verdugo288

Word finally got out yesterday in downtown Los Angeles that The KINGS of American Legion Baseball were gathering for a Reunion Bash!!!

We tried to keep it quiet…but somebody leaked it.  I can’t really hold anyone responsible.  They would have all found out anyways!!!!

Look at the “sea of humanity” celebrating our BASH!!!!

The announcement of our BASH kicked off a series of ticker-tape parades all around the WORLD.  This photograph was taken in one of the major cities somewhere here in the United States yesterday….

‘Ol Gee and HANK were actually riding in a Firetruck similar to the ones in this picture…. but HANK and I were at the ticker-tape-parade that went on in Downtown Los Angeles.   Special thanks to all of the people who attended the Los Angeles Parade yesterday for respecting our wishes of  “no cameras allowed.”    Sorry we couldn’t get ALL of you out for this Parade!!!!  But we didn’t want to start a RIOT!!!!

These were the guys from the 1992 Team.  The first year we broke-through and reached the playoffs.  But before I list the names….Here is What they DID:

1.)  Had the second-best Regular Season won-loss record in the 20th District for 1992 at 20-3.

2.)  Hit .342 as a TEAM.

3.)  Hit 15 Home Runs.  This Team hit more Home Runs than the 90, 91, and 93 Teams combined.

4.)  Came within two outs of advancing OUT of the 20th District Playoffs and INTO the Area 6 Playoffs.  The Team who ultimately won the World Series in 1992 was AT the Area 6 Playoff Tournament.  They Beat Notre Dame 7-6.  We BEAT Notre Dame two out of three in 1992, including a 9-8 come-from-behind Playoff victory.  I think it’s safe to say we could have played toe-to-toe with that Team….possibly even BEATING them.  Notre Dame was kind of like a gnat to us that year, but we always swatted them away….

5.)  Cracked out 235 hits as a Team for the Season.  The only Team we had who was even close to that was the 1990 Team, with 191 Hits for the season.

6.)  Had a Team ERA of 2.41.

7.)  Was without a doubt….THE MOST FEARED TEAM in the 20th District. 

These guys put together one of the most incredible efforts I have ever seen in my life!!!!  I will be going through “what they did” game-by-game over the next month or so.  It’s obvious I won’t be able to chronicle it all before The Bash.  So we need to acknowledge “what they did”….front and center….right NOW.

Here They Are Alphabetically:

Dan Bir – Yves Brancheau – Josh Canale – Kasey Canale – Brendan Cowsill – Lance Evans – Dave Fielder – John Gabrielson – Kirk Hagge – Jon Jackson – Yvan Moreno – Robb Turner – VO – John Workman.

14 Guys.  Probably the Greatest Summer in our four-year history.  There was more of the same in ’93 (18-2), but there was a bitter ending to it all.  Funny, though….18 years later The League admitted to making a mistake about a ruling AGAINST our Team in 1993.  I will talk about that as well down the road.  In the end….Verdugo ALWAYS WINS!!!!  Even if it’s 18 years later!!!!

So before we start writing about each game of the ’92 season….I wanted all of you readers out there to know “WHAT THEY DID.” 

But none of this would have happened without the warriors of ’90 and ’91.  Make no mistake about it.  Every game, every player, every story told about the first two years of our Team’s existence had a hand in this.  And it made the results of the ’92 season that much sweeter.  This was something we all could enjoy.  Everyone who ever played for us could enjoy this.  The ’92 Team avenged a LOT of losses we had the first two years. 

As far as I’m concerned….the Story of the ’92 Team is a story about the most powerful force there is in this world.  The Power of the human spirit.  The story of fourteen guys on the same page.  The story of what WILL happen if you EVER underestimate us at VERDUGO!!!! 

Maybe it was timing.  Maybe it was all of the planets aligning.  But if that was true….it wouldn’t have happened AGAIN like it did in ’93.  No, there was something special going on here.  And we ALL had created it. 

And I want to thank the members of this Team for allowing me to go on that ride with them….

It was the greatest ride of my life!!!!

I still shake my head and smile as I think about “what they did” all of these years later!!!!!

There were plenty of people who thought I had lost my mind when I trimmed the Roster from 18 down to 14.  And speaking of the number 14, there were even MORE people who thought I was out of my mind putting a 14-year-old on our Roster.  Still others thought I had lost my mind when I decided to leadoff Workman.  But ‘Ol Gee showed all of the naysayers that he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.  And you know what was so great about my little scheme I like to call “1992”?  That I was RIGHT!!!!

Anyone who knows anything about Verdugo knows NANCE.  I figured it out.  There were six witnesses to every game Verdugo ever played.  Gee, General, Hank, Weapon, BullOxen and NANCE.  That’s right.  NANCE.  She saw it all.  She loved all of us.  She was a BIG PART of Verdugo’s History.

I met with her shortly before the season started.  I think I was picking up a check from her for Bull for the season. 

For two years now, she had always told me how she was sorry that because of their age difference….Josh and Kasey would never get to play for the same Team.  Josh was now 18 and Kasey was only 14.

I told her that day ” We need one more guy on the Roster.”

She didn’t know what I was thinking.

“Who are you gonna get?” she asked.

“Well, I was going to ask you who you thought might be a good fit.”

She threw a few names out there.  So did I.  We talked about potential guys for a few minutes.

Finally I said “No, those guys aren’t anywhere CLOSE to who I’m thinking about.”

“Well WHO do you want to put on the Team?” she asked.

I just looked at her and smiled.

“You’re kidding me” she said.

I just kept smiling.

“No!….Kelly are you serious?”

I just kept smiling and nodding my head “yes”…….

She knew EXACTLY who I was talking about.

“Kasey?”

I just kept smiling and nodding my head “yes.”

“He’s gonna play for us, too.  You watch.  He’s ready for this”  I told her.

We stood there for a few seconds smiling at each other.  Just four eyes looking at each other.  Two eyes from Nance, and two eyes from Gee.

And none of those eyes were dry….

I liked what I was seeing with the way this Roster for ’92 was coming together.  Everyone was comfortable and got along with one another.  We had three damn good pitchers in BullOxen, HACK, and Evans.  Plus “B” was there.  We knew “B” could pitch, but he never threw an inning for us in ’91.  Not that he didn’t want to….it was just that we had BullOxen, Chili, Big Breck, and Hack in ’91.  “B” was cool with whatever.  He always had a great attitude.  He would be there to help us out any way he could.  We also had Wiley.

We were headed west in our Train.  Headed towards CV from St. Francis.  I intentionally took that Train way above Foothill Boulevard to make our final descent upon CV.  I wanted to make sure we came in from the NORTH….heading SOUTH….as in SOUTHPAWS!!!!  That’s right!!!!  Or should I say “That’s LEFT!!!!”   Yes-sir-ree  “Go south, Young Man”…..

That’s what we needed.  And there were a couple of them growing on that CV Baseball Tree down the street ripe for the pickin’. 

Jon Gabrielson was the first.  He came to CV for his senior year after playing at a Private School his first three years of High School.  He had a great attitude.  He was ready to be one of our role-players.  He was going to get his shots at playing, but he was going to have to be patient.  I communicated this to him and I could tell that all he really wanted to do was play ball and be a part of it.  He had a great attitude.  And….he was a lefty. 

Little did we know what a great season “Gabe” was going to have for us.  He was a great fit.  NO EGO.  He wore the uniform proudly.

The last guy was a guy I had coached on my JV Team at CV in 1991.  He was a lefty, too.  It was kind of an adventure every time he went to the mound because he was so damn small.  Sometimes he got rocked HARD.  He rotted away on the Varsity Team at the High School in ’92 sitting on the bench, only pitching in relief.  He was pissed about it, too.  I felt we at Verdugo should give him a shot.  I felt he was ready to START games at this level.  The High School had not given him the chance to do this at this point.  But I did.  I was the first.  I felt we could spot-start him here and there and try to find some opportunities for him to throw and be successful for us.  I don’t think I have seen anyone approach the game quite as seriously as he did.  This sometimes worked in his favor, sometimes it worked against him. 

Yeah, he wasn’t really one of us.  But on the field, he WAS.  He expressed his love for the game differently than the rest of us.  But no doubt….he loved it like the rest of us.  Verdugo was all about the love of the game.   And if you love the game of Baseball, you pretty much got a seat on The Verdugo Train.  And as it turned out….he ultimately became one of us.

What was his name?  VO.  Yep, that was his name.  VO.

No one worked harder at his craft than VO.  He deserved the chance.  Some people say I was crazy to put him in the rotation….but he deserved the chance. 

He expressed his love for the game in a different way than the rest of us.  I was a hard-drinkin, hell-raising guy.  So were a lot of players and coaches for The Team.  We had that EDGE to us.   It was going to be a different environment for him….but I figured the dominant alpha males we had on the Verdugo squad might be able to pull him through the rough spots and teach him how to play with no fear.  Ultimately, he learned how to do that.

When I had him on my JV Team I used to say to the players “Hey!…you guys need to QUIT partying all night and staying out and raising hell!”  Then I would say “Except YOU VO…. you need to START partying all night and going out and raising hell!!!!”

It was kind of true.  He was small, but he had all of the tools to be successful.  He just needed that Verdugo EDGE.  As to whether or not we gave him that EDGE….that is something you’d have to ask him.  But I’ll bet you he’d tell you that yes indeed, Verdugo provided him with that EDGE.  Or, at the very least….we gave him his first exposure to that EDGE.

The older guys on the ballclub talked him through the nail-biters we played in.  Guys gave it up for him defensively.  Myself and a lot of the guys were very HARD on him.  But he kept showing up at the ballpark and he worked his ass off.  And he made it….all the way to the Major Leagues.  I’ll say that again….HE MADE IT, ALL THE WAY TO THE MAJOR LEAGUES.  For six seasons!!!!  And I’ll bet you he would tell anyone that he took a piece of Verdugo with him all the way to “The Show.”

So we had the thirteen guys.  It looked like the Roster was finally complete.  That Train was loaded not only with players and coaches….but with a LOT of talent.  A perfect blend of gritty veterans, young and talented rookies, and a few role players.

But wait a minute!  I got to thinking about the number thirteen.  Most of you guys know how superstitious I am.  We couldn’t go with thirteen!!  I needed an insurance guy.  Kind of a “just-in-Kase” guy.  Yeah, here at Verdugo we spell the word “case” with a “K.”  I thought about it….thought about it….and when I was done thinking about it I thought about it some more.  I figured out what I needed to do.   I needed to talk to NANCE!!!!

Our Big Train rolled into St. Francis looking to close a couple of more deals.  Well, the deal(s) had already been closed.  Kirk Hagge and Dan Bir boarded the Verdugo Train.  No questions asked.  They already knew what the rules were thanks to Bull.  Bull had already spelled it out to them.  And when BullOxen spells something out….well, it’s kind of like “Rocko” or “Vito” from THE MOB spelling it out.  And we didn’t have to break any kneecaps to get Bir and Haggs on board.

They were totally into it!  And GREAT players who were still young.  Both would have three years of eligibility with our Program.  So once again….our future looked bright.  I had watched both of them play a couple of games for St. Francis that spring and I liked what I saw. 

Bir was a pretty big kid to begin with and his hands and feet were even bigger.  He was going to be huge someday!

Hagge was already like 6-4.  And only sixteen!  He could switch-hit.  He could play anywhere on the field for you. 

They both had grown up in the La Crescenta area and knew all of the guys on the Team.  The chemistry with the other guys was already there.  It was wonderful bringing them onto our Train.  It was a perfect fit.

I had decided that thirteen was going to be the magic number for our Roster.  As of now….we had TEN.  The final stop on my recruiting trip for ’92 was going to be CV.  I knew pretty much every kid at CV.  

I had coached every guy on their Team over the last couple of years.  There was plenty of talent there.  But I wasn’t looking for talent alone.  It was all about attitude.  And having that proverbial chip on the shoulder.  I was going to have to REALLY do some thinking about this one.  One of them was a no-brainer:  Fielder.  He had the attitude and the chip on the shoulder.  His seat was already reserved.  But I still had a couple of seats left on the train.  And rumors were flying around that about TEN guys wanted in. 

I decided to actually go with two guys who didn’t even realize that they were in the running for those last couple of seats.  And it turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

As it turns out, there was yet ANOTHER guy who wanted to come join forces with VERDUGO from Glendale High.  Wiley Jackson.  And the Glendale coaching staff signed him over as well.  Nice. 

I had seen ‘Ol Wiley when I had my JV Team in ’91.  We took two out of three from Glendale that season.  In the one loss….guess who beat us?  Yeah….Wiley!

I didn’t like Wiley when he beat us that day….but I respected his will-to-win.  He was fiesty and didn’t take any shit from anyone.  I also noticed he could fire off a few scud-missle-type RAGS when he wasn’t on the field.  He could fill-in here and there in the outfield, and he had NO EGO.  He was okay with whatever playing time he got or didn’t get.  After talking with him it was obvious….he just wanted to contribute wherever he could and be a part of what we had going on.  And I didn’t for a second feel like he was telling me whatever I wanted to hear.  I knew he was going to be there for us….and give it his all.

As it turned out….Wiley was instrumental in shaping the attitude of our ballclub for the next two years.  We all really loved having ‘Ol Wiley in a Verdugo uniform.  His word was good.  He was loyal.  He pitched some clutch games for us.  Check out my earlier post “The ‘Wiley Jackson’s’ Tough Knuckler.”

He embraced the role of being “Wiley.”  He even drew a PERFECT cartoon character of Wile E. Coyote under the bill of his cap.  It kind of symbolized who he was with us in ’92 and ’93.  He was a GREAT acquisition. 

Evans and Wiley were historic players for Verdugo.  They became the first players in the history of Glendale Legion who said to the Glendale coaching staff “Nope….I’m playing for Verdugo.”

We still had some open seats for ’92.  And off on the horizon I could see we were headed towards a High School called St. Francis.  I had a few questions to ask a couple of ballplayers there we had been watching about COMMITMENT.  As it turned out, we never even had to ask.  They were already waiting for us at the Train Station with their bags packed!!!!

There were two forces at work in Verdugo landing Lance Evans.  Number One….Robb Turner and BullOxen just going out and flat-out stealing him from the Glendale program.  The other force was our short two-year HISTORY.  It was the efforts of the 1990 and 1991 Teams.

The effort we had made and the strides we were making made our Program the one to play for.  There was going to be a NEW bully on the block.  And it WASN’T going to be the Glendale Team anymore.  Landing Evans was the first of a series of unanswered SHOTS from our Program to theirs.  By the end of the ’92 season…the Glendale program had basically been dismantled.  Even their coaches quit.  We took over their field.  And we stripped their Roster again in 1993 by bringing in Gantt, Greenberg, Lister, and Barrett.  They were done!!!!

Turner, Bull, 1990, and 1991.  That’s how we got him.  And it was so great to see the smiling faces of Hank, Weap, General and the rest of our club when we had officially inked him in.  But this is what happens when you underestimate Verdugo….

I want to right here THANK the 1990 and 1991 Teams for helping us land Lance Evans.   1990 and 1991 gave us such an identity that the players from GLENDALE HIGH wanted to play for US!!!!  And I want to thank Bull and Turner for selling it.  Sure, Evans was just one player in the big scheme of things.  And he knew that.  We never had any “stars” or egos at Verdugo.  Evans included.  He just wanted to win, and he felt Verdugo was the best place to do it.  That’s another thing that made us special.  No egos….No stars…ever.  Period.  All four years.

But this was BIG.  And the Verdugo Train kept-a-rollin down the tracks….we were all wondering who would get on board with us next!!!

Well, well, well.  That’s about all I can say about this Post.  Those three words describe it all.  And we owe it all to Bull and Turner.  They came over to my little pad in Montrose known as “The Dome.”  They had somebody else with them.  I said “who’s this.”  It was LANCE EVANS.  Yeah, LANCE EVANS.  Turner and Bull had already closed him.  He wanted to play for VERDUGO.

Evans was probably the best player returning to the Glendale Legion squad for ’92.  I was speechless. 

“He can’t play for us until they sign him over to us and they’ll never do that” I said to Turner and Bull. 

“Oh yes they will” piped in Evans.

The meeting was short.  The three guys left “The Dome” and I just kind of sat there for about ten minutes saying to myself “well, well, well.”  This would be the biggest THEFT in the history of Legion if we pulled this off….

“Don’t worry…it’ll get done” Evans promised before he left.

There were no qualifying questions.  We already knew ALL about Evans and his commitment to and love for the game. 

I wondered HOW we had gotten to the point of having a player of his caliber wanting to jump ship and be a part of what we were doing.

“We’ve already laid the groundwork”  Bull told me on the phone later. 

I really didn’t understand how far “The Many Tales of Verdugo” had traveled at this point.  But it was starting to sink in.

And it was exciting that so many people wanted to get on board our Train. 

I made a phone call to check the enrollment numbers at Glendale High.  I needed to see if the current combination of enrollments were do-able.  Guess what?  They were!

Yes, Lance Evans wanted to play for us.  But he still had to get signed over by the Glendale coaches.  And if I was coaching the Glendale team, I would have told him to pound sand. 

As it turned out….Evans told them to pound sand….and they signed him over!

Enjoying every moment of the “theft of the century,” I spent the next few weeks just kind of smiling and saying the words “well, well, well” EVERY CHANCE I HAD!!!!

Turner and Bull orchestrated this whole thing.  Just incredible….

We still had a few open seats left on our Train….and things were staring to get very, very interesting for 1992!!!!

I had quit my deal at CV.  And I gotta tell you….I felt really, really, good about it.  I never looked back.  It was cleansing.  That deal was over.  I was going to get back to having one season.  I didn’t have to kind of “pace” myself anymore.  I could go full throttle with one ballclub.  So I enjoyed the winter off….wandering around that desert.  It was like driving a car without a rear-view mirror. 

I did plenty of thinking.  The chains that were inhibiting me from creating the most feared Team in the 20th District had been broken.  Damn I was jacked up!  I started thinking about all the possibilities with the Roster for the ’92 season.  I went into it with a totally open mind. 

We had a GREAT group of guys coming back for ’92.  BullOxen, Turner, Moreno, HACK, Yves, and Cowsill.  This would be our final season with Bull, Turner and Yvan.  Moreno had torn it up for us in ’91.  Bull had posted his usual dominant numbers.  Turner was ready to have a break-through year.   

In ’90…John Rogers was my “GM.”  He was instrumental in getting us most of the guys who played for us that summer.

In ’91…it was BullOxen.  He helped us land Yvan.

As we prepared for ’92, Bull was right there in the thick of it.  But there was another guy who had red-shirted at Glendale CC who stepped up.  Robb Turner.

It turns out Bull and Turner had spent most of the off-season spreading the good word about Verdugo.   They had sent their message far and wide.  They had kind of become the ambassadors for Verdugo.  And the nice thing about it was this…..they had that attitude.

All of a sudden we had a lot of guys knocking on our door to play for us.  Guys who probably never would have considered coming to Verdugo.  It made my life a lot easier.  When it came time to start to seriously look at who we were going to be in ’92 we had to kind of take a time-out and move very, very slowly. 

The first two years we had the Team we either had too many guys at the games or not enough.  With Bull and Turner out on the pavement selling our Program…shaking a few hands here and there (or cracking a beer or two here and there with possible recruits),  I realized we could put together the ultimate squad of about 13-14 guys who were totally committed to play every game for the summer. 

I had never seen Turner so fired up.  It really was nice to see that both Bull and Turner were upset about our shortcomings the first couple of seasons.  They had experienced first-hand how close we had come.  They had felt the pain of the gut-wrenching defeats.  I knew after speaking with both of them that these guys really, really wanted it for the ’92 squad.

There are three steps to SELLING.  You qualify, you glorify, and then you CLOSE.  Well, Turner and Bull had already done the glorification of our Program to everyone under the sun.  All the people knocking on our door to play for us were already closed on the idea of playing for Verdugo.  So my job was simple…..I got to do the qualifying.

And my qualifying process was going to be simple for ’92.  Come to every frickin’ game or get the hell outta here.  If there is a game or game(s) that a player couldn’t make….I wanted to know about it.  RIGHT NOW!

Thanks to Bull and Turner, we could be selective.  We turned away plenty of people.  Many who were turned away are probably still to this very day shocked that we told them “thanks, but no thanks.”

But that was the way it was going to be.  I wanted 13 or 14 guys on that Roster for ’92.  I know it sounded crazy, but if we had 13 or 14 guys that would COMMIT we would be fine.  They didn’t have to be the most talented guys in the world either.  We already had plenty of talent coming back to the Team.  We needed guys that were YOUNG with awesome potential and who had a little chip on their shoulder.  Guys that we could build our future around. And we needed a couple of gutty-veteran guys with no egos who could fulfill specific ROLES for the Team. 

And I had no qualms about telling someone that they may not get a lot of time on the field. 

So as I went through the qualifying process….my line of questioning was simple.  Basically I would say “Look, we have a lot of guys who want to be a part of this thing….we’re going with a down-sized Roster this season….whoever we decide to bring on board needs to be at EVERY GAME….so why should we give the Roster slot to you?”

Thanks to Turner and Bull pounding the pavement for us and selling our Program….I could actually ASK that question to a potential recruit…..and keep a straight face.

Yeah….things were going to be different in ’92, I could already tell. 

I was going to a few games here and there and watching some guys we had our eye on.  It was going to be interesting to see who we got on board for ’92.

Out in that desert I was wandering in I stumbled upon our new “ride.”  It was an old, beat-to-shit TRAIN.  I was always afraid of heights, anyways.  I just couldn’t get on another airplane.  No, we needed to get grounded.  We were going to have some new faces, a new attitude, and a new RIDE.

Gee, General, Hank, Weap, Bull, Turner, HACK, Moreno, Yves, and Cowsill were the first guys to board that train. We stopped in a few cities here and there and asked a few questions to the people who wanted to get on that train with us.  There were a SHITLOAD of people who wanted on that train. 

But to most of them, we said….”nah, nah.”

Whoever was going to board this train with us needed to understand a few things.  Number one, it’s a ONE-WAY RIDE.  Number two, we don’t know where we’re going….but we know we’re going to get “there.”  And number three…..this train has NO REAR VIEW MIRROR. 

Yes-sir-ree….230 tons of cold-blue steel was leaving the depot.  We had the right guys on it.  And we had plenty of open seats.  And while we had many, many people who wanted to get on that train with us, ’92 was going to be different.  We weren’t going to make room for everybody this time….

I like the airplane metaphor that I used to describe the ’90 and ’91 Teams.  The first two seasons were kind of like an airplane ride.  We took off on that thing in ’90.  It was quite a flight.  That plane did some pretty crazy shit.  We soared to unbelievable heights, dogpiling four times in one season!  Sometimes we looped in that plane.  It was quite an airshow we put on for all of the fans.  Sometimes that plane would run out of gas and we’d have to emergency land it on a freeway!  You never knew what that plane was gonna do!

Somehow that beat-up plane got us to our final destination.  For both of our first two seasons!  Right to the brink of the playoffs.  We just couldn’t close the deal.  In ’91 we were riding high and trying to bring it in and our landing gear got tangled up in some power lines and we crashed.  But it was a hell of a run in that plane, let me tell you.

In ’90 we proved we could play with ANYBODY.  In ’91 we proved we could win with everybody coming after us, and even still flirt with winning a Division Title.  One thing was for sure after two seasons.  We could WIN at this level.  But it wasn’t enough.  And we had a core group of guys that wanted to take it to the next level.  I’ll tell you something….winning a Division Title or even just reaching the playoffs in The 20th District is an incredible accomplishment.  And I had put my heart and soul into pulling it off, but the bottom line was….I still hadn’t done it. 

Our plane had crashed, right there in a remote desert.  We sifted through the wreckage, made sure everybody was okay (which we were), then we all shook hands and left to go fishing for the winter.  But I decided to stay in that desert after the crash.  I wanted to kind of wander around a bit…..and try to figure out what I really wanted to do.  I guess you could say it was time for me to do a little soul-searching.  And let me tell you….it was a lonely winter for me out in that desert…..

I had coached at Burbank High in ’90 and CV in ’91.  And the bottom line is this…. I wasn’t happy. 

For me, coaching at CV was great.  I had made good on my prediction to Coach Seibert in 1976 that “one day I’ll be coaching here.”

It was awesome to be able to “have done it.”…..

But life is kind of like the Wizard of Oz.  We all have ideas of where we want to go or what we want to do in this world….and then you arrive at that destination….and then you meet him….the man behind the curtain. 

“The Man Behind The Curtain” doesn’t neccessarily have to be a person.  It could be the job itself.  Or the environment.  Or whatever.  And I found that for me….coaching at the High School level wasn’t ME.  I wasn’t too impressed with “The Man Behind The Curtain.”

So who is ME?  I’m a cigarette-smoking, trash-talking, fierce-ass COMPETITOR FROM HELL!!!  That’s all I was before I ever coached at the High School level, and that’s all I’ll ever be.  And now that I had “arrived”….I couldn’t smoke….I couldn’t trash-talk….I couldn’t be competitive….and as a JV coach, I had no say as to WHO was on my GD Roster!  Hell, I couldn’t even ENJOY winning a game!!!!  The very things about me that GOT ME hired to coach at that level were stripped from me!!!!

The 1990 Team was fun because I had no ties with CV at the time.  The ’91 Team was not as fun because I HAD ties to CV.  And I’m sure I would have been a hell of a lot more fun to be around if I could just light up a smoke every once-in-a-while.  I managed around 40 games in ’91 and didn’t light up ONCE!!! 

That’s what I always loved about John Madden when he coached the Raiders.  A big, wound-up, red-haired guy smoking cigs on the sideline and kickin’ the shit out of everybody!!  I loved it!! 

Jim Leyland….cupping that cig in the dugout….calm as can be!!  I loved it!!!!

I certainly could have continued on that road if I wanted to.  But the bottom line is this….Coaching High School Baseball wasn’t fun for me.  Baseball is a game.  GAMES are meant to be fun.  I wanted to get back to the attitude we had in ’90 and have some GD FUN out there and kick some ass and not have to apologize to anyone for it!!!!!

THAT….my dear friends….is ME!!!!

All I really cared about was The Legion Team.  It was something that I could say was mine.  I couldn’t say that at the High School.  I felt I could do more for the guys we DID have on The Legion Team in terms of exposure to Scouts and the like.  And the High School had started to take an interest into WHO was playing on MY Legion Team.  I wasn’t with that.  I wanted to build the most feared Team in the 20th District.  And THAT was NEVER going to happen if I stayed at the High School.

I thought long and hard about it.  I never wanted to be a coaches coach.  I never was, and never would be.  Most of the “coaches” I hung out with at the time weren’t really my kind of people anyway.  So why was I seeking  their accolades?

I always was (with the exception of the entire year of 1991) a players coach.  The players always ran through brick walls for me.  And I honestly missed having that kind of relationship with my players.  I can’t kick people when they’re down.  That’s when I pat ’em on the back.  If I ever get in a dig with a guy I like to do it when they’re kind of “riding high.”  That was always my style.  And the High School didn’t like that about me.  It was time to get back to being ME.

It was time to grow my hair out a little bit again.  Get a little pony-tail going and shove it through that cap adjuster strap in the back of the hat.  Light-up in the dugout.  Kick the shit outta someone on the field and make no apologies about it.  Do the things I had ALWAYS done before being (literally) poisoned with the mentality of being a “High School Coach.”  I knew this….I didn’t want to be some dork standing around with a stopwatch and Oakley’s….

Yeah, the “Man Behind the Curtain” just wasn’t to my liking.

No….I wanted the most FEARED TEAM in the 20th District.  And I wasn’t about to give up my dream that easily. 

It COULD be done!!!!

I had thought long and hard about it all.   The winter was coming to a close.  It was time to decide what to do. 

I quit my Post at the High School.  I was very comfortable with my decision.

I wasn’t done, though.  It was time to bring back the magic of 1990.  Or the RAGE of 1990.  Whatever you want to call it, we still had a little “Unfinished Business” with the 20th District.

And ‘Ol Gee still had a few tricks up his sleeve…..