verdugo288

Let me just start by saying this:  Reaching the Playoffs in American Legion Baseball is a very difficult thing to do.  By the time ’92 came around, I think there were close to 30 Teams in the 20th District.  30 Teams, Four Divisions, with seven or eight Teams in each Division, and only eight Teams made the Playoffs.  Four Division winners and four “wild-cards” get in. Every year they were bringing in new Teams, and the odds were becoming increasingly difficult to get to Playoffs. 

In ’90, they had us in the Eastern Division.  In ’91 they moved us into the Northern Division (this is why we kept traveling up the 14 Freeway that year).  About a month before ’92 started, The 20th District Commissioner informed me that Verdugo Hills would be back in the Eastern Division.

I wasn’t real happy about this.  I felt the Eastern Division was the toughest Division in the 20th District.  Hell, in 1990 alone….THREE of the eight Teams that made the Playoffs came from that Division, and Notre Dame didn’t even make it that year.  Notre Dame had gone 14-9 in ’90, and missed out on the Playoffs by one game.  So had they won ONE MORE game that season, then HALF of all the Playoff Teams would have come from the Eastern Division alone.  I was beginning to feel like 1992 was going to be like pushing a 40-Ton boulder up a hill.

I looked at our record against the Teams that kept making the Playoffs every year that were now in our Division again and it didn’t look too good.  0-2 Against Glendale.  0-2 against Sun Valley.  0-2 against Panorama City.  1-1 against Notre Dame.  I had a copy of our schedule for ’92 already and also saw we were going to be playing against Lancaster (1-3 career against), Woodland Hills East (1-2 against), Crespi (0-1 against).  Do the Math!!!  3-13 career against those Teams! Yeah, we were coming into 1992 with a 25-19 record, but we were definitely sucking against these teams!!!!

We also drew Agoura, who we were going to be playing opening day.  They had a feisty Team.  We also had Burbank on the schedule.  Burbank wouldn’t have been a big deal, but when you combine Burbank and Burroughs (like they did), they were going to be tough.  We also had a game against Woodland Hills West, a Team that WON the Legion World Series in 1989.  They were always tough, and they had Randy Wolf and Dan Cey.

It wasn’t looking good.  And….we were going to challenge all of this with 14 guys on our Roster!  Our pitching was pretty good, but Parque was still a question mark at this stage.  We also had no clue Evans would get injured and miss the entire 2nd half of the Season.

Canale, Turner, and Evans were still making weekly appearances to “The Dome” and brimming with confidence for the upcoming Season.   They would stop by and talk about all the carnage they were going to inflict, and I would rebut them with all of my concerns.

“We’re Going to the Playoffs” they would say.

“Have you seen our career record against the Teams we’ll be facing this summer?

“Sun Valley…we’re 0-2 against them and that big fat-dude is back AND he played an entire season at Valley College this year….we couldn’t touch him two years ago…how are we gonna get by that guy now?”

“Fuck that guy” the three of them would say ….”we’re gonna light has fat-ass up”

I went through our entire history with the three of them.  Nothing I said could get them to waiver.

“We’re going to the Playoff’s this year” announced Turner.

“Dude, if we make the Playoff’s I’ll shave my fucking head” I said.

“Then you’re shaving you’re head!!!!” Turner said.

Like I said in an earlier post, these guys were ON FIRE.  It was hard to believe.  We certainly had never gone into any season with this kind of swagger. 

“We know what it takes now, Gee” said Canale.

I remained the “doubting Thomas.”

No matter what they said, I kept thowing out objections.  All they kept saying was “Don’t worry Gee….”

I even told them “Hell, we haven’t even won on fuckin’ opening day yet!!!! And you guys are talking Playoffs?”

“Don’t worry Gee….it’s handled.”

I had already agreed to the craziest thing I had ever heard of in my life (A 14-man Roster).

Maybe it was time for me to sit back, stop trying to pull every string and just let ’em play.  To really put my faith in them.  I had to admit to myself that this was something I had NOT done in the first couple of years.  Not fully anyways….

All these things they were talking about seemed like pipe dreams.  But they certainly had never spoken out like this before. 

Verdugo, at this point, had suffered some incredibly BITTER DEFEATS in ’90 and ’91 that I know that I wanted to avenge.  I could see they did, too.  I reminded them that they were certainly going to get their chance to avenge them. 

“Don’t worry, Gee….”

The dialogue we were having was actually very healthy.  And it was a great dynamic we had going on.  The players and manager going back and forth, in essence, arguing.  Using Four-letter words as we communicated, but not in a bad way.  Being brutally honest about what lay ahead for us, and what had happened in the past.  Yet still respecting one another.

They were letting me know that they were actually going to do everything they could to make my job easier this season.  It was almost as if they were saying, “we’ll get everybody on the same page, and then we’re gonna fucking dominate.”

I kept getting visits from the three of them.  Sometimes two-three times a week as the season closed in.  Their message didn’t waiver.  And we would air out our concerns.

I do remember thinking about all of this quite a bit.  It had quite an impact on me.  I remember falling asleep at night looking at the ceiling and thinking about it all.

And I remember one of those nights making a conscious decision that no matter what happened, I was going to do my best to not get on anyone’s case this season.  That I was just going to “let ’em play.”

And….everything else that went with it.  I was going to let ’em rag.  And just let ’em be themselves.  I had a guy who told me about a month earlier at a bar to simply be myself.   So why not let the players do the same thing? 

Going with the grain certainly wasn’t working for us.  The 14-Man Roster was going against the grain.  Being ourselves was going to be going against the grain.  Leading off Hack was going to be going against the grain.  Growing my hair down to my shoulders was, too.  Allowing the Rags was going to be going against the grain.  Putting Kasey on the Roster was a little crazy, too.

But it was empowering to decide to “let it ride” and to go into the season with a “come whatever may” attitude.  I’m happy that Canale, Turner, and Evans kept stopping by “The Dome” and “airing it out” with Gee.

And after the ’92 Season, I had to ask myself “Why the hell didn’t I do this sooner?”