When we got to the field early that day for field prep at Glendale High The General and I weren’t exactly looking forward to getting the field ready. But it was what it was and we knew we what we had to do. You have to realize that in 1990 we had zero games at home and only four games at Glendale High in 1991…..all the other games in 1990 and 1991 were on THE ROAD….
So yeah I was pretty stoked we had scheduled 10 games that season between Stengel and Glendale High….but wasn’t looking forward to the field maintenance.
So we arrived and as mentioned earlier there were some guys playing flip and by the time everyone showed up at the yard all the rookies just took over. I don’t know what happened…..but all the new guys on the team like Gabrielson and Parque and Calf and Bir started grabbing rakes and drags and hoses and string and the chalk machine…..
We didn’t even have to ask them! They just did it!
The General and I just kinda hung out in the dugout and talked about the lineup while the field was perfectly manicured by these guys. I don’t think we even had to touch a rake for the next two seasons…..
It just became a ritual….the guys we had just took it upon themselves to handle it. Wow…..lets just say The General and I were pretty pleased with this new ritual!
And let me tell ya….these guys did a beautiful job on the field every time and it made my life a lot easier….
To those of you who got involved with this and did such a great job before and after the games I just want to say “thanks”…,
And this was pretty much our new home game ritual….General and Myself and Hank and Weapon hanging out in the dugout and BS-ing…..The dugout always open to any fellow-Verdugo-ite to join in the BS with us……a flip game going on that would end up with guys playing catch or stretching or whatever they felt they needed to do to get ready…..and the field always being taken care of by a different group of guys each time…..someone new seeming to step up and join in and helping out….we never knew just who would do it….and we never had to ask anyone…..it just somehow amazingly always got done!
Some of the guys were what I called “togglers”….they would kind of “toggle” over to the dugout, then back to watching or playing flip, or grabbing a rake and helping out, then playing some catch or whatever….
Always ending the pre-game ritual with a good, sharp pre-game drill with our cigar-burned fungo in my hands….knowing after I had hit the pre-game infield-outfield drill and our opponents for that day were watching us do our thing that they were probably very concerned about who they were facing that day.
Finally, before taking the field when we were the home team this was also the day we all gathered in a circle for the first time and got the gloves up in the air and touching and began our ritual “silence on three” before we took the field….we continued this ritual as well from this day forward.
6/6/92…..a very interesting day and more Rituals to come so stay tuned!
verdugo288 