verdugo288

Enjoy the fireworks tonight!!!  Join our Nation as they celebrate our sweep over The Glendale Legion Team on the 4th of July 1992.

These two victories moved us closer to our first playoff berth and destroyed Glendale’s season!!

Ahhh!!!! Verdugo!!!!  I never knew that they actually turned our victory over Glendale into a National Holiday!!!  So join in with the rest of the Nation tonight as we ALL celebrate our destruction of the Glendale Team!!!  It will be quite a celebration tonight!!  I wonder how big it will be next year on the 20th Anniversary!!!

It happened only ONE TIME.  Only One time in fifteen double-headers in our four-year history did we ever get swept.  That’s a pretty awesome accomplishment.  I’ve always said this about double-headers:  “They are hard to sweep and easy to get swept in.”  San Fernando swept us at their yard and our great run came to an end.

We made it pretty easy for San Fernando that day.  We didn’t score any runs in either game.  Our bats went silent. 

I still thought we played a GREAT first game.  Big Breck threw a gem.  He allowed only two earned runs in six innings…walking one and striking out nine.  We got beat 4-0.  We just couldn’t get anything going offensively all day.  San Fernando deserved it.  They just flat-out beat us.  All we had to do was land that plane we were riding….we just couldn’t bring it in.  Our plane crashed….

The ’91 season was over.  I will be getting the stats posted up here soon.  I will also be writing one or two more stories about that team before we move on to the Greatest Chapter(s) in our history.  To the guys from the ’90 and ’91 Teams…….Thank You!!  I cannot WAIT to see you guys at The Bash!!!!

These were the guys who really LAID the foundation for Verdugo’s great history.  What AWESOME Warriors they were!!!!

I also want to thank the guys who played for the ’92 and ’93 Teams (that went 38-5) for reading so much about the original members of Verdugo on this Blog!!!  Thanks for taking an interest in the Team’s history!!  I hope the ’90 and ’91 members continue to follow this Blog.  You see, once you play for Verdugo….it’s always YOUR TEAM!!  So as we chronicle the trail of carnage left behind by the ’92 and ’93 Teams….I hope you guys take ownership of it as well!!  Their successes belong to you….and vice versa!!!!

We made a hell of a run in ’91!!!!

Sure, it could have been better.  But it was important for us as a Team to endure the drought so that we could truly enjoy and appreciate the rains of victory that were about to pour down upon us for the next two seasons!!!!  I loved every Team.  I loved every game.  Win or lose it we were still Verdugo!!!!  I cannot thank everyone enough for the sacrifices and the EFFORT you guys gave for our ballclub!!!! 

The ’91 Season was over.  We survived that plane crash.  And out on a train track somewhere was an abandoned train.  Nobody wanted that train.  It had alot of paint missing and was pretty banged up.  Yeah, Verdugo Hills found that train.  There was nothing pretty about it, but we cleaned it up and kind of made it our own.  And just before the ’92 season….we all boarded that Train and we all agreed to stay on it, wherever it would lead us.  We didn’t really know where it was going.  Nor did we care.  We just got it running, put in on full steam and started partying on it!!!!

Nobody was driving it.  It was a runaway train!!!!  And let me tell you something….that was a train you DEFINITELY wanted to be riding!!!  And nobody got off of it!!!!

That Train crashed into everything that got in it’s way.  And as it careened and wound it’s way through canyons and cliffs it never got off-track!!!!  It’s a good thing we never looked out the windows to see what we were about to run into!!!!  That Train just kept bullying it’s way through EVERYTHING!!!!

I invite all of you now to board that Train with us as we chronicle our “Reign of Terror.”

Please step in my friends….and get ready for….THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE!!!!

I was pretty geared up for this game.  We arrived at the park nice and early.  14 guys were in uniform for us that day.  When I got to the Yard I saw something I had never seen before and never saw again before one of our games.  The other team was there taking BP!!  They had the backstop on rollers out by the plate.  Yeah, they were getting READY for this game and wanted it bad…..

I have to give them credit.  We had broke their hearts twice already and they were going to do whatever they could to see to it that it didn’t happen again.  Looking back on it, it really was quite a compliment.  They knew the only chance they had against Verdugo was to be as prepared as they possibly could be.  They were out of the playoff picture and this game was probably “their season.”

I still liked our chances.  BP, long drive, hometown Umpires and all.  I still liked our chances.

We didn’t score the first two innings. They came out and hit the ball pretty hard.  By the time we came up in the top-of-the-fifth we were down 8-1.  The problem was….six of the runs were unearned.  We had only made a couple of errors but they both opened up the floodgates.  And I gotta give them credit for taking advantage of what we gave them that day.  We pulled Chili after three innings.  Chili threw well.  He K’d five guys in three innings of work….the unearned runs hurt us.  HACK came in to relieve Chili.

But there was still plenty of Baseball to be played and the Verdugo bats were starting to make some noise around the fifth inning. 

Yves drew a walk.  Brett Miller was hit by a pitch.  HACK had earned his way into the number two hole in the lineup that day, and had already singled his first plate appearance.  HACK hit into a fielder’s choice. 

With runners at the corners….Big Robb Turner laced a base-hit to right and it was 8-2.  BullOxen singled up the middle, scoring HACK and it was 8-3.

They added a run in the bottom-half of the frame to make it 9-3.  

In the top-of-the-sixth with one out, John Rogers doubled to left.  ELMO stepped up and Doubled to right to make it 9-4.  Yves drew another walk. 

Brett Miller then ripped a double to left, scoring both ELMO and Yves.  9-6.  All of a sudden, we were back in it.

Their leadoff  hitter in the sixth bombed a homerun.  We DOSED the next hitter!  Ahhh HACK!!!!  That was all they got that inning.

Trailing 10-6 in the seventh with one out….Moose clocked a double into the left field corner.  Parker and Rogers both walked.  ELMO stepped in and drew a clutch bases-loaded walk to make it 10-7.  There was still only one out and the bases were jacked.  But they pitched their way out of it.  10-7 it remained.

The added another in the seventh to make it 11-7.  This game was starting to remind me of the one we played here a year ago.  Another frickin’ shootout!

HACK led off the eighth with a walk.  Turner doubled to right.  Ahh Turner!!  Second and third Nobody out!!  BullOxen walked to load ’em up. 

Up stepped Moose.  Moose hit into a fielder’s choice and Hack SCORED.  11-8.

Mike Parker then sent a deep drive to left but the guy flagged it down.  Sacrifice fly.  11-9.  That was all we got.

It was a little disappointing.  We had the bases loaded in the seventh with one out…and the bases loaded in the eighth with no out and all we came out of it with was three runs……

We definitely had our chances to finish ’em off….we had our foot on their necks….

They pushed across another run in the eighth to make it 12-9. 

They retired the side on us 1-2-3 in the ninth and beat us. 

While they did beat us on the field….they were worn out.  I opened up the floodgates before the game with the rags and they walked off the field like wounded animals.  I’ve never seen a team endure the rags we gave them that day!  It was brutal.  This was (really) the birth of the phrase “They’ve DONE IT!!!”

As we were mounting our comeback we just barraged them with this phrase.  It was so bad at one point I remember coming off of the field from the third base coaching box….walking along and crossing paths with one of their outfielders.  He just looked at me like a beaten dog and said “They’ve DONE IT!!!” as he shrugged his shoulders and moped his way off of the field!!  Yes-sir-ree….even when Verdugo loses….They’ve DONE IT!!!!  Yes-sir-ree…that outfielder for Quartz Hill became a believer that day!!

However, they did beat us on the field.  But they didn’t ruin our season.  We could still win the division with a sweep of San Fernando. 

Sure, we wanted this game…..but it wasn’t the end of the world.  We were still in it.

I was proud of the way we battled back from the 8-1 deficit.  We had to hit our way out of that hole we dug.  And that we did.

Brett Miller singled and doubled.

HACK singled and scored twice.

Robb Turner doubled, singled, and drove in a run.

BullOxen singled and drove in a run.

Moose doubled, singled and drove in a run.

ELMO doubled and drove in two.

Rogers doubled.

Yves reached base three times and scored three runs.

It was a disppointing loss….but we did battle.  And even though we lost that game….Quartz Hill went home that day knowing one thing….that we had “DONE IT!!!!”

Yes-sir-ree….even when Verdugo loses….they WIN!!!!

I told that coach at Palmdale after we beat them earlier in the season that he better be prepared to play us next time.  Oh, he was prepared all right.  They beat us 4-1. 

But something wasn’t right.  They had a pitcher that day who wasn’t just good…..he was damn good.

I was always into stats.  I loved reading them when they printed all of the stats in the LA Times and The Daily News.  I could see which teams had guys who were putting up some numbers.  I sure hadn’t seen any impressive numbers from any of their pitchers that year.  None of their pitchers were ever even listed.

So just who was this guy?

Well, it didn’t take much “research” on my part to find out that about six guys on the field that day for them weren’t even at the first game.  I just opened up the scorebook and looked.  I got home…called the Commissioner of the League.  It turns out a couple of those guys were like 20 years old!

What a loser that coach was.  He wrote the REAL names of illegal players in the scorebook!  This guy doesn’t even know how to cheat!!

And the fact that they only beat us 4-1 says a LOT about what a great team we had.

BIG BRECK……..YOU THREW A HELL OF A GAME against a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds!!  Ahh Big Breck!!!

The line on Big Breck? 

Six innings.  Three hits.  TEN strikeouts!!  And only TWO earned runs.

That’s right….I like the fact that teams were now resorting to “ringers” to deal with Verdugo.  It was the only way!!!

I wonder how many other teams tried that shit and I just didn’t catch it!!!!

So here’s a message to Palmdale!  Verdugo OWNS you!!!  Thanks for the “W”……..We probably should have had Big Breck glove-flicking on your sorry-asses as well!!!

Five-in-a-row!!  13-6.  Ahhh Verdugo!!!!

Next up………..Quartz Hill.

Up next on our schedule was a team that had made the playoffs in 1990.  A double-header against Newhall-Saugus.  But wait a minute!  They changed their name! They were now called “Santa Clarita.”  But it was the same group.  In fact, the next season (1992), they changed their name back to “Newhall-Saugus.”

Well, whatever you want to call ’em…Verdugo ALWAYS had their number!  We beat them in ’90 at the infamous “Saugus 500″…..swept ’em in ’92 (including a first-round playoff victory)…..and swept ’em on this day as well.  They probably kept changing their name around to make it look like we didn’t beat ’em as often as we did!

This was a huge sweep.  It moved us to 12-6.  In Legion, every year there are a couple of teams that can get into the playoffs as a “wild-card team.”  Usually, a wild-card team will finish in second place in their Division with a very strong won-loss record (as we did in ’92 when we went 20-3 and came in second place).

However, the teams in our Division were kind of bunched up and it was clear that there was not going to be a wild-card team from our Division.  We had to win the Division or we were out!  San Fernando was making a nice run and had a slight lead on us, but we were still right in the thick of it.  We also had a double-header scheduled with them on the last day of the season.  I just wanted to still be in the hunt when that day came, and ultimately DID get my wish.

The first game was all Chili.  Chili threw a three-hit shutout with no walks and four strikeouts.  He threw only 74 pitches. 

BullOxen led off the fourth with a double, and Moose doubled him in.  Moose moved to third on John Rogers’ base-hit, and then scored when Chili reached base on an error.  Robb Turner doubled and Mike Parker chipped in a single.  We only had five hits but we didn’t need much the way Chili was throwing that day.  The final score was 2-0.

In the second game BullOxen got the start.  Our bats came alive in the second game.  We sprayed it around pretty good.  We won 10-5.

We drew 10 walks at the plate….had eight singles….and took advantage of several errors by the Santa Clarita defense.

Bull was getting tired.  He threw a good four innings.  So who came in to throw the final three innings?  CHILI!!!

That’s right.  Chili came in to throw the last three innings for us. 

John Rogers and Brett Miller led the offense with two hits apiece. 

Bull, Moose, Parker, and Chili all had base-hits.

I give our guys credit.  We had those two blowout losses.  It was gutcheck time and we dug down and grinded out four-in-a-row.  There were four games left and we were right there. 

We had a BIG game coming up in Palmdale.  Bull had mowed down 20 of their hitters the first time we played and I had exchanged words with their coach.  Now we were going up to their yard.  Anything could happen.  And quite a few things did happen that day.  Stay tuned!

We loaded up the gear and headed up the 14 Freeway to play a new team in the 20th District called Little Rock.  They had just opened a new High School.  They were a young team and I expected us to sweep.  We did.  Little Rock had lost a game earlier in the season to Woodland Hills West (El Camino Real) by a score of 35-0!  Yeah, that is not a misprint…..they lost a game 35-0!

They had a new baseball field.  The problem with the field was that it didn’t really have any real dirt.  It was kind of a sand-like substance.  Their infield was kind of like a beach.  Ground balls wouldn’t roll all the way to the infielders.  Guys trying to slide into bases would come up about three feet short.  And watching our guys run the bases that day was like watching slow-motion replays.  This sand-like stuff was slowing our slow guys down!

We took the opener 14-3.  John Rogers picked up the win on the mound with HACK getting the save. 

Yves had three hits…one of them a triple. 

Yvan Moreno doubled. HACK doubled.

Mike Parker tripled, singled and had four RBI.

“B” chipped in a couple of base hits.

But the first game heroics went to BullOxen.  Four for four with a triple, two doubles, a single and two RBI.  He even drew a walk in the fifth inning and guess what he did?  He stole second AND third base! 

In the second game, we gave the ball to Eric Cadena.  It was more of the same as we won 12-3.  Cadena went five innings and picked up the win.

HACK went three for four and doubled. 

Moreno tripled.

Rogers tripled. 

Yves doubled.

Mike Parker, Taige Webster and Larry Kimbell all singled. 

But again, the big story was BullOxen.  He was three for three and drew a walk.  A double, a single, and the longest homerun ever hit by a Verdugo player. 

How far did he hit it?  I’ll get to that in a minute.  Let me put it to you this way…..there was no homerun fence there.  There was another playground way the hell out there in left field.  He hit that ball and we all saw where it landed…plus it rolled like forever.  By the time the left fielder picked the ball up and had it in his hand….BullOxen had already crossed home plate and was making his way towards the dugout.

I made sure we were all in agreement about where that thing landed.  And when the game ended, I walked it off.  I have some pretty long legs.  But I still didn’t want anyone trying to say I was “padding” how far it went.  So I took some very LONG, exaggerated strides as I marched it off when the game(s) had ended.  We figured for everyone of my strides it was the equivalent of ONE yard.  We walked it off.  It took 170 of my long strides to reach the spot where the ball had landed.  Do the math!  That ball traveled at least 510 feet until the laws of gravity pulled it down.  And that was just where it landed!  It probably rolled another 60 or 70 feet to reach the playground!

In all, BullOxen was seven for seven in the double-header.  Hit for the cycle.  A homer, a triple, and three doubles.  Add in the two walks and he reached base nine for nine on the day.  Plus five RBI………

Pretty sick. 

While I expected us to sweep that day and for our hitters to kind of feast off of the young pitching staff at Little Rock….seven for seven is still seven for seven.  Hitting a ball that travels over 500 is still a ball that traveled over 500 feet.  You can’t take that away from him or minimize the day he had.  Kind of like those 20 strikeouts he had earlier in the season for us from the mound!!!  You can’t take that away either. 

I mean….510 feet until it landed!  Dude, that’s how far I hit my SIX IRON!!!!

Also, in the second game of the double-header an all-time Verdugo record was set.  Larry Kimbell…..that’s right….my boy Larry Kimbell threw out THREE guys stealing from behind the plate!  The record may have been broken by Thunder in ’92 or ’93, I’ll be checking the books like a hawk!

Of course, how hard is it to gun a guy down when he’s running through sand!!!  But Kimbell did shoot ’em down that day!

Just like that we were 10-6 and right back in the playoff hunt!!

We went from 8-4 to 8-6 in a hurry.  I don’t want to spend too much time with these two games.  Chatsworth beat us 17-3 and Lancaster took us out 14-6.  It was tough to stomach.  We had only eight guys at the Chatsworth game.  Was it eight or NINE?  We’ll talk about THAT ONE at The Reunion!

In the Chatsworth game (at their yard), the only thing worth talking about is Yvan Moreno’s three-for-three game at the plate and BullOxens two-run homer.  Bull also added a single.  Rounding out our offense was J.R. Workman’s base-hit in the fifth inning.  Or was it J.R. Workman?  We’ll talk about THAT ONE at the Reunion as well!

We actually hit the ball pretty well in the 17-3 loss.  We had four stings, and with any luck could have scored five or six times that day.  But you can’t battle it out with a team like Chatsworth and allow 31 baserunners (in a six-inning game for that matter).  This was the most lopsided loss in our four-year history. 

They were pretty much as I expected them to be.  Loud, popping-off, the whole shot.  Little did they know what was in store for them when we faced them a year later in the playoffs………

The Lancaster game was at Glendale High.  It was 4-4 ballgame going into the seventh inning.  They turned it on and kicked our asses pretty good.  We did show some signs of putting up a fight, though.  They had a mouthy guy playing for them.  I had just brought in BullOxen in relief to try to get the final out of a long inning where they sent 13 guys to the plate and rolled a seven on us.  The bases were loaded. 

BullOxen did EXACTLY what I had hoped he would do.  He FIRED a bullet right into his ribcage!!!  Down on the ground I heard him gasp “you did that on purpose.”

Mike Parker was standing right over him as he rolled around on the ground near the plate and said “YES WE DID!!”

Amazingly, no brawl took place.  And while we gave up a run on the HBP….it was well worth it.  Or so I thought.

Still, I gotta give that kid credit.

The next time he came up in the ninth he smashed an inside-the-park homer off of us.  It was pretty studly what he did.  After he crossed the plate he just stood over by their on-deck circle….flexed his muscles….and screamed at the top of his lungs out towards the field while his teammates mobbed him.

It was okay.  We needed that ass-kicking.  And we never forgot that day either…and we SWEPT their asses in ’92!!! 

And the Lancaster game was an important game for us historically.  It was the LAST TIME we at Verdugo ever got our asses kicked.

I will have photocopies of the scorebooks at The Reunion where you can read up on these two games (if reading about it doesn’t make you vomit like it does me).  I’m laughing as I write this…we WALKED 29 guys in these two games.  To put this in perspective, the 1993 Pitching staff for Verdugo Hills walked only 31 hitters the ENTIRE SEASON!!!!

We only had five hits this game.  Yvan Moreno doubled and singled.  BullOxen doubled.  Mike Parker tripled, and Brett Miller had an infield single. 

But we still weren’t done.  We were (believe it or not) still very alive in the playoff hunt at 8-6.  And we had a couple of big double-headers coming down the pike that I liked our chances in.  Little Rock, and our old buddies from Newhall-Saugus.

Here we were right at about the mid-way point of our second season.  We were 8-4 and rolling along pretty well.  I didn’t know why it happened, but the same thing happened with the ’90 Team.  It was right around this time of the year in ’90 that we started having trouble getting players to show up at games.  Of course, it didn’t help that Chandler and Chili had been pulled from the Roster in ’90….but it was starting to emerge again here in ’91.  I asked myself “How could I start the season with 17 or 18 guys on a Roster and barely be able to field a Team?”  I didn’t have any answers, but I sure spent a hell of a lot of time thinking about it. 

We had done a great job up to this point of the season.  We were in position to make a serious playoff run.  I’ve said this before in an earlier Post that “I’m Old School”…in other words…hand me a schedule at the beginning of each season and I’ll be there.  I don’t care what day, what time, what city…I’ll be there.  Hell, I even managed a game the day I got married!  Maybe that’s why I ended up as a coach (and…getting divorced).  Growing up…all I thought about was the next game.

Maybe things were different for me when I was a kid.   But it’s true….it’s ALL I thought about.  The NEXT game.  I was talking to Hank yesterday and he told me that his mother used to get mad at him when it was a rainy day and he’d beg her to take him to the park.  “They might be there playing” he told her.  I know that feeling, too.  Geez, we had a group of kids I grew up with where RAIN had only one meaning….tackle football!!!  That’s right!!!!

There were about 10 of us.  And the heavier the downpour….the better!  Do you know how cool it is to dive for a pass on a muddy field and slide like 10 yards and THEN catch it!!  I would come home from those games drenched in mud.  My mother wanted to kill me!!  Even if it was sandlot football, with no refs there, to us…it was the frickin’ SUPER BOWL. 

I have a very old and dear friend of mine who I am still in contact with.  He was one of the “Rain-Football” diehards!!  At least once every year my old friend and I relive the opening play of one of those Rain-Football games with our “play-by-play” voices.  “First and ten…..and they’re gonna hand off to Gee up the middle and Gee is STUFFED for an eight yard loss!”  I’ll never forget the way that guy just flat-out picked me up and PLANTED me!   We didn’t try to run the ball the rest of the game!!  What a game!!  Every Rain-Football game was a shootout.  The final score was always something like 113-110.  Whoever had the ball last would always win!!!

So I never learned to understand how our players wanted to do anything other than play a game!  But in time, I learned to adjust to it.  I will go into this in greater detail when I write a Post coming up soon that I have already Titled “He’s a check.”

The reality of the matter was this….we needed stronger commitments from the players and I needed to start communicating better.  By the time ’92 came around I think I finally figured it out.  I knew there wasn’t much I would be able to do to change the players….but if there was something I could do…..in terms of tweeking the schedule or communicating better….anything….I was game for it!  I didn’t want to get into this deal where I was blaming the players and questioning their intestinal fortitude.  The coach should  be more into it than the players.  If anything was going to change….it had to be ME….and I was okay with that.

You see, there was always a game going on in the life of Gee.  And if it was raining so hard when I was a kid that there was thunder and lightning…no problem.  Me and my buddies would bust out a cult Board Game invented in the early seventies called “Strat-O-Matic” Baseball.  What a game!  Three dice.  One white die and two red dice.  The game was based on statistical probabilities.  You would buy the game and get (then) all 24 major league teams!  Each player had a card.  Using a mainframe computer back in the seventies, this company had figured out how to transfer the statistical values of a given player onto a game card based on dice rolls. 

And they had it down!  We replayed an ENTIRE SEASON.  You know how many games that is?  And the final statistics of each player were almost exact to what they had done the previous season.  But what was so great about “Strat” (as we used to call it) was that YOU were the manager.  You pulled the strings.  I was twelve years old and got to make out the lineup card for the ’71 Pirates!  Stargell, Clemente, Sanguillen…all of my heroes.  My buddies and I learned baseball strategy from that board game. Lefty versus righty….when to make late inning changes defensively…two for ones….everything!  They even warned you on a players pitching card when  that pitcher would start to “tire.”  And you’d pay the price if you left him in too long!

Sometimes you play a situation “by the book”…sometimes you go with a “gut feeling”….I learned from “Strat” how exhilarating it can be to be “at the helm” and coaching a Team to victory. 

Yes-sir-ree, there was always a game going on in the life of Gee.  And even at 12, I always dreamed of managing a ballclub.  It seemed like it was kind of my calling.  I knew what to do in the games, how to pull the strings.  The problem was this….in “Strat-O-Matic”, the cards are always at every game.  In real life….people have other things going on.  And I had to figure that side of it out.  I do regret that it took almost two seasons for me to “get it”…..

At least I was open-minded enough to entertain the possibility that the problem was with ME.  But looking back on ’90 and ’91….if I knew then what I knew at the end of our last season in ’93 we would have probably made the playoffs every damn season.  It’s hard for me to say this, but it’s true.

And while the bulk of the neccessary changes to be made were executed by yours truly….I think the players could sense that I was making the effort, and it ultimately strengthened their commitment(s).  I will never forget what Josh Canale said to me in the middle of the ’92 season when we were tearing it up and it was pretty obvious we were going to clinch a playoff spot.  He said “You know what the difference is this year?” 

“What” I asked him.

“The difference is YOU.”

It was true.  I had backed off of the players.  I had made some BIG changes between the ’91 and ’92 season.  I started to believe in them FULLY…and I just let ’em play.  It was an interesting dynamic with me and Verdugo…..the only way it was going to work was this:  less was more.  The less I got involved, the better the Team performed. 

My job was simple the last two seasons.  Get everybody there, play the percentages, believe in ’em, have fun, and let ’em play. 

But none of this happened until ‘Ol Bull and I had a little conversation about how “He’s a check.”  We did have to have a little “come-to-Jesus” meeting.  I had to make some promises to Bull, and Bull had to make some promises to me.  The amazing thing was…we believed each other!   But once we were done with that…Verdugo Hills started to evolve into the  “Strat-O-Matic” kind of Team I had dreamed of one day managing.

John Rogers was always one of my favorite players.  He could play anywhere.  He had a great attitude.  He loved Baseball.  He was a winner.  And most importantly, he was full of shit.  And I mean that in the VERY BEST of ways.  He could sell you. 

No matter WHERE you put him on the field….he just looked  like he knew what he was doing.  It was all in his mannerisms.  He would change ’em up, too.  He would move around like a middle infielder if he was playing shortstop or second base.  He would stand a little more upright.  He would have a little more of a bounce in his step.  If he was playing first or third for us he would move around like he was a power threat.  He’s hold his glove in his right hand  in-between pitches, while at the same time widening his stance a little and have an appearance of “digging in”….kind of like a power-hitting corner infielder would. 

When he was a middle infielder he would cover his mouth with his glove if he was talking to someone else on the field.  When he was a corner infielder he’d just bark it out like a corner guy would.

You could put him anywhere on the field and it would appear as though he had been playing that position his whole life!

And let me tell you something…he was a hell of an outfielder and was a DAMN good catcher!!!!

But Rogers saved his best mannerisms for when he really had the spotlight and could ham it up a little….when he was on the mound!!!

It was priceless to watch. 

Rogers had all of the moves.  Focused on the catcher as he readied himself for the next pitch, he’d still move around the hill with precision.  He got that jersey of his all ready.  He might pull up the sleeve a little on his left arm.  Constantly adjusting the cap.  Backing off of the rubber and licking his fingers, giving the impression that he might be “loading up” the next pitch.  A little right shoulder twitch to make sure all of the moving parts in that shoulder of his were all lined up properly.

When he was in the stretch it was even better.  He’d wrap his right arm behind him as he looked in for the sign in a semi-crouched position.  The ball was still visible to the hitter (I’m sure by design) where Rogers would spin it around in his hand as he shook-off signals.  Sometimes he’d back out of the pitch, step off of the rubber and call the catcher out to “get on the same page.” 

For most pitchers…going through these “motions” actually hurt their results.  Not with Rogers.  He was just letting everyone in the park know this….”I know what I’m doing out here.”

And he actually had pretty damn good stuff. 

Valley “E.T.” ….our opponent on this fine day, was pretty much otherworldly  in their ability to lose games…and this was the perfect landing place for Rogers’ spaceship. 

We punished ’em 13-1.  We mercied them in the sixth inning.  The game ended when HACK came up and BOMBARDED a towering bases-loaded triple.

The line on Rogers?  Six innings.  Five hits.  Two walks.  Six K’s.  ONE earned run.  Verdugo goes to 8-4!!!

HACK had two hits and four RBI.  Turner had two hits and four RBI.  Parker had two hits.  ELMO had two hits.  Rounding it out was Moreno, BullOxen, and Yves with base hits.

Remember, Rogers had ALL of the mannerisms……so when he pitches, he knows he has to HIT like a pitcher does, too.  Rogers was o-2 on the day! 

Yes-sir-ree…..’Ol John Rogers………the greatest mannerisms in the history of Verdugo!!!  And while Rogers had all of the mannerisms…..I think it’s safe to say that when on the field for Verdugo, he had absolutely NO manners whatsoever!!!

And that’s what we all loved about him!!!

Our old buddies from Woodland Hills East rolled into Stengel Field on a Sunday morning for a twin bill.  When I first got our schedule for the ’91 season and I saw we had a double-header at Stengel against them…….I didn’t care if we went 2-20.  I just wanted BOTH of our wins to be against these idiots.  See my earlier Post “One Time in 94 Games” if you don’t know WHY I wanted BOTH of these games…..

But I’ve always said this about double-headers…..”They’re HARD to sweep, and EASY to get swept.”

So “Why” you may ask….if I wanted to win BOTH of these games….would I start BullOxen the day before against Agoura?  Because ‘Ol Bull was going hunting or fishing that day and had told me he wouldn’t be there for this game before the season started!  I think this may have even been Father’s Day……..it was June the 25th.

So we knew Bull wasn’t going to be there.  I still felt we would have “enough” guys there who would “remember” what had happened the previous summer.  We had Hank, Weap, and General there coaching for us.  We had Turner, Sammy, and Rogers on the field for us that day as well.  We were all still TOTALLY pissed about that game.  In fact, I’m STILL pissed about that GD game TODAY!

So here they come in with their RED and White Jerseys.  It didn’t take long for most of us who were on the field that day they beat us a year ago to get sick to our stomach.  We were TRYING to tell the new guys on the Team about what had happened last summer.  For whatever reason…they didn’t really understand.  I guess you “had to be there.” 

They came out and trounced us 9-2 in the opener.  I guess you could say I was “Seeing RED” again……….

We had nine hits in the first game.  Turner…two hits.  Rogers…two hits and two RBI.  Sammy…one hit.  Five of our nine hits were by the three guys who were on the field that day a year ago.  I was proud that they, too, had “remembered.”  But it was a hard sell to the rest of the guys to get ’em to totally step up for this game. Yves, Yvan Moreno, Mike Parker, and Brett Miller all singled in the first game.

But there’s always a silver-lining to any Verdugo defeat.  We beat ’em in the second game 10-0 on a mercy rule and dominated them in ’92 in a BIG game.  By the time we had finished all four seasons in 20th District play…there was only ONE team that had a winning record against us…and it WASN’T Notre Dame.  And it WASN’T Woodland Hills East.  We were still building our program in ’91…..and by the time the building was done and it was time to just kind of go out and PLAY…..nobody touched us.  And I’ll TAKE THAT.

BIG BRECK came out in the second game and had a complete-game shutout victory.  A tight little three-hitter.  Ahh Big Breck!!!

Offensively, we banged out a dozen hits.  And pretty much everyone contributed to the blowout.

John Rogers got us on the board in the first inning with a big RBI-double.  He had two hits on the day. 

Robb Turner picked up another couple of hits in the second game.

Brett Miller had two hits.

ELMO had two hits and an RBI.

Cadena singled twice and drove in three runs!

HACK singled, drew a walk, and had two RBI.

We were actually starting to hit the ball pretty well at this point of the season.  33 hits in the last three games.  While the ’91 Team had GREAT pitching, we also had the lowest Team batting average in Verdugo history at .286.  It wasn’t BAD….but the ’90 Team outhit ’em.  But as I said in an earlier Post…..everybody now knew who we were and adjusted their pitching rotation(s) to make sure we were seeing one of their better guys, if not their BEST guy. 

We didn’t sweep….but we didn’t get swept either. 

We were still AT or very near the top of our Division at 7-4.  Next up on our schedule was “Valley E.T.”………a team we had swept in a double-header towards the end of the ’90 season.