That’s what Hank was saying the whole game to the Montclair Prep players or coaches. You gotta love Hank. Hank was like the “WWF” character for Verdugo. Hasbro should have made and sold “action figures” of Hank (like G.I. Joe) featuring Hank in various poses….Taunting the crowd…..clinging to a chain-link fence as he bellowed-out the words “fuck-yeah!!”, or maybe even one where he would be posing in his “Between-inning-hockey” stance…all complete with goggles and game face! They would have made Millions!!!
But for this game…Hank was in the dugout coaching with us instead of on the field. And we had a new guy in the dugout that day for Verdugo. CHILI. Chili was back in a Verdugo uniform, this time to stay! He was well rested and ready to go. But we gave the ball to the high leg-kickin’ BIG BRECK for this BIG GAME. Montclair Prep had a few names on their roster that later became “household names.” Russell Ortiz. Brad Fullmer. Yeah, these guys were good…and coming into this one…they were 6-0.
And of course, on the way to the field in Encino that day….one of the cars got lost. Sammy, Turner, and Chili were in that car. Sammy and Turner were scheduled to start, and Chili was going to pitch at some point that day, so I was a little worried. I was thinking at this point how cool it would be if we all had those “Gordon Gekko” cell phones from the movie “Wallstreet.” I had also decided that as soon as the game ended I was going to go home and invent this thing called “The Internet” and open up a website called “Mapquest.” Unfortunately, I never got around to that…..Too busy coaching Verdugo!!!
So now I’m all stressed out about the missing car. The umps basically told me to pound sand. “Too Bad” they said. “The game will start on time as scheduled.”
So I’m making out the lineup. We only got like NINE guys there. NANCE then comes up behind me and says “J.R. can play shortstop.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked.
“He can hit, too.”
Well, it wasn’t like I had any choice. J.R was going to play shortstop that day….or at least until the other car arrived.
And, just for the record……..this was the LAST day we ever called him “J.R.” again. Let’s just say that “someone else” was born that day….a guy that breathed quite a bit of life into our Program for the next three seasons.
That’s right. His name was no longer “J.R.” His New name was “HACK.”
Ahhh Hack!!!
Even though this game was played at their yard….for some reason or another we ended up being the Home Team that day.
The first two batters got base hits, but Brett Miller gunned the leadoff hitter down at SECOND BASE. Moose then blew down the guy on first trying to steal second. Let’s just say that sent a little message to the boys over at Montclair Prep. Dont’ even try to run on Moose. They didn’t try to steal a base on us the rest of the game! Bases were now empty. “Cheeseburger” Shaw came up and flied to right to end the inning. Ahh!
Our “ad-hoc” lineup came out and raked away. Miller led off with a single. Moreno moved him over on a groundout and BullOxen drove in Miller with a base hit. Moose and Cowsill walked. Up came ELMO Geoghegan with the bases jacked. Elmo drew a walk and it was 2-0 Verdugo. You could tell….this was the first time these guys had ever trailed in a game.
It remained 2-0 until they scored a run on a Sacrifice Fly in the third inning.
We added to our lead in the fourth when Elmo led off with an infield single. Parker sacrificed him over. Up (now for the second time in the game) came HACK.
Hack then proceeded to hit a foul ball that went about 400 feet. DEEP into the weeds. He kind of looked down at me a little wild-eyed after that one. What was cracking me up about this guy was the RIP he would take at the ball.
We even commented on it between innings. “Did you see the ‘Hack” that guy takes at the ball?” we’d ask one another…laughing.
While Hack grounded out that particular at-bat, he moved Elmo to third. Miller then came up and stroked a single and it was 3-1 Verdugo.
And it stayed 3-1 until the top-of-the-fifth. They scored a couple of runs to tie it. It was a GREAT five innings by Big Breck. Meanwhile…the lost car showed up. Chili got loose in a hurry. I watched him in the bullpen. He was throwing frickin’ BB’s.
Big Breck had done exactly what we needed him to do. He kept us in the game and didn’t give anything away. Five innings….six hits….ONE walk…three K’s…and two earned runs. He worked ’em pretty damn good.
In the bottom-of -the-fifth, BullOxen led off with a base hit. Moose flew out DEEP. Rogers sacrificed Bull over. “B” was walked intentionally. Yeah, they KNEW who “B” was and the damage he could inflict. They wanted to get to Elmo. So what does Elmo do? He draws a walk. I thought Elmo put together a great at-bat for us right there. He fouled some shit off, worked the count, and drew the walk. It was clutch.
Mike Parker then came up and laced a single that scored two runs.
Up came HACK. By then, that was his name. Everybody was saying it to him “Let’s go HACK.”
So HACK…feeding off of it all….rips a shot for a base hit and it’s 6-3 Verdugo.
“No 7-0″……….”No 7-0″…….guess who was prowling around the sideline saying that?
Chili came out to throw the sixth. They scored an unearned run off of him, but that was all they scored the rest of the day. He owned ’em.
We added to the lead when BullOxen led off the bottom-of-the-sixth with a towering double. Rogers walked. “B” moved both guys over on a ground ball out.
Turner had come in for Elmo to take over the DH’ing duties. Turner promptly ripped a SHOT for a base-hit that scored Bull, but Rogers got thrown out at the plate.
Usually there would be a momentum swing after a throw-out at the plate like that. But these guys were unraveling.
All I kept hearing was “No 7-0″……..”No 7-0″……..
We never got to face Fullmer that day. For some reason he never even entered the game until the bottom-of-the-seventh.
Chili had it going. Even BullOxen was telling me that he was having trouble at FIRST BASE catching the ball when Chili would pick-over. That’s the sick kind of stuff Chili had.
They never really threatened the rest of the way. We finished the game with a textbook 4-6-3 double-play, Rogers-to-Workman-to-BullOxen!
It was true. “NO 7-0.”
And they weren’t happy about it. The coach was over there arguing with his players and his little brother (who our guys were calling “Cheeseburger” all day) was pouting away.
And once again….They’ve DONE IT!
This team we just beat WON the 20th District that year, and advanced DEEP into the playoffs. They won the State Title that year. And we worked ’em right there in their own yard.
I was feeling better. I’m thinking “Maybe we should lose a car before EVERY game.”
And I liked what I saw from HACK. It seemed like the vibe on the field was different when he was out there. In a good way.
And I was really happy to see Chili back in a Verdugo uniform, and the way he and BIG BRECK had worked ’em that day.
I went home…thought about that deal with The Internet and Mapquest and decided I was having WAY too much fun with Verdugo to waste my time with anything else! I made a decision right then and there to let someone else steal my Internet idea. “Screw it” I decided………”I’ll wait about 20 years and just do a BLOG about this Team.”
I liked us being 5-3………and over the next eleven games…..we were about to make a pretty impressive run.
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