verdugo288

I have made reference in several earlier Posts that Verdugo was “scaling down” our Roster for 1992.  We had 17 on our original Roster and 18 in 1991.  For the first two seasons it seemed like we either had too many guys at the field or too few.  It would be nice to find that middle ground.

However, in my eyes, cutting the Roster “down” from 17 or 18 was non-negotiable.  We had never forfeited a game before, but we had certainly played our share of games in the past with only nine or 10 players at the field, and with our propensity to getting players and/or coaches launched from games, if anything we needed MORE guys on our Roster instead of fewer.

While I was the guy that put these “Rosters” together, I still needed a GM.  For the original Team in 1990, my GM was John Rogers.  He knew everybody and I could throw a name out there and he would give me the scoop.  He also would suggest guys I had never heard of.  Rogers was always “spot on” with what he told me about a particular player.  He was honest about what a guy could or couldn’t bring to the table, and I trusted his opinion.

In 1991, the GM spot was held by Rogers and Canale.  Canale was the guy who suggested Ivan Moreno.  Were it not for Canale, I wouldn’t have even known Ivan was available to play for us.

So 1992 was closing in, and it was time for me to start throwing names out there to Canale and see what he had to say.  I threw some names out there we could “fill” the Roster out with.  He wasn’t impressed with any of the names I suggested.  I asked him “Why not?  What’s wrong with that guy?  We might need him in a pinch.  He may not start, but he might be a good guy to have around…..he might….”

 Canale cut me off mid-sentence.

And he asked me a question.  He said “You know what that guy is?”

“What is he?” I asked.

The answer he gave to me may sound cruel, it may sound cold-hearted, but it was the absolute TRUTH.  And he hit me right between the eyes with it.  As ruthless of a comment it was, it needed to be said.  And we all know Canale is never one to not speak his mind….

He said “He’s a CHECK!”

What he meant when he said this was that we didn’t need certain guys on our Roster.  And that I had only placed certain guys on our Roster in the past to help fulfill the budgetary requirements (which were not cheap by the way) to make it through the season.

He was right….

But he was also speaking of a “Utopian World” where everyone would be at every game and would have a specific role with us.  I didn’t believe something like that could happen.  The players we had in the past had all kinds of shit going on throughout the summer.  As I let what he said kind of “sink in” I thought back to ’90 and ’91….toward the END of both seasons, where we ended up with a workable group of guys who were committed to being there.  The reality was, we had started each season with 17-18 guys, but towards the end of the season we had 11-13 guys we could count on.  Guys who had a role to play, they knew what it was, and they WANTED to be there. 

I had to admit to myself that having a smaller group of players makes managing a lot more FUN.  I understood where he was going with this, but didn’t believe it could happen.

So I said to him “We’ve had enough trouble the past two years just trying to get nine guys to the fucking yard when we had 18 on the Roster and you’re now suggesting trimming the Roster down?  Are you fucking crazy?”

“I’ll make sure they show up Gee” he said.

“So will I” I thought to myself.

I wouldn’t have even considered what he was talking about were it not for a couple of things.  Canale and Turner were ON FIRE.  They had been making a few visits over to “The Dome” (where I lived) and they were also talking about actually reaching The Playoffs.  These guys were talking quite a bit of trash about the damage they were planning on inflicting in 1992.  It was going to be the last season with us for both those guys.

And they had backed it up….they had already got Lance Evans to join forces with us. 

I didn’t give anything up when he first said the words “He’s a check”….

I needed to think about this one. 

And I did.  I thought about how Canale and Turner had always been there for us.  They had endured quite a bit for us the first couple of years.  The numbers Canale had already produced for us were staggering.  Turner was a total warrior.  They were chomping at the bit, fired up to kick ass, and they had landed Lance Evans for us.  I had NEVER seen Turner this fired up.

Doing something like this would be the equivalent of playing blackjack in Vegas with the Dealer showing an Ace and I’m showing a six and me pushing all of my chips out onto the table.  Fucking CRAZY!!!!

I was going to have to go into Post 288 and ask for more money if I decided to do this.  How embarrassing would it be if I took more money from them, sold them on the idea of having fewer players, and subsequently ended up forfeiting a bunch of games????

I was going to have to really research the schedule and talk to every player IN DEPTH about what they REALLY had going on that summer before I could put someone officially on our Roster.  I was going to have to hold everyone ACCOUNTABLE for whatever they told me about their availability to play for Verdugo in the summer of ’92. 

And I was going to have to get our schedule for the season, match it up against who was available and when, and start calling the other coaches and rescheduling games to our advantage, No more playing the games on the date the schedule had.  I could always get on the phone and lie to get the games scheduled for when WE had the horses available.  I could also get a permit to use Glendale HIgh ANY day of the week.

I thought about it and realized it COULD be done.

So I said to Canale “If I decide to do this and we end up forfeiting a bunch of shit I’m holding you fucking accountable”

He just looked at me and said “Don’t worry Gee, I got this covered”

It seemed like all I heard the entire summer of 1992 were the words “Don’t worry Gee….we’ll handle it”

I thought about it for a few days.  I went to The POST.  Post 288 IMMEDIATELY stepped up and said if we needed the extra money to cut the Roster, that they had my back.  God those guys were awesome.  You know….in 1993, our final season, I asked them for some more money as well.  And they told me “You guys have a blank check with us, just get the kids whatever they need.”

I thought about this being the last season for Canale.  i thought about all he had done for us.  I thought about the fact he was right about what he had the balls to say to me.  I thought about the fact that I had built this Team AROUND him when we started in 1990. 

Yeah, the Dealer had an Ace showing….and I was sporting a six.  But the guy I had built the Team around had spoken. 

I took every last chip I had….smiled….looked that fucking Dealer in the eye….and pushed them all to the middle of the table.

 

 

So coming into 1992 we had a pretty good Roster.  In the next post I will explain how Canale talked me into going with only 14 guys, instead of our usual 18. 

We had gone 12-10 in ’90, and 13-9 in ’91.  Both seasons we flirted with making the Playoffs.  But we lost our last two games in ’90 and our last THREE in ’91.  Still, we had gone 25-19 in the first two seasons.  Pretty respectable.  I considered it to be VERY respectable, because we had played all 22 games on the road in ’90, and only five games at Glendale High in ’91.  We still didn’t really have a place to call ‘Home.”

I thought it was interesting that The Glendale Team had control of Stengel Field.  They drew their players from both Glendale High and Hoover.  Both Schools have decent fields.  But somehow they had ended up with Stengel, and they weren’t going to give that up to ‘Ol Gee.

I actually had stopped talking to the coaches of their Program in 1990.  Their coach wasn’t too happy about me taking CV as a base school.  Somehow, their program had found a way to combine Hoover, Glendale, and CV into one powerhouse Team.  They were looking to cherry-pick the guys from CV.  When Gee took over Verdugo, they no longer had that option.

To further the bad blood between the two programs….I told them to “pound sand” when they asked me to sign over Vic Ramirez to them in 1990.  They weren’t real happy about that either.  So Stengel field was a “touchy subject” to say the least, and I felt it was good we didn’t even play them in ’91.  It only would have made the bad blood thicker.

I realized they didn’t care about the field at Glendale High.  So that’s why I went after it in ’91.  I went behind their backs to the guy in the City of Glendale who was in charge of getting permits to play there.  He let us have it, and we took good care of that field.  I was hoping to build a good relationship with him because (honestly) I wanted to hi-jack Stengel Field from the Glendale program (someday).  

But before the ’92 campaign, I contacted the Glendale Manager.  I had a little plan.  I also wanted to build my relationship with the guy at The City of Glendale.  This would be the perfect opportunity.

I called him up and said “How would you like to not have to do any field maintenance after your games at Stengel this summer?”

“Hell, Yeah” he said, “It’s a pain in the ass doing that shit”

I said to him “Let me have the field on Sunday when you guys are done with it and I’ll make sure the place is spotless when we leave.”

It was silent for about 15 seconds.  He was thinking about having to hang out there an extra hour after every game, dragging the field, cleaning it up, locking the place up, etc.

He was weighing this against something I’m sure he had already vowed to NEVER do.  Let Verdugo share Stengel with his program.

I sat there in silence and awaited his response.  I had already talked to the guy at The City of Glendale about it and he had given his blessings but told me Marcel had the final say on it.

I had also worked the guy at the City pretty good.  They NEVER allowed night games at Stengel on Sunday nights.  I had already talked him into letting us play under the lights at Stengel if Marcel agreed.  Marcel didn’t know I had already closed this deal.

“OK” he said….breaking the silence.

I said, “OK Thanks Marcel, I really appreciate it.  You guys get the early game, and we’ll take it from there. And this is only for the dates we SHARE the field. If you have a game on a Sunday and we don’t, you gotta clean it all up. Otherwise, we do it.”

“No Problem” he said.

He had gotten himself OUT of doing field maintenance after MOST of his games Sunday morning, not All of them, but MOST of them.  They would start around 10 or 11 am.  But he didn’t realize that he had just locked himself INTO his team playing under a hot sun every Sunday morning. 

While Verdugo would be kicking down relaxing, resting, and waiting for the weather to cool down so we could start playing around 6PM!!!!

So everything was (no pun intended) “cool” from my end.

I had Glendale High on Saturdays and I had got him to agree to let Verdugo share Stengel with them on Sundays.  At least for four dates that summer.  It wasn’t much, but it would be a double-header against none other than Glendale, plus three night games where we could be close to home, and out of the Hot Sun.  Our players were pretty happy about it.

I didn’t want to tell Marcel about my little deal I made with The City to play under the lights.  I figured he’d find that out on his own.  Sure enough he did.  From what I heard he wasn’t too happy about it.  He first figured it out around our fifth game of the year when we played Encino-Crespi.  He dropped by the field that night.  You should have seen the look on his face….

It was another battle we had won.  This was a Verdugo victory behind the scenes.  As the schedule was shaping up for 1992, it looked like we would have 10 dates that summer at either Stengel or Glendale High.  Which was more than we had had in our first TWO seasons.  We were all pretty happy about it.

We took really good care of both of those fields in ’92.  I would even call the guy from The City of Glendale every Monday morning that season just to follow-up with him and make sure he KNEW we had done our job with his field. 

We used Stengel four times in the summer of ’92.  One was a double-header against Glendale.  We know what happened that historic Fourth-of-July.  Our record the summer  of ’92 at Stengel?  5-0 ….

Our record the summer of ’92 at Glendale High?  5-0 ….

Having Both those fields in ’92 was HUGE for us.  Effin’ HUGE.

And another funny thing happened that summer.  I got a call from The City of Glendale later that season.  We were done with all of our dates at Stengel.  It turns out The Glendale Team had played a game there on a Sunday towards the end of the season and got beat.  They left the place a mess and they left the gate open.  Some kids had got in there and made the mess even worse. 

It was Monday morning and he called ME.  He told me what had happened.  At first he thought we were responsible.  But he said “then I was reading the Newspaper and saw you guys had played your season finale at Saugus High.”

Glendale had burned the bridge with him. 

He said the reason he was calling was that he just wanted to let me know that for NEXT SEASON (effective 1993) that “Stengel Field has officially been awarded to Verdugo Hills”….

We finally had a Home….