well. And they took it all in just to find out what was happening with “Verdugo.”
I loved going into a bar and having everyone saying “WTF happened?” if we lost, and the pandemonium that would erupt upon my entry if we won. Just hanging out, having a few tall cool ones, and shooting the s*** about all-things-baseball. I enjoyed the people. And as difficult as it was to get any of these people off their barstool to come see a game, MANY of them actually did come out and watch us in action.
Obviously, our biggest fans were at the Legion Post. The came out to many games as well. We all remember Dave Haskell, Art Napiwocki, Ken Zeutell, and Jess Rogers. In ’90 and ’91 they came to quite a few ball games. And dragged along with them quite a few other members of The Post and some of their friends to see us play.
Let’s not forget the great parents of our players who were always there for us. Just incredible support we had from them as well.
I had direct contact with a lot of people in our Community that were following us. They saw how close we came in ’90 and ’91. Everyone in the Community knew I was no longer coaching at the High School. And as we closed in on the beginning of the ’92 Season, everyone was talking about KICKING ASS in ’92. Even some of the players! I’ll get to that in the next couple of posts.
It was kind of strange. Our first two seasons, all I talked about was KICKING ASS. Now….everybody else was. I had grown pretty cynical. We did well our first couple of seasons but I didn’t feel we reached our potential. I guess you could say I was going to need a little convincing from the players, AND the fans.
So why am I writing about this?
Because ’92 was our year. The most magical summer we had. And as we closed in on opening day ’92….I sensed something different was in the air. Everybody was looking forward to ’92. For me, it was just another Season. But the winds of change seemed to be blowing a little bit.
There were a few interesting exchanges I had with both players and fans that kind of set the tone for ’92. And I want to write about them before I get into writing about the magical summer that took place.
We had quite a following indeed. GREAT FANS. They were still great fans of our ballclub because they had seen a glimpse of our potential the first two seasons. But they were tired (as I was as well) of our “flashes-of-brilliance” mixed in with underachievement.
Some interesting things happened before the season began, and I’m going to be going over it all in the next few posts.
Yes indeed, quite a following we had. And I had NO IDEA how much our following was about to grow….and what was about to take place that summer.
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