verdugo288

This is the kind of game I like to see. Some great pitching, great defense, some clutch-hitting and the BLAZING SPEED of Josh Canale.

We put it all together and sent-em packing. Shutting them out, sweeping the twin-bill, and pretty much putting them out of the playoff-picture.

Hack pitched a great game….going all the way on 90 pitches. He scattered four hits and struck out two.

Glendale only had six hits against us in the two games today.

Hack led-off for us with a base hit and stole second base. Haggs drove him in to get us on the board on a clutch base-hit with two outs.

In the third…we got to see the blazing speed of Josh Canale. I had personally been holding him back all day. We all know what he can do when we “turn him loose”… right?

At this stage of the game you could just see how loose we were. We were making it look easy. Glendale was clearly pressing and getting frustrated.

Ivan stroked a base-hit with one out in the third. Bull came up and singled him over to third.

Brendan Cowsill hit a big high chopper to third and I sent Ivan. He beat the throw to the plate making it 2-0 Verdugo.

Their catcher and everybody was arguing the call and not paying attention and Bull just kept on-a-chugging and advanced 180 feet on that play. Bull and I kinda smiled at each other when he wound up at third after that one.

Bull was a little winded…yeah….but I still needed to let Glendale know what he was capable of with his blazing speed.

They were imploding. It was time.

First and third. We needed a play to demoralize. I had Cowsill leave early from first when their pitcher was in the stretch.

Bull was bouncing down the line and I sent him while the pitcher was off the mound out towards second base not knowing what to do with Cowsill.

Bull and I timed it perfectly. Yeah…the blazing speed of Josh Canale had struck. And Bull Oxen had just stolen home plate!!

To make matters worse their pitcher in a fit of confusion FIRED the ball to their catcher as Canale slid in safely and easily beat the throw.

The only problem for Glendale was that he FIRED IT right over their catchers head all the way to the backstop.

A smiling “B” ended up on third. The damage was done. It was only 3-0 but Glendale had officially imploded.

We added another in the fourth when Dave Fielder came up and short-hopped the wall in the left-center gap for a triple. An absolute SHOT.

Calf stepped up and drove him in with a clutch base-hit that made it 4-0.

They were done. We closed it out and made it look easy.

A high-towering pop fly was hauled in by Robb Turner at first base for the final out and it was official: Verdugo had just SWEPT Glendale.

We had two special guests in our dugout before this game ended. And you know our rule at Verdugo. NOBODY GETS IN OUR DUGOUT….

The first visitor? Lance Evans. I’m guessing around the fourth or fifth inning he climbed down into our dugout from the stands at Stengel sporting a cast. He was welcomed into the dugout. We were all happy to see him but down to hear he had a small fracture in his left arm.

How can you not love that as a coach? The guy breaks his arm and returns to the field…..

The other visitor? It came right before we threw the first pitch in the top-of-the-seventh inning. He walked right into our dugout like he owned it.

Gabe ….(yeah GABE) actually stood up when this guy walked in and said in the traditional Verdugo “gravelly” voice “GET OUT OF MY DUGOUT!!!!” As he looked this guy in the eyes.

We looked over and called Gabe off him. The guy looked at me as if to say “dang you guys are mighty territorial”….

We all laughed as we called Gabe off. I think I said to the guy “sorry….never mind that man behind the curtain!”

Gabe sat back down and smiled and said “sorry I didn’t know he was allowed in here”

How can you not love that as a coach? Huh?

Anyways ….the guy?

Spiro.

Yeah….Spiro. He came in….walked over to our Gatorade cooler and grabbed one of those little paper cups and filled himself up a cool one.

He looked at me and said “you guys showed us the way today coach….congratulations…great job”

The game wasn’t over. We DID get the final three outs. And we DID celebrate.

He spent a few minutes in the dugout with us and said a lot of nice things….to everybody. He was congratulating us. He wasn’t just going through the motions either. He was sincere.

That meant a lot to me.

How can you not love that as a coach? You break an opposing coaches back (and spirit) and he comes over and congratulates you….

This day meant a lot to all of us. Officially there was a new bully on the block.

Glendale didn’t make the playoffs in ’92. Or ’93.

We ended up in control of Stengel Field. The City of Glendale Parks and Recreation guy named Bob McCay awarded us the field for ’93 because he felt we took better care of it than the Glendale Program did.

This was the beginning of the unraveling of the beach-head they had established regarding American Legion Baseball for many many years. They had the elite program in our area for a very long time.

It took us a little over two years to dismantle that. It’s kind of ironic this game was played on Independence Day.

They had great coaches. Great players. And a great program.

And to this day? There’s only one guy we ever let in our dugout.

Spiro…

We all loved him and respected him, too.

Thanks coach for “getting into our dugout” that day….and your kind words. It meant a lot to us all.

Everything that went down on July 4, 1992 was meaningful. Even at times…touching. The kind of moments where as a coach you want to wipe that proverbial little tear away from one of your eyes with one of your index fingers….

But we ain’t got time for any of that shit! Cause we got another BIG GAME coming up!

And as we all too well know….Verdugo never wins the BIG games? Right?

Sun Valley at Stengel….Sunday night.

And if you haven’t seen one hell of a bar-room brawl on a baseball field….you’re about to!

There’s territory out there everybody’s fighting for!!!! And Sun Valley was about to find out …. you better not bring a knife to a gun fight!

They’ve done it!!!!