verdugo288

Another great acquisition in maybe the greatest rookie class ever(?) in 20th District history. Dan Bir.

I didn’t know much about Dan Bir prior to 1992. In fact, I didn’t know anything about him. But I had one of the greatest GM’s working behind the scenes for me by the name of Josh Canale.

Canale had got Ivan Moreno on the roster for us in 1991. After we finished the ’91 campaign and started gearing up for ’92 sometime in February we usually started throwing names around as to who would be the next heirs to the Verdugo throne.

The new guys we would get who would be given “the keys to the kingdom”

Right?

We turned away a lot of guys. Playing for Verdugo is like walking on hallowed grounds…let’s face it…not just anybody is worthy.

Right?

Canale told me five words. “We gotta get Dan Bir”

Done.

I did go to a couple of Saint Francis games just to get a look at him. I already knew Haggs was a player and would contribute but I had never even seen this guy named Dan Bir and he was already on our roster!

Big kid. Could play some defense. We had a boatload of first basemen already with Turner, Moreno, Canale, Gabe….but I liked what I saw. All the aforementioned names were in their final year of eligibility. He was going to inherit that job for us.

And when I first met him…very quiet kid. Very respectful. After I first met him my thoughts were “we gotta find a way to corrupt this guy!”

Again, I don’t expect much offensive production from rookies. Robb Turner struggled a little bit at the plate his rookie year but he paid off fucking HUGE with what he did behind the plate for us that season. We were 9-3 with him behind the plate. Turner was also in the top 4 or 5 guys that rookie season of his in on-base-percentage.

Good things can happen for anybody if you keep suiting up and showing up and you believe in yourself. Turner was a force in ’91. By the time ’92 came around Turner was an absolute animal.

It didn’t take long for Bir to be corrupted into the Verdugo way of life on a baseball diamond. He saw how we rolled at Verdugo. He fit right in. Fucking perfect!

Birsy spent some time on the bench alongside Wiley Jackson and learned from one of the best how to get inside somebody’s head. He had some all-time-great role models to see up close and personal on the field as to “just how we roll” here at Verdugo!!!!

Bir struggled a little bit early in the season adjusting to the pitching at this level. But let me tell you something here…he not only figured it out…but he figured it out in ’92. This guy was instrumental in some huge games he filled in coming down the stretch. HUGE.

But don’t kid yourself. He still saw a lot of time on the field. He played a lot of innings that first season ….and you know what?

He made only one error the entire season.

And you know what? That’s what I expect from the rookies. Defense. They will find their way at the plate eventually. But Bir played some D for Verdugo!!!!

He made clutch plays defensively in huge games we had to win. And just kept getting better and better and better at the plate.

He kept coming back to the barn like all the good horses do when you let ’em run wild. He got a lot of looks at the plate and when we came down the stretch he was there. He was ready. And he was ready to deliver.

The last week of the season when we were backed up in games and Cowsill and Moreno couldn’t be there he hit .308 for us (4-13). I hit him in the five hole behind Canale twice.

I hit him in the five-hole when we clinched the playoff spot and he played the entire game. That’s how much confidence I had in him. He lit-up fat bitch from Sun Valley in the first inning with a line shot single that put us up 1-0….then lined out to center against him his second plate appearance against him before we knocked him out of the game. Both balls hit HARD.

I started him and hit him in the five-hole in the game in Lancaster the final week of the season that we won 6-3 with Wiley on the mound. Bir went 2-3 with two RBI in that ball game.

The last week of the season Bir had figured it out and was starting to drive the ball up the gaps. He rocked a deep gapper into right-center against Panorama City the day after we clinched that drove in two.

I said to Canale my General Manager “Bir’s on fire!”

Canale told me exactly the same thing he’d told me from the beginning “Bir’s a damn-good ballplayer”

Yeah….by the end of the season Bir was not only hitting the ball well for us….but he was hitting it with authority.

Rookies are rookies. It’s not easy in Legion ball. But I will say this. Dan Bir is the one player we had in all four years that had the greatest transformation of any player from one season to the next.

Let’s not forget that in 1993….he almost hit .500 for us.

In ’93 he was hitting bullets all over the yard. Who knows what Bir would have done in ’94 had the team stayed together.

He hit a titanic Home Run at Stengel in ’93 that was about as far as you can hit it. A game that we trailed 7-0. A huge game. Bir’s three-run shot got us back in it and made it 7-6.

I still get pumped up every time I replay that absolute SHOT in my mind. I still say that was the greatest game Verdugo ever played. And you know what? We lost that game.

We’ll get to that when we start writing about ’93 and how that game led to what I can only call “The Call”

“The Call” defined us. That was the greatest moment a coach could ever dream up. You’ll all get to read about that night. It was pretty amazing what happened after that game.

At some point (with all you guys) I got to see those “coming of age” moments. For some guys it happened sooner than it did for others.

With Bir…it was the SHOT he hit off fat bitch in the first inning the night we clinched. And the subsequent stare-down Birsy gave him as he stood on first after we drew first blood and made it 1-0.

The stare-down he gave fat-bitch after that bullet said a LOT. I stood in the third base coaching box and saw that coming-of-age moment. The stare-down he gave that guy said “I can play …I belong….you challenge me again with that cheese bitch and I’ll rip your fucking head off”

Those are the moments you live for to see as a coach. Thats not a typo either. I lived to see the moments when I could see you guys were taking shit to the next level. Where you guys were competing. Where you guys were playing. And playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Backing down to no one. Ever.

Not cocky….but unwavering confidence. Not aggression….but assertive. Humble….yet proud of it.

Determined to make your mark on the field as a player.

Another Verdugo rookie had delivered. I give this kid a vote of confidence hitting him behind Canale in the biggest game of the season with the playoffs on the line and what does he do? He hits an absolute seed off arguably one of the toughest pitchers in the District to put us on the board in the first-inning. God damn was I pumped!!!!

Yeah….another Verdugo rookie had delivered.

Fortunately….Birsy was corruptible. He fully adopted the Verdugo ways. He didn’t remain the shy and reserved kid I first met for more than a game or two in a Verdugo Uniform.

This was a good kid. Well, at least until we got ahold of him. This is the kind of guy that….I don’t know…..you’d want him to be like a high-powered lawyer or something some day.

Right?

You know?

A guy who is just so damn good at what he does that just being a lawyer isn’t enough. The kind of guy you’d have no choice if you owned the law firm to just pull him aside and say “look man we need to make you a partner in this endeavor”

Ya know?

At least that’s what I would have predicted where he would have ended up if you asked me back in 1992.

I don’t know where the heck he is today…but if I was to make a prediction….that would be it. Either that or maybe up for re-election for his 4th term in the US Senate or something.

Right?

Bir? If you’re out there reading this shit check-in with us here in the comments section and let us know how everything turned out for you!

I’m curious to know 😉

And Bir? Canale was right.

Thank you Josh for bringing this guy into the fold.

And Bir? It was exciting for me as a coach seeing you evolve from the wild-eyed rookie you were ….into the PURE VERDUGO DUDE you became!!!!

Absolute CLUTCH acquisition. And another member of arguably “The Greatest Rookie Class in 20th District History!!!!”