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….
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