Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

CHILI Mows ’em Down

Posted: April 22, 2011 in 1990, Big Breck, BullOxen, Chandler, Chili, Games, McBride, Rogers, Turner, Weapon
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Okay.  Let’s get back to what was happening in the 1990 Season.  We had just pulled off a miraculous victory against Quartz Hill and now we traveled out to North Hollywood High on a Sunday morning.  This was our first of two games that we were scheduled to play that day.  Our second game would be in the evening against Glendale.  We came in to this game at 3-3-1 and overall I was very happy with the way we were playing.  Alot of the guys came to the field that Sunday morning tired and about two skin shades darker (or redder in my case) than the day before after baking in the Quartz Hill sun for almost six hours….but by gametime, we were ready to go. 

Chili got the start on the mound and came within one pitch from throwing a perfect game!  He threw only 62 pitches, and gave up one base hit in the fifth inning.  This win put us over .500 for the first time of the season.  The Team had really come together at this point..and with Hank, BullOxen, McBride, Chili, Chandler, and Big Breck on the mound for us, I started to think that we could actually make a playoff run.  And so did the players….

Chili struck out eight guys and we won 10-0.  He also had two doubles at the plate. 

Vic had two hits, including an absolute SHOT that went for a ground rule double.  BullOxen doubled, and Robb Turner’s 2nd inning double drove in two runs for us. 

But the highlight of this game was a SHOT hit by The Weapon.  When we got to the field that morning we were eyeballing the homerun area in center field and right field.  Left field was wide open… there was no fence.  There was a locker room area in right-center that was considered a homerun if you hit the roof of that building.  There was a small area out there maybe five feet wide where there was no roof…and if you hit it in there the ball was still in play. 

As we have written in earlier posts…The Weapon was always looking to hurt the opponent, and he had a little flair for the dramatic as well.  Weap came up in the fourth inning with a couple of guys on base and hit a ball that (as soon as he hit it) EVERYONE in the park knew was GONE!!!  One of those balls where the outfielders kind of start to make a move on it and then just kind of stop and admire it as it leaves the facility……….

We were all admiring it…..Including The Weapon!!!  As soon as he hit it….he just flipped the bat towards our on-deck circle and he started WALKING….just like the guys on TV used to do!  It was an awesome sight!  However, there was just one problem…..it landed in that little five foot area that was STILL IN PLAY and rattled around in there and spit itself back onto the field.  SHIT!!  Although he had hit it beyond any boundary at the field that day for a homerun….Weap had the unfortunate luck of it landing in that little five-foot porch area….NO HOMERUN!!!

When it landed back on the field….Weapon was MAYBE halfway to first base and was still in his Homerun “walk.”  The centerfielder was now chasing it down and Weap was running full bore.  To this day I still don’t know HOW he turned that thing into a triple.  Talk about going zero-to sixty!  Weap did his signature pop-up head-first slide into third base………..even though there was no play at third.  I don’t know what was more awesome…the SHOT he hit or the fact that he turned it into a triple!

Most coaches would be all bent out of shape for a guy going into a homerun “walk” like that.  Not me.  I loved it!  I also loved the look on the faces of the North Hollywood players that basically said “Okay…we give up” after that play happened.  A couple of their guys just kind of looked at him and said “damn.” 

There was one other player for us who went into a homerun walk…but it happened in 1990 in a Connie Mack League game.  John Rogers did it.  He hit a mammoth SHOT to dead-center one night at Stengel Field…and went into his walk.  I’ll never forget the look on Rogers’ face when it STUCK in the top of the ivy.  And I’ll never forget looking over at him and laughing when they held him to a SINGLE on that BOMB he it!!!  But it was worth it….I used to let our players have that swagger….it’s risky, yes indeed….and if you let the players do that then you gotta take the bad with the good.  And like I’ve said before…I wouldn’t have changed a thing about how I let the players be themselves.

This was a great win.  And I was REALLY looking forward to our match in a few hours against Glendale.  Here’s what the Newspaper said about this win………

“Hey 2-3 Your BARN’S ON FIRE!!!”

Posted: March 21, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Chili, Games, Rags/Trash Talk, Rogers, Sammy, Spongy
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So we picked up our first win against Burbank after losing a heartbreaker in the Season’s Opener to Panorama City.  Then we got blown-out by Glendale 13-2, and had played Notre Dame to a 3-3 tie.  The following week we traveled for our first time up into Antelope Valley where we split a double-header with another team that ultimately reached the playoffs:  Lancaster.  I wasn’t happy we split.  I felt we were better than they were.  We should have swept ’em.

Remember, the 1990 Team played ALL 22 games that season ON THE ROAD.  And the weekend of June 16th and 17th we had THREE games to play in two days.  A Saturday trip to Quartz Hill, a Sunday trip to North Hollywood, and another game against the Glendale team Sunday night at Stengel Field.  We came into that weekend 2-3-1, but the TIE game was the Notre Dame game that would ultimately be decided in a couple of weeks.  This was a huge weekend for us, to say the least.

The Saturday game against Quartz Hill was one of the greatest dogfights in our history.  It was over 100 degrees that day.  There were 368 pitches thrown in that game.  Six pitching changes.  A wind that got as high as 40 MPH.  A FIRE broke out in the middle of the game.  Yes, a FIRE broke out in the middle of the game.  The lead exchanged hands six times.  We made 10 errors that game.  They stole 15 bases off of us.  We turned three double plays that day…one was a 5-2-5-4 DP….one of the craziest plays I’ve ever seen.  But somehow we just kept battling.  We pounded out 18 hits and in the end prevailed 13-12 in extra innings.  Oh, and by the way…..the game lasted FIVE hours and 45 minutes.   Although we made the drive all the way up there….we were the home team that day and DOGPILED again on someone else’s field. 

It started out simple enough.  I’m out there hitting pre-game drill.  Canale is shagging for me while I hit to the outfielders.  There was a plastic/rubber lid about five feet behind the mound that was about a foot wide and two feet long.  It was there to cover up the water tap so the grounds crew could water down the field.  But the damn thing wouldn’t sit flush.  Canale was trying to fix it so no one would trip over it.  He’d step on the left side of it…and the right side would pop up.  He’d step on the right side of it…and the left side of it would pop up.   He tried a few times to fix it and then we heard a couple of guys from their bench say “Just leave it alone!”…….

Canale was a rookie….he was sixteen years old.  And he had a chaw going.  It was our seventh game.  And you know what he did?  He looked right into their dugout and said to all of ’em “Fuck You!!!”

I loved it!  I’m thinking………..”we’re gonna be just fine today”……….

But this was the amazing thing about the 1990 Team.  They would always quickly acclimate themselves to wherever they were playing.  This was a world up here in the Antelope Valley that most of us didn’t even know existed.  I mean, this was a 150 mile round-trip into the middle of NOWHERE.  Just about every field we went to that year none of our guys had ever even SEEN, let alone play on.  And some of the time, the fields were not very well maintained by the opposing team’s coaching staff.  Some of the conditions were brutal.  But to the great Warriors we had playing for us…it didn’t matter.  That Team was truly a bunch of animals who had been let out of their cages (as Nance said)…………and we were ALWAYS looking for an opportunity to “mark our territory.” 

Quartz Hill had a great team that season…finishing 19-4 and reaching the Playoffs.  And we dogpiled right there on their field.  I remember late in the game as I was walking off the field from the third base coaching box towards our dugout on the first base side their Head Coach said to me “where are you guys from?”……

He didn’t ask that question to me trying to find out where we were from geographically…..he KNEW where we came from.  He wasn’t expecting the kind of dogfight we put him through that day.  The way he asked me was almost in disbelief……maybe he thought we were something “otherwordly”…or “from hell”…….I don’t know what he was thinking.  I just kept on walking.  I didn’t answer him.  I just kept walking towards the dugout.  Cold-eyed stare.  Never even LOOKED at him.  That was kind of my way of saying to him “No matter how hard you hit us….we’re gonna keep getting up….and when the dust settles….we’re gonna be the ones standing.”

And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.  We trailed 9-8 going into the bottom of the seventh.  Sammy Vaquera had a clutch base hit to tie it 9-9.  Damon Martin came up with two out.  And promptly BOMBED a two-run shot to left.  As soon as Damon hit that thing I was barking at it to “GET OUTTA HERE!!”  I left the third base box and was on the outfield grass talking to that thing when it finally cleared the fence.  Fuck I was FIRED UP!!!

They took a 12-11 lead into the bottom of the ninth.  Vic Ramirez walked and stole second.  Again, Martin came up and delivered a CLUTCH base-hit to bring in Vic.  That tied it up and sent the game into extra innings.

Canale went out to the mound and threw one of the most impressive innings he had thrown all season.  And they had their 2-3-4 holes in their lineup coming up.  It was exactly the type of thing I knew he was capable of.  He struck out their leadoff hitter on three pitches.  He snapped off the nastiest curveball I may have ever seen for strike one…..threw him a fork-pitch that dropped about a foot and a half for a called strike two…….and then just flat out threw it right by the guy for the called third strike.  He walked the next guy on four pitches….retired their clean-up hitter on a 4-3 groundout…and blew a fastball for strike three to another one of their big guns to end the top of the tenth. 

Chili Rivera led off the bottom of the tenth for us with a hard hit double up the gap in left center.  It was Chili’s fourth hit of the game.  John Rogers came up and blasted a 2-1 fastball over their right fielders head and we were dogpiling again!!!  It was Rogers’ third double of the game.  I remember lumbering down the third base line following Chili towards home plate.  Chili ran out to congratulate Rogers with everyone else.  I just kept going towards our dugout.  I tried to do one of those “forward-roll” front flips and ate shit.  But it didn’t matter.  I lied there on the ground on my back…..looking up into the smoke-filled sky…..two arms extended up towards that sky with clenched fists and thinking to myself “this is gonna be a fun ride home!”

As the game had gone on we realized which one of the Quartz Hill guys had yelled at Canale to “Leave it alone!!” when Josh was trying to fix that rubber lid before the game.  In 1990 he was still “Canale”…he didn’t become “BullOxen” until 1991.  Well, it was number 23 who had said it.  He was one of the two guys Canale mowed down on strikes in the tenth inning.  Canale…being Canale….couldn’t resist saying to the guy “Hey 2-3 your BARN’S ON FIRE” when that fire broke out in the middle of the game.

It was time to drive back down the hill.  We left a trail of carnage that day and it was only fitting that as we drove home….and looked back…the skies of Antelope Valley were blackened with smoke.

Exorcising The Demons…….Our First Win

Posted: March 13, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Chandler, Chili, Games, Hank, Spongy, Vic
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Sounds pretty heavy.  “Exorcising the Demons.”  Well, to me …it was.  That’s about the only way I could describe it.  I mentioned in my last post that I was a paid assistant coach at Burbank High in 1990.  You know, when I got that job it was one of the proudest moments in my Baseball life.  My friend, Dave Johnson had been hired for the Head Coaching position after a lengthy and bitter interviewing process.  There were ALOT of people that wanted that job, but Dave got it.  We were both hired as walk-on coaches who were not members of the faculty.  We were really, really excited about working there.  Little did we know about the scumbags that were lurking in the shadows, lying in wait, seeking out every opportunity to undermine and discredit us behind our backs. 

While my Grandfather Harry Leroy Magee had taught me the love of the game….Coach Johnson TAUGHT ME THE GAME.  Working with him that one season was an incredible opportunity to watch one of the greatest coaches I have ever been around in action.  He had hired me to assist him, and he probably knew that about the only thing I brought to the table was fire, and a love of the game.  But he brought me on board, and like I said before…we were REALLY excited about working with the players.

Unfortunately, there were SEVERAL people who were extremely bitter about us getting hired.  Two of them, one guy who called himself “Pops” and another guy I’ll just call “Weasel” did everything they could that first season we had there to make our lives miserable.  They knew all of the players and really went to some mind-boggling lengths to get the players to turn on us.  But there’s an old saying….Good ALWAYS triumphs over evil.  And that’s exactly what happened.

Out first season at Burbank was a disaster.  We went 3-12.  BUT….. by the end of the season, the UNDERCLASSMEN were on our side.  Halfway through the year we pretty much wrote off the seniors on that team.  So Dave and I were worried about what would happen during summer-league.  We REALLY didn’t want those two guys undoing all we had done with the players that season.  One summer with those two guys would have wrecked everything we had tried to accomplish.  That’s why in the summer of 1990…I coached TWO TEAMS.  We put together another Team in Connie Mack League that had players from both CV and Burbank.  All we knew is that we DID NOT want those two guys talking to our kids, and if I had to coach TWO Teams that summer to protect our guys from being poisoned by them…then so be it.

While I might not have contributed much to the Burbank Program, you gotta give me credit for ONE THING.  Being a HUMAN SHIELD between our players at Burbank and Pops/Weasel.

I really had NO IDEA that I would end up getting hired at CV in 1991.  But the summer of 1990 was instrumental for the Burbank program.  Why?  Because we shielded our players from Pops and Weasel and those players got to hang around some of the kids up here from La Crescenta.  I’ll tell you…WINNING and the way you carry yourself is contagious.  And after Jason Chandler and Chili Rivera had spent most of the summer around our Legion Team…I began to see a BIG difference in the way they carried themselves.  They evolved into WINNERS.  Chandler and Rivera were NEVER losers….they were ALWAYS awesome in my mind…..but after our disatrous first season at Burbank a change in scenery was needed, and THE PLAYERS of Verdugo Post 288 seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.   I personally CANNOT take any credit for it, but it was a wonderful thing to see everyone from both schools get along so well.

Yes, I went on to get hired at CV in 1991 and we had a pretty good season and made the playoffs.  But you know what happened in Burbank?  They WON the League TITLE OUTRIGHT.  You know who was in their League?  HART.  Yes, that’s right………..HART.  The accomplishments of the 1991 Burbank High School Baseball Team are absolutely incredible.  Coach Johnson did a masterful job, and I was happy for him and REALLY proud of the kids over there.  Chandler and Rivera dominated that season.  Awesome!! 

Our 1990 Legion Team lost the first game in our history to a team from Panorama City that ultimately went 18-5 and made the playoffs.  We took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning….they tied us and we ended up losing in the 10th inning 6-4.  I thought we had played a great game.  Certainly we had played well enough to win.  I was wondering how our Ballclub would respond to such a devastating defeat.  Alot of teams would have just thrown in the towel right there……..but not Verdugo.

So now here we were…the Verdugo Hills American Legion Team…playing the SECOND GAME of our existence.  And guess who we were playing?  That’s right…Burbank.  And guess who I was coaching against?  That’s right…Pops and Weasel.  Plus several of the guys I had coached that season at Burbank High were on that team.  Most of them were seniors who had graduated, the guys who we had pretty much written off as insubordinates.   Coach Johnson and I pretty much had realized that any instructions we tried to give these guys in particular was like asking them to eat a plate full of HAIR.  They all had “season tickets” in the second-guessing section, if you know what I mean.   So there was plenty of bitterness going into this game. 

Pretty much EVERYBODY on the other side of the Diamond that day HATED ME or RESENTED ME.  And they knew I was going TOTALLY out of my way to keep Chandler and Rivera away from them.  And the coaches of the Burbank team now were going to get their chance to teach me a lesson.  They had fantasized their whole lives about coaching the kids at that school….and myself and Coach Johnson had “taken” that from them.  I could hear their petty comments from the moment I arrived at the field…………

So you know who I gave the ball to that day?  Jason Chandler.  The hot-headed and wild-throwing Chandler.  And you know what he did?  He beat ’em.  We never led until the FINAL PITCH of the game.  And we had our first dogpile.  And we dogpiled right on THEIR field…..right in front of the guys who HATED ME.

They threw Mark/Mike? Rossiter at us that day.  Probably the best local pitcher that was drafted in 1991.  Canale came up in the second inning.  My old third baseman Jeremy Sparks and I were making a little small talk with each other in the early part of the game.  When Canale came up I told Sparks “See this guy here?  He’s only a sophmore”….

Sparks, being the arrogant guy he is who had the listening skills of Helen Keller then said as Rossiter dealt to Canale “Hey what do you say FROSH?”

Canale then hit a ball then went about 450 feet.  It was great to watch one of those bitches from the Burbank team who never listened to a word from myself or Coach Johnson have to go and fetch that ball.   We all know about BullOxen’s lack of speed.  It would have been a home run if there was a FENCE there but Canale ended up with a triple.  He scored on a wild pitch.

Chandler kept his poise the entire game.  He threw only 99 pitches.  His only walk was a hit-batter.  Was it an intentional DOSE?  I’ll never say……….

All I know was that when we rallied to win in the bottom-of-the-seventh inning……when that ball Martin hit fell in….I had to hold back tears.  The newspaper didn’t get all of the facts straight…the guy who got his glove on it and dropped it was one of my former players at Burbank high who we threw off of the Team for failing to call/show at a carwash fund-raiser we had.  That made it even SWEETER.  Yeah, we kind of burst their bubble(s) that day…..I guess you could say “‘Pop’ goes the ‘Weasel'” after this win………….

Yeah…we exorcized the demons that day.  And we had our first win.  If you’d like to read the story in the papers Click Here

Slap Taggin’ Milligan

Posted: February 28, 2011 in 1990, Games, Hank
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This is a continuation of our last two posts.  Yeah, Notre Dame beat us up pretty good in the second game of the double-header that day, but like I said we STOLE a game from them.  Even though we got beat…we still got in a few shots Verdugo-style.  And we got our shots in on the big-gun cleanup hitter they had with the last name Milligan.

Milligan looked like what you’d expect a guy named Milligan to look like.  Fair skinned, reddish hair.  But he was a stout dude and he was strong.  He had big forearms and with his hat on kind of reminded me of Popeye.  He had that step haircut thing going on.  Nobody gave this guy any shit I noticed…and he didn’t have much of a sense of humor.  He came from a Baseball family.  He was pretty much all business out there on the field and I must admit he did hit the shit out of the ball.

He reached base on a fielder’s choice in the second inning.  This is when the fun began.  

Milligan was getting a little too big of a lead off of first base.  So we picked over.  Hank was playing first base.  He took the throw from the pitcher and made a sweeping slap-tag that caught the diving Milligan right in his face.  Milligan’s helmet was all out of whack from the impact.  It was down over his eyes when he got up and he tried to look cool while he readjusted it.  He wasn’t looking too cool, either.

So he then got off of the bag and took an even bigger leadoff.  So we picked over again.  Hank did the exact same thing.  Sweeping slap tag to his head…making sure that the ball was in the not-so-padded area of his glove.  Hank was making sure that when he slap-tagged him that the BALL was involved with that slap-tag as well as his glove.  The second one caught him in the nose/cheekbone area.  Milligan was NOT happy.

So he got an even bigger lead….

And we picked over again.  Hank slapped him real good in the face again.  Now Milligan was flat-out pissed.

As he was taking his lead off of the bag you could hear him say in a gravelly voice “You slap-tag me again like that and I’m gonna rip your head off.”

Then he got an even BIGGER lead.

So we picked over.  And Hank slapped-tagged him again…harder than the first three.  This went on another couple of times.  Each time Milligan getting slap-tagged harder than the last, and Milligan insisting on taking a bigger lead-off from the bag.  Hank never even made an effort to tag his arm or hand!  Every time, right in the head/face!!  Milligan finally realized after about five slap-tags to his dome that it might be a good idea to STOP taking such a big lead.  Hell, this guy could hit but he wasn’t any threat to steal a base.  Milligan finally backed down and took a normal lead-off from the bag and all the bullshit ended.

The beautiful thing about all of this was that Hank was slap-tagging a pretty big dude.  If they went at it…I’m sure most people would have put their money on Milligan.   Hank never said a word to the guy.  He just kept slap-tagging him as hard as he could until he backed off.  And if they did go at it, I’m sure Hank would have more than stood his ground.  This was just a little old-fashioned power-struggle that was going on between Milligan and Hank.  And I gotta give the “W” to Hank.  Milligan warned him..but Hank came right back and slap-tagged him again….TWICE!!!

Yes-sir-ree.  ‘Ol Hank.  The heart and soul of that 1990 Team.  His jersey number was “00.”  “Double-Ott” we called him.  And while we lost ONE of the battles that day, we WON the other battle…but the slap-tagging incident was the ‘tie-breaker.”  And the way we served notice on Milligan…Verdugo had CLEARLY won the war that day!!!!!!!!

The Double That Shook The Earth…..

Posted: February 27, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Frost, Games, Hank, McBride, Rogers, Weapon
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It was June 27, 1990.  We traveled out to Notre Dame high school on a Wednesday afternoon to pick up where we had left off three weeks earlier, bad blood and all.  The game we had started three weeks ago was tied 3-3, and called off due to darkness.  So the plan today was to finish the first game, and then play another seven inning game before it got dark.  So it was “Kind of” a doubleheader.  In the back of our minds we were all thinking about what went down between Fat Jody and McBride.  I am sure that all of the parents of both teams had heard about the drama….because by the time we got this thing started, the stands were FULL on both sides of the diamond.  It had the atmosphere of a playoff game.  So I was looking forward to see how we handled the spotlight that day.

We had played well over the last few weeks since McBride went off on Jody and came into the game with a 6-5 record.  All I knew was we needed to win ONE of these games…I didn’t want to drive home with a 6-7 record if they swept us.  So this was another huge game for us.

Finally, the game started.  Both teams went quietly in the eighth inning.  And I don’t even have to tell you who was pitching for us……….. 

Weapon came up in the top of the ninth inning and grounded out.  Up came Bull Oxen.  Walk.  Up came Hank.  Walk.  Rogers flew out to the center.  Two down.

Cal Frost stepped up.  Frost looked at strike one.  The next pitch he drilled a two-iron over the shortstop’s head and up the left-center gap.  I knew Bull would score from second but I wanted to make sure Hank got in from first.  And Hank was all over it.  Hank was moving so fast he almost caught up to Bull.  I was halfway down the line windmilling when I realized there wasn’t even going to be a play at the plate.  Frost’s double had cleared the bases and given us a 5-3 lead.

When Hank stepped on the plate he damn near split it in half.  I don’t think I had ever seen Hank this fired up and emotional as he got.  And no one…and I mean NO ONE wants to win more than Hank.  When Hank scored he continued to sprint towards the chain link fence on the first base side.  He leaped in the air about three feet and his momentum carried him right into the fence, where he clung to it…Spiderman-style.

As he was up in the air, clinging to that fence,  he started shaking it with his hands and feet.  He made sure every single person in the Notre Dame stands was watching him while he shook the fence and yelled out “Fuck Yeah!!!!!!” for about 10 seconds.  They were shocked!  Every mouth in that stands dropped about a foot!  And ‘Ol Hank was up there giving it to ’em….I think he made eye-contact with every last one of ’em!!!

Our dugout and fans were making a lot of noise.  Their side was silent.  Normally, an outburst like that was crazy…..the outcome of the game had not yet been determined…..and we STILL needed three outs to win…..but that’s what we all were FEELING at that moment.  So I let ’em go.  I didn’t say anything.  I just squinted my eyes and looked straight at Fat Jody.  He looked away when he caught my squinting eyes………..

Then I looked around for McBride.  He was sitting down and just STARING at the field.  Yeah, he had that look in his eye.  I knew he was gonna finish ’em off.

But Hank wasn’t done.  When Hank came down from the fence….he started yelling “Fuck Yeah!!!  That’s 7-5, now let’s make it 8-5 in another 10 minutes!!!”

He was predicting the WIN!!!   We still needed three outs but Hank had just moved us up in the standings from 6-5 to 7-5..and was even talking about 8-5!!!

I loved it!!  Mcbride’s outburst three weeks earlier had pulled us together.  And Hank took us out on a limb.  And we were about to find out if we could trash talk and back it up. 

McBride was a little too pumped and walked their leadoff hitter in the bottom of the ninth.  The next hitter laced a single to left, but the runner who moved to second on the base-hit took too big of a turn towards third.  Damon Martin, our left fielder…fired the ball to the cutoff man Frost, and Frosty back-picked to second where BullOxen made a great play tagging out the runner.  That broke their backs.  And Hank was over there at first base (right in front of their dugout) barking “Fuck Yeah!!” again.

The next hitter popped out.  One out to go.

McBride was totally pumped!  He was overthrowing.  He walked their cleanup hitter on four pitches.  Turner went out to the mound and calmed him down.

Runners at first and second…two out.  And McBride STRIKES OUT their other big gun Lou Tapia LOOKING!!!!

Done!  We walked the Walk!!  No crazy celebration when it ended.  Yeah, David had kind of beaten Goliath but I liked the way we handled ourselves when it ended.  You could sense that our guys were figuring out just what we were capable of.  And we proved we could play with anybody that day.  And yeah…as Hank predicted….we were now 7-5. 

We had woken up a sleeping giant with that win.  Notre Dame had a lot of talent on that team and they beat our asses pretty good the second game that day.  But it didn’t matter.  We STOLE a game from them with nothing more than will, resolve, grit, and determination.  

And you know what’s really cool?  Notre Dame missed the Playoffs that year by ONE GAME.

You think ‘Ol Fat Jody spent a little time over the winter thinking about THIS ONE????????? 

Yes-sir-ree….’Ol Cal Frost’s double……..The Double that SHOOK THE EARTH.  The Double that was one of the greatest DEFINING  moments of our four years of Glory.  The Rock in our sling that SLAYED Goliath……….

McBride FIRES Back!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: February 27, 2011 in 1990, Games, McBride, Rags/Trash Talk
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Some of you guys remember Brian McBride.  He played one year for us…on our 1990 team.  He led the team in wins that season with four and innings pitched with 39.  He was a good kid.  Never complained about anything.  In fact..when we had two guys on our roster who wanted to wear number 14 on their jersey…McBride let the other guy ( a guy we called “White” Chandler) wear it and Brian wore jersey number 14 and a half!!!  He was funny, well-mannered and a hard worker.  He had already played for a Colt-League team for me in 1989 (a team that came within a dropped fly-ball of winning it all) and I never saw him lose his cool.  That is, until our first meeting with our old friend……..FAT JODY.  Thanks to McBride and a couple of other guys…..one of the greatest Legion rivalries of all-time was born.

This was a huge game for us.  We came into the game 1-2, and were blown out of our previous game 13-2.  We needed a win, and with our rag-tag group of guys going up against the mighty Notre Dame squad I would venture to say we were the underdogs going into this one.  Hank started on the mound and gave us a great five innings…although we trailed 2-0 when he left. 

In the top of the sixth, we rolled a three to take the lead.  This game was turning into quite a chessmatch between Jody and I.  They’d steal, and we’d pitchout.  We’d steal, and they’d pitchout.  Both teams were bunting, trying to move guys over, and playing for a run.  Great calls by both coaches in first and third situations.  It was taxing, but fun.  A couple of times ‘Ol Jody looked over at our bench with that look of his that said…”Oh shit.”  Yeah, he was worried.

I was happy with the way we were playing.  The game was scheduled to go seven innings but darkness was setting in.  McBride came in to relieve Hank in the bottom of the sixth.  He shut them off.  We didn’t score in the top of the seventh.  All we needed was three outs for the upset.  They scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the seventh to force the game into extra innings.

It looked like there was enough light to start the eighth inning.  As Brian walked from the mound towards our dugout after Notre Dame had scored and tied the game he walked right past fat Jody, who was doing his little dorky jog back to the first base dugout.  That was when McBride exploded.

“Why don’t you shut your fucking mouth you fat piece of shit!!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed.  McBride then took his glove and threw it about 20 feet into our dugout. 

Jody stopped near home plate and looked at him as if to say “Who me?”

We had all figured it out by now, and Jody was BUSTED.  He was talking to my pitcher when my pitcher was making his way back to the dugout.  This shit had been going on for a couple of innings, and McBride put him in his place. 

By now Mcbride was in our dugout kicking shit around, waving his arms, and screaming at Fat Jody.  “What the fuck is your problem you fucking Bush-leaguer?”

The umpire came over.  I just kind of sat there and watched everything that was happening.  This was between McBride and Jody, as far as I was concerned.  And the more information I gathered, it became clear Jody was out-of-line.  McBride was yelling at the ump about whatever Jody had been saying to him and let the ump know he didn’t like it.  The ump just kind of looked at Jody like “Are you doing this shit?”

Look…I coached alot of years and I said plenty of shit on my own….but I never got “weird” like that and singled a guy out like Jody was doing.  At least everything I said was there for EVERYONE to hear…not some weird kind of “stalker” conversation between me and another guy that nobody else knew about.   What Jody was doing was just flat-out WEIRD.

Jody never said another word in his defense.  He knew he was busted.  The game was called on account of darkness and the outcome of the game was going to be decided in three weeks when we were scheduled to play them again.  We all left the field PISSED!!!  I was proud of McBride.  It was nice to see how underneath all of his pleasant demeanor there was a FIERCE competitor. 

The next three weeks before we played those guys again it seemed like that was all we talked about.  Those were the guys our Team wanted to beat.  McBride’s outburst lit a fire for our ballclub that still burns to this very day.  We never let anyone say ANYTHING to us after that single event.  McBride set the tone, and I’ll bet to this very day ‘Ol Jody wishes he never said a word to that kid. 

1990 was one of our finest hours as a Team.  We played all 22 games ON THE ROAD that season.  And we still finished 12-10.  We lost one game in extra innings, and three games by a run.  One team that went 15-7 reached the playoffs.  That’s how close we came.  Yes, we did a lot of damage in ’92 and ’93….going 38-5…but that 1990 Team may have been the greatest Team I ever coached.  That was the Team that basically sent this message to everyone:  If you’re playing Verdugo, then get ready for the dogfight of your life!!!

I believe that this was the turning point in the season for us.  And we couldn’t wait to finish the game against Notre Dame in three weeks.  We didn’t care about their players…it was all about beating Fat Jody from that point forward. 

The next post is going to be fun…I already have the Title for it……I’m going to call it “‘The Double That Shook The Earth”……………

“BOMB!!!”

Posted: February 23, 2011 in 1992, BullOxen, Games, Wiley
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It’s all coming back to me now.  “They burned their bodies” the night we clinched a playoff spot for the first time.  We had taken it down to the final days of the ’90 and ’91 seasons and were knocked out of the playoffs.  So when we clinched a spot in ’92…needless to say, it kicked off quite a celebration.  We clinched on a Friday night at our other home field Glendale High, beating Fat Bitch from Sun Valley for the second time in 10 days.  The problem was, we had a game to play Saturday morning at 10 AM against Panorama City……but that was the least of our worries………it was time to PARTY.

And PARTY we did.  As was mentioned in an earlier post by Colin James, ALOT of the players came over and we were all drinking and smoking cigars.  That’s when the “GAR-BURNS” happened.  Then the players went home…and General and I went out drinking at a local bar where we ran into a couple of moms from The Team.  Now don’t get any ideas out there you readers……it was a great time drinking kamikaze shots till the bar closed with a couple of parents from The Team.  They were as elated as we were.  I was drunk when I got to the bar..and must have done AT LEAST another 10 kamikaze shots.  OUCH!!!!  And General was hanging tough as always…matching me shot for shot!!!

I wouldn’t have woken up for the game but my phone rang about 9 AM Saturday morning.  It was General.  All he said was “gonna be late…still drunk”………..

Here it was SEVEN hours later and we were still totally ripped!!!  He showed up about 9:30 AM.  I loaded the gear in the back of his truck, and got in.  General was NOT looking good.  General drove about 10 feet, stopped the car, opened his door…leaned his head out of the truck and puked!!!  Somehow we made it to the game.  I think this was the first time the players were at a game before the coaches. 

I got to the game and heard that one of the moms had brought some doughnuts.  Those were the best doughnuts I have ever eaten in my life!  We all needed something to get us going and those doughnuts did the trick.  Somehow, with the hangovers, the cigar burns and everything else…we were ready to go.  Wiley Jackson was on the mound.

You never would have thought we were up partying all night when we rolled a four in the first inning….picking right up where we left off the night before.  I was thinking “these guys are unstoppable…they’re on a mission!!”  ‘Ol Wiley shut ’em down, scattering six hits and striking out seven in a 11-1 victory.  But the REAL STORY was what happened in the 6th inning.

BullOxen came up in the 6th with one out.  He took the first pitch for a ball.  The next pitch he fouled off.  Then he looked down to me for a sign.  I gave no sign…All I did was mouth the word to him “BOMB.”  He looked back at me.  I did it again.  I mouthed the word “BOMB.”  He looked at me as if to say “okay, no problem”, and got back in the box and waited for the pitch.  And sure enough, the NEXT FRICKIN’ PITCH he BOMBED it over the left field fence and into the netting that surrounds the bullpen for a HOMERUN.  He smiled at me as he rounded first.  That is the ONLY TIME I ever gave someone “The Homerun Sign” and it was also the last.  Bull hit six homers in his three-year career with us but this one was special.

Later I said to him…”Shit, if I knew it was THAT easy, I can think of about 50 other times the last three years I should have asked you to do that!!”  He just smiled.

Great moment.  Great Team.  Great Kid…………TRUE STORY…………..

Short Porch in Right

Posted: February 20, 2011 in 1990, Games, Hank, Vic, Weapon
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One of the greatest players we ever had was Vic Ramirez.  Vic played for us in our first season in 1990.  Vic was a lefty, ran like a demon, had a great arm, and hit the shit out of the ball.  Vic had graduated from C.V in 1989 and was still eligible for one more season of Legion ball.  He had just played an entire season at Glendale College and started every game and did a great job for them as their lead-off hitter.  Vic wanted to play for the Glendale Legion team that season…but thanks to some great selling by Hank, Weapon, and BullOxen we ultimately ended up with “C’mon Vic” (as we nicknamed him) on our roster. 

One of our games in 1990 was at Chaminade High.  When we first got to the field everyone was eyeing their right field fence.  It was only 240 feet from home plate, but it had a net that acted as a “fence” that went straight UP about 70 feet in the air.  Vic was our only left handed hitter on the team.  The first guy I looked at when we all saw that fence was Vic.  He was drooling.  You knew what was going on inside his head………

“Don’t even think about it” I said.

Vic smiled and said “Don’t worry Gee….nothing but two irons today.”

We were having problems with some of our hitters….alot of guys were dropping their hands when the pitch was on the way and trying to jack the ball over the fence or everyone’s heads………and it wasn’t working.  This is where the term “two irons” came around.  If you’ve ever hit a perfect shot in Golf with a two iron you know what I’m talking about.  A two iron is a low, penetrating shot that goes a LONG way.  I kept telling the hitters that year…”let’s go…lots of two irons today.”

I still knew what he was thinking.  And if I was in his shoes I knew what I would be thinking.  That short porch in right field was a little too tempting…..

And sure enough…the first pitch of the game….Vic drops his hands and tries to jack it over that fence.  He golfed a high towering routine fly ball.  The ball went 241 feet for a home run.  Everybody came out of the dugout laughing.  In fact…everyone was laughing EXCEPT for GEE.  When he came around third with his homerun trot I didn’t even high-five him.  Everybody was out at the plate congratulating Vic but Hank and Weap were looking over at me and giggling because they knew I was pissed.  I was just down there shaking my head but the players still knew I was happy we had a 1-0 lead.  I tried to act pissed but it wasn’t working.

One thing about Vic…he was a great kid.  He came up to me the next inning and said “sorry Gee….just two irons from now on.”

So his next at-bat he laces a two-iron right into the net in right field.  The right fielder knew just how to play it and damn near threw Vic out at first.  Time to re-think my little scheme…………

Next time before Vic came up I called him over and said “All right…you get a hall pass for the day….just golf it over the fucking fence.”  All I know is that this game had quickly turned into a shootout and we needed runs any way we could get ’em.

Vic got a big smile on his face.  He tried about three more times that day but couldn’t golf another one outta there but he did hit another one off of that screen that almost made it.  I was learning a lesson as a coach that day.  Actually, as a coach you are always learning something.  The lesson was simple….JUST LET ‘EM PLAY.

We held on to win that day 16-12………recording the final out of the game with the BASES LOADED and a power-hitting lefty from Chaminade at the plate who was eyeballing that short-porch too!!!!!!!

“It was me….”

Posted: February 16, 2011 in 1993, BullOxen, Games, General, Hank, Rags/Trash Talk, Weapon
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It was no secret that I liked to run kind of a “loose ship” at Verdugo.  I was smoking cigarettes in the dugout.  We always had our official Gatorade cooler filled with some nice cold water.  Oranges were always in the dugout.   I allowed Jess Rogers to set up shop IN our dugout making snowcones for everyone.   Even though the league had very tough rules on tobacco use on the field and in the dugout, I never got caught by the umpires smoking.  The rule was simple if you were caught…immediate ejection from the game.

I even let our players chew tobacco.  Some of the guys had that thing going on where you get a chaw going and then wrap it in bubblegum.  I used to chew, but by the time I was managing our team my chewing days were long gone.  It had been at least 10 years since I had chewed.

In ’93 we were playing a game on a Saturday at Birmingham High.  Birmingham always had a weak team, but this season they were winning a few games here and there and were starting to get a little “uppity.”  Anyways, one of their guys came up in the first inning and bombed a home run off Garrett Lee, giving them  2-0 lead.  It was the bottom of the first inning and they were celebrating like they had just won the World Series.  We just kind of laughed at them and by the eighth inning we had opened up an 11-2 lead…and I had knocked their pitcher out of the game.  Wait a minute you say?  I knocked him out of the game?  Yes I did. 

We all know about the importance of “the short hop” but from the third base coaching box you can’t be short-hopping EVERYONE.  You gotta kind of pick your spots.  If I couldn’t do a blatant SHORT HOP at someone…I would usually toss back to the pitcher what I called my “Tough Knuckler.”   Well, a foul ball came over my way around the 5th inning after we had been knocking their starter around and I decided to fire that “Tough Knuckler” at the pitcher.  It was the mother of all knucklers.  I had screwed around with knucklers my whole life and this may have been the ONLY one that actually “knuckled.”  Well, it knuckled so well that he couldn’t catch it…it hit him in his right kneecap…and he had to come out of the game.  I really don’t think the knuckler hurt him as bad as the battering our hitters were giving this guy.  Let’s face it..he WANTED out of the game.  But put it down in the books…..I was the guy who delivered the official knockout punch. 

The boys at Birmingham were getting a little upset.  They had to find SOME WAY to win this game, and it wasn’t going to happen on the field.  So one of their coaches goes to the ump and tells him that we had guys chewing tobacco in the dugout.  Sure enough, the umpire comes over to our dugout to see if there was any “evidence” of chaw.  The whole dugout was filled with spit all over the ground.  Forensic tests were not needed on this one…we were BUSTED.  The ump said “who’s been chewing?”

“It was me”……….I said.

“You did all of this?” he asked.  “You could have been sitting here for two days and not spit that many times.”

“Well, I was doing it, too” ……….announced General.

Then Hank pipes up “Yeah, so did I.”

Weapon followed up with “Okay, you got me….I was doing it, too.”

BullOxen said…….”Yeah, it was me.”

The funny thing that was happening here was that NONE of the coaches had chewed.  Well, except for maybe BullOxen.  But we all stepped up to account for the mess in the dugout and to protect any players from getting tossed out of the game.  Totally unorchestrated, every coach instinctively took the bullet for the other guys.  Anyways, the ump BELIEVED our story and threw all five coaches out of the game.  Automatic forfeiture of the game.  No coaches left.  This set off an immediate dogpiling from the Birmingham team.  They had defeated us and now they were rubbing it in……

But wait a minute!!!!!!!  There JUST HAPPENED to be a couple of old codgers there from Post 288 who were there watching our team play that day.  In fact…ONE OF THEM was actually listed on the official paperwork of our team (that I just so happened to have with me that day) as the DE FACTO Manager of our team!!!  That’s right…’Ol Dave Haskell was there and had to come on the field for the final few innings to guide the team to victory.  The umps were really disappointed that Haskell was there.  And the boys from Birmingham had to break up their little dogpile and get back on the field and finish off the whoopin’ we were giving them.  And all five coaches who were thrown out of the game got to sit in the stands and take it all in.  The boys at Birmingham were now STARING DOWN Haskell.  They were not happy.  Hank said something to the Birmingham dugout like “we’ve got some bad news………HE DOESN’T CHEW!!!” 

Haskell knew nothing about baseball, and was the first to admit it.  This made it even more hilarious.  He was hamming it up down in the third base box…giving signs to our players that had no meaning.  Haskell, probably about 75 years old at the time, was rubbing it right back in Birmingham’s collective faces……and he was loving every minute of it.

Haskell was a drill sergeant in the Army.  After the game he went into full drill-sarge mode….which scared the hell out of a few of our players.  “Pay attention now I’m talking to you!!” he barked at the team.  I’ll never forget the look on Cowsill’s face!!  It was like…holy shit!!! 

“Now!!” Haskell said “I want you all to say right now WE’RE THE BEST!!!”

A few guys said “We’re the best”

It wasn’t loud enough for Haskell…….”I said I want to hear you say WE’RE THE BEST!!!”  He looked like a real drill sarge.  Scary…mouth open…sizing people up….daring someone to challenge his authority.  Moving in close on people acting like he was about to grab them and kick their ass if they didn’t do it.  Everyone got the message.

“WE’RE THE BEST!!!!!!!!”

“Say it again” he barked.

“WE’RE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Haskell had everyone…including me, all jacked-up and screaming “WE’RE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

It was so loud the Birmingham players and coaches were really starting to get pissed about it.

God that was a great day…………

Verdugo ALWAYS gets in the last word……….AND the last laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The Saugus 500″………part two

Posted: December 31, 2010 in 1990, Games, Hank
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Now we had a game to play.  Our Team that day was divided into several teams.  Throughout the game all the guys who had driven in the same car to the game kind of hung around each other.  And they kept trying to prove their case as to why they won the race.  Newhall-Saugus had a good team, they ultimately won their Division and reached the playoffs.  They threw their big-gun at us Eric Hiljus.  He was a fourth-round draft pick in 1991 and did pitch for four seasons in the Major Leagues.  He was a big, tall, hard-throwing right-hander.  We lit him up.  He was gone by the fourth inning and we almost mercied them on the ten-run-rule. 

I was thinking I would be a really smart guy and bring a video camera to the game.  You know, use it to show our pitchers some stuff.  After the game I had decided I wasn’t such a smart guy and had pretty much decided “no more cameras” at the games.  

Why?  Well…..let me tell you a little story about Hank.  Hank had a great day at the plate that day.  He was doing so well that when he came up in about the sixth inning he decided to start “mugging” at the camera that we had behind home plate.  Smiling, making different facial expressions.  He even did the thing where he smells his armpits and reacts to the smell.  I didn’t see any of this shit going on.  And because he was so busy posing for the camera crew,  Old Hank didn’t see (or hear) the squeeze sign I gave.  Whoever was on third base came charging down towards home plate and Hank either took a big rip at it or he took the pitch I can’t remember.  Our baserunner was caught in a rundown and did not score or return safely to third.  I think the baserunner was Weapon……

After the rundown, the cameraman had the camera RIGHT ON HANK.  All of a sudden Hank was no longer in the mood to make faces and smell his armpits for the “viewing audience.”   He never looked at the camera the rest of the game.  As I am writing this I am laughing out loud!!!  We all know what a great competitor Hank is, and let me tell you, I tried to act pissed about it when I saw the tape…….but I couldn’t stay pissed.  It may be the funniest video footage I have ever seen.  He didn’t tell us at the game that he missed the squeeze sign because he was mugging for the camera….all of that came out when we went home and watched the tape after the game.  I remember he was at “The Dome” watching the footage.  I tried to act pissed, but when he left I couldn’t stop laughing!!!!!   It was priceless!!

I would like to challenge any of the readers out there who think THEY WON “The Saugus 500” to please leave a comment as to just WHY (or how) you won.  General and I like to think we won it.  Everyone is giving General a hard time about driving up on the sidewalk, but the bottom line is we were the first ones in that parking lot and we were the first ones to cross that line in the dirt.   Everyone was trying to say “General cheated” and all of this other BS.  You know what I say?  I say General did what he had to do to win….VERDUGO STYLE.  So let that be a lesson to you boys who sat at the red light and waited for something to happen while General simply MADE IT HAPPEN.  I am especially looking forward to hearing what Hank has to say.  Not just about the race, but whether or not he took a rip at that pitch or took it when the squeeze sign was on…because I can’t remember, and I can’t find that tape.  But know this, if I do find that tape, I will be putting that footage on this blog!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Verdugo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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