verdugo288

Yeah…3-0. Verdugo at this stage of the year was 3-0. This wasn’t unchartered waters for me, as a manager. Prior to Verdugo I had managed one championship in 1985….a Colt League Team. That was the first team I managed. What a fight to win it all it was that season. I could write a book about that season (and just may someday).

In ’89 we had another Colt League Team that went 11-2….losing two games to a team it was later discovered (after the season) had a couple of college players on. So really…..one could argue that my ’89 team ran the table……

As a manager…in terms of winning… and even dominating….this wasn’t my first rodeo.

But for Verdugo….this was pretty big. This wasn’t a Colt League Team. This was LEGION. And we’re off to a great start. I liked what I was seeing. A lotta bodies flying around out there. Guys picking each other up. The dugout was loose. Guys that weren’t playing were still totally into what was happening on the field.

Guys in the dugout and on the field weren’t just barking out “QUICK!!!!….PANTHER-LIKE!!!!….everybody in a Verdugo uniform was looking to be ACCUSED of being quick and panther-like. Myself included!!!!

“Ahhhh!!!!” Was being barked out left and right. I can’t even imagine what the opposition must have thought watching the shit we did.

The rags were flying. Rituals were in full force. Flip was happening. Between-inning hockey had gotten to the point that guys were keeping their own stats and won-loss records. Everything was pretty much on auto-pilot.

23 games in the summer is a long season…especially when you factor in the nine-inning games and the double-headers. I remember 1990 and it was tough managing the rotation, and the innings pitched, and pitch-counts…..because we were a little thin with our staff (especially after they pulled Chili and Chandler from the roster)

91′ we were fine. A three-man rotation. Big Breck….The Bull Oxen….and Chili. The starting chuckers we had would get the ball once a week. And we stuck with that. We had plenty of help out of the pen that season as well.

For ’92…we originally planned for Bull, Evans, and Hack to be the three-man rotation. We had Cowsill… who I planned to “spot-start”…..and we had Parque (who at this stage was still a huge question mark)….but Vo could be used in many different ways ….we could “spot-start” him as well……we had Wiley Jackson….and don’t forget we had “Gabe” (Jon Gabrielson).

With Parque…my plan was to spot-start him and look for opportunities where I felt he could do well, and not just throw him to the wolves. Once Evans got hurt, I really had no other choice but to throw Vo to the wolves. But you know what? He answered the call.

Vo had a lotta thugs playing behind him defensively. He learned to trust those guys behind him. And thankfully the thugs we had talked him through some tense situations ….. keeping him focused and just reminding him to keep throwing strikes ….and that was huge in keeping him chilled out when we were playing in those nail-biting tight games towards the end of the season.

But again….I liked what I was seeing. 3-0. Going into the season I had broken the 23 game season down (at least in my head) into SIX four-game “mini seasons”….(yeah I know 24 divided by six isn’t four….but I’m sure you “get the gist”)

Usually by the time the season ends the tank is empty and you’re running on fumes anyways…..well…. USUALLY….but not in ’92.

So breaking things down like this enabled me to keep things in perspective…to have certain expectations as to what I felt we could do in each “mini-season”…. and manage the chuckers….

The 3-0 start was huge. I’m sure it raised more than a few eyebrows around the league.

But something very special was happening here. We had built something and the first couple of years was starting to pay off.

The reason I’m writing this story is for a couple of reasons. Number one…saluting the 3-0 start. But number two is this…,what happened over the next three games for us in 1992 basically SET THE TONE for the glorious run we had in both ’92 and ’93.

And I personally believe that it was the loss we took in game six that changed everything.

After that defeat the eyes of Verdugo never looked ……. they PIERCED.

I will NEVER forget that loss in game six. As a manager, of course….I don’t forget ANY game I get beat. But I still can see Evans, Turner, and Canale standing like statues ….hands on their hips after that loss in game six…..ending our five-game winning streak…..on the sidelines….looking ….just staring out at the field in disbelief. The dugout doing the same. We played a great game in that loss….as far as I was concerned everything was gonna be okay.

But as a manager…when you see your players want it as bad as you do…and maybe even more…..it’s a feeling not very many managers get to feel. This wasn’t the first time I had felt this as a manager. But up in the La Crescenta area, quietly…and unbeknownst to most of the fools around the league…..a 3-0 monster was growing. And every guy we had on the roster was involved in it. And it was getting bigger. And it was getting meaner. And it was getting angrier. And it was getting nastier. Every. Single.Day.