Haggs made a comment on the Blog a few days ago where he stated there is no way the 1990 Team would have beat our 1992 Team.  And I agree.  But I will say this….if the 1992 Team went into that game against the 1990 Team thinking they were gonna blow them out, or it was going to be an easy win…..well then the 1990 Team COULD HAVE pulled off another miracle. 

But since I would have also been coaching the 1992 Team…I wouldn’t have allowed the 1992 Team to go into that game taking the 1990 Team “too lightly.”  And I’m sure Hank would have been battling hard!  Plus Hank would have been coaching one Team and playing for another.  Same with Weapon!

It would have been a great game, though.  And it would have been interesting to see how I coached against myself.

And it would have been interesting to hear all of the ragging!

But with Canale on the field playing against Canale………and Turner on the field playing against Turner……which Team would have gotten in the better rags?

I do agree with you Haggs…..1990 probably doesn’t beat the 1992 squad.  But if ’92 wins…Hank battles to his death.  If ’90 wins….Hank would never let you guys hear the end of it!

Still, that ’92 Team was pretty damn scary.  Imagine if we won that last playoff game.  We would have had a two-week break, Evans would have had the cast removed from his arm, and God only knows what that Team would have done.

The team that won the Legion World Series that year beat Fat Jody 8-7 in the area playoffs.  And we took two out of three from Fat Jody that year.  I know this…….we would have fought that team harder than Fat Jody’s squad.  I’ve stayed awake many a night for the last nineteen years thinking about how fucking close we came………….

The ’92 Squad…wow….they had it all.  But let’s not forget one of the most important things that ’92 squad carried with them, something that watched over them through the entire season………The Ghost of the 1990 team!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhh VERDUGO!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Chandler and Chili were gone.  Yes it hurt.  But we had to pick up the pieces and move forward.  At least in ’91 Chili was back on our Roster with us and had another great year.  This is the second post I am writing about this game against Chaminade.  The first post I titled “Short Porch in Right.”  We won that day 16-12. It was one hell of a shootout.  We used four pitchers that day…Canale, Hank, McBride, and TEX!  Even Weapon kept coming up to me during the game (about three times) and he would pretend he was on the mound looking in for the sign.  I guess that was his way of saying “Gimme the ball, Gee.”

I told Weapon after the third time “No, I’m not giving you the ball….but I like what I see….I notice you’re never in the stretch!”

Weap laughed, and said (referring to himself in the third person) “That’s right Weapon’s never in the stretch!  No one ever reaches base on Weap!”

“Well, we just may find out whether or not that’s true before the season ends” I told him.  We had a good laugh.

I thought that was cool.  Everybody knew we lost a couple of great pitchers…and now we had all kinds of people stepping up asking for the ball.  Vic wanted the ball, so did Tex.  I already knew Rogers could hurl an inning or two as well and not hurt you, but it was “moving” to see the guys ask.  It was totally Verdugo……. 

We banged out 19 hits that day.  Vic had three hits.  Tex…three hits.  Weapon…three hits.  Bull….two hits.  Hank..three hits.  Frost…three hits.  Sammy..two hits.  Wow.  Home Runs by Vic and Frost.  Turner and Rogers were hitless but between the two of them scored three runs.

This put us at 5-4-1 in the standings.  Another interesting statistic:  When Robb Turner was our starting catcher…we were 5-0 at this point in the season.  Turner had earned a spot in the starting lineup.  In fact, from this point forward…Turner and Rogers took over all of the catching duties.  I was very happy with the job they did.  And by the end of the season…we went 9-3 with Turner behind the plate that season. 

Canale was lighting it up at the plate!  He was only sixteen…and held the cleanup slot in our lineup the entire season.  At this point of the year, the soon-to-be-nicknamed “BullOxen” was 16 for 38 (.421), had hit safely in ALL TEN GAMES, and still had not struck out! 

Vic was hitting .448, Tex was at .382.  Weapon was on a roll as well at .353.   We were putting up some solid numbers offensively, we were hitting over .300 as a Team. 

I was very concerned about the pitching staff at this point.  At least what was left of it.  McBride, Bull, and Hank were the staff.  Big Breck had basketball commitments and it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to finish the season for us.  But Breck did come out late in the year and threw one more game for us.  The rest of the year we kind of pitched by committee.  Rogers, Tex and Vic all filled in here and there with an inning or two.  It was all we could do.  And I think the guys we had did a gutsy job.  Guys were throwing when they were tired…..but they kept battling Verdugo style. 

Hank and McBride were used to being pitchers.  But I will say this….from this point in the season forward BullOxen really stepped it up and threw some great innings for us.  By the end of the season he had become a very good pitcher.  I was glad to see him reach this level at age 16.  When Bull had all of his pitches going (and he had the absolute NASTIEST curveball I have ever seen from a kid his age) he was pretty much unhittable.  He struggled with his control, but that improved with experience. 

Yes, it hurt losing Chandler and Chili.  It did.  I want to thank them for the job they did for us that season.  After our rough season at Burbank High that year, I don’t think anyone expected them to do much.  But those two guys had a little bit more will, grit, and resolve than most people expected of them.  I had watched them all season at Burbank.  The were competitors and they hated getting beat.  They never quit and they kept coming to the ballpark.  While alot of the guys on the Team that year dwelled on the negatives…they just kept working at their craft.  It was a joy to be around them.  And I can’t really express how happy I was for them when they beat Hart and won the Division Title their very next season at Burbank.  Absolutely INCREDIBLE!

Do you know what a GD pain-in-the-ass it is to play 22 effin’ games on the Road?  Well, the illustrious Members of our 1990 squad sure as hell do!  And so do I…and so does General!  During the summer of 1990 we probably logged over 1000 miles.  I thought we were in Heaven when we got to play about three games at Stengel Field in 1991….but that changed as well.  By the time we were done………Stengel Field was MINE (or “ours” I should say).  Shit, for four years we had to fight for everything we got, including a GD Home Field!

Still, it never mattered.  Even Hank said in a comment he made that winning on the road was even a “bigger” treat for him (and I couldn’t agree more).  I wonder how it must have felt for those sorry-ass teams we played that summer that thought they were gonna have just a “day-in-the-country” when Verdugo rolled into town, only to have their hearts ripped out.  And we didn’t mind stomping on those hearts we had ripped out either…….hamming-it-up while our opponents watched us dogpile……on THEIR field! 

Plenty of what we accomplished that summer was directly attributable to our ability to make a sale.  We used to talk about that with all of the Teams we had….but that 1990 squad had something “inbred” in them.  I don’t know what it was, but if I had to give that Team a nickname….it would have to be “The Traveling Salesmen.”

It really didn’t matter what was happening during the game…we were always selling.  Turner behind the plate framing pitches.  Guys sliding hard into the bag would never look at the umpire as if to say “Am I safe?”  Hell no!  These guys would slide in and even if they were out by ten feet would pop-up and start celebrating (like they were safe) as well as the rest of the dugout.  Even the umpires would chuckle a little bit at the shit we tried to sell.  Turner trying to frame pitches that almost HIT THE BATTER or pitches he picked out of the dirt would always (at the very least) get a smile out of the blues.  By the end of the game the umps had to admit that even though they hated us…THEY LIKED US too.

It was entertaining to watch.  Any time we took a pitch in a three-ball count our hitter would start hustling down to first….just to kind of “help-out” The ump.  Our guys made some of the greatest facial expressions I’ve ever seen when we got called out on strikes.  The old “Are you sure Blue?” look.  The “I can’t believe it” look.  The “you gotta be kidding me” look.  The “you annoy the shit out of me” look.  The “not today” look.  We had them all.  And the umps would often tell me “These guys are a REAL BUNCH of characters.”    And I would usually respond with “So you gonna start giving us those corners now?”   Now he was getting it from me!  It never stopped!

Maybe that first season we should have shown up in plaid sportcoats and briefcases.   That would have probably been a more appropriate “uniform” for this group I like to call “The Traveling Salesmen.”

It goes without saying that we also used what I like to call DIRECT SELLING tactics where we wouldn’t be shy about getting up in somebody’s GRILL which usually led to one of us (including myself) getting launched from the game.  Yeah, it didn’t take long for everyone to figure out we had come to play!

I used to like to try and position my body (in the third base coaching box) between the home plate umpires line-of-sight and any ball hit toward the foul-line in left field that I knew was going to land in foul territory.  If I did it just right the blue wouldn’t be able to see where it landed and would have to rely on my “reaction” to make his call.  Of course I always “reacted” like it was a fair ball!!!  I’d just point towards right field when it landed and start windmilling the runners around!!  I had plenty of umps tell me “Hey two-nine you gotta get out of my line-of-sight on that play”……..They’d say “I can’t see when you stand there”……….I’m thinking to myself  “Yeah, no shit….that’s EXACTLY why I’m standing there!”

I would have put these guys up against anybody…at anything!  A little black-top pick-up basketball game?  You’re ON!  A little six-on-six tackle football?  LET’S GO!  Cards?  You’re ON!  Monoply?  You’re ON!  Frisbee GOLF?  RIGHT NOW BITCH!  You see….with this Team…it just HAPPENED TO BE Baseball we were playing that day when our opponents ran into us for the first time.  It wouldn’t have mattered what kind of doggone game we were playing that day against anybody….these guys would have found a way to win.  That’s why the 1990 Team was so much fun. 

Great salesmen!  Professional cheaters!  These guys just didn’t care.  I’m surprised all of them didn’t go on to be actors.  Constantly talking, battling, cheating, hustling, ragging, diving, lying, stealing, robbing, looting, pillaging, plundering……….WHATEVER IT TOOK!  And when they were done….THEY’D RUB IT IN!

Yes-sir-ree…..these dudes knew how to “make-a-sale”………and more often than not, we closed the deal(s)!!!!!

As a coach, when you have a Team like that, you have a tendency to FORGET what a GD pain-in-the-ass it is to play all of those games on the road.   About midway through the season I didn’t bitch about all of the traveling anymore.  I knew we’d reach our destination.  I knew we’d play hard.  I knew we’d leave a lasting impression on whoever we ran into that day, win or lose.  I knew somehow, someway, we were all gonna “Make the sale”……………

Nope……all the miles and all of the traveling no longer bothered me……….I just sat back, and ENJOYED THE RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

Thunder and I will be scouting as couple of places tomorrow evening that could possibly host the Saturday night portion of THE BASH!

So we should know WHERE the first leg of THE BASH will be held soon….and once we know we will contact each of you individually.  I don’t know if we should make a public announcement on this Blog as to WHERE we all will be that night.  I’m sure many of our enemies have found this blog, read it daily, and would love to try and stop by and crash our party.  However, if you are one of our enemies we still might let you in if you agree to wear a dress that night and bring us food and beverages (as well as pay the $250.00 “enemy-of-Verdugo-cover-charge” at the door).

I’m trying to get ahold of BullOxen to see what to do about Sunday the 10th.

THE GENERAL has announced he will be appearing on the Blog TONIGHT and making some kind of comment that he claims will “bring the house down.”  Ahhh General!!

Ahhh Verdugo!!  The Reunion is just about six weeks away!  Be there!

Well..it’s been a great couple of weeks.  I’ve been relaxing, sleeping in, hitting golf balls, playing guitar.  You know, you gotta spend a little time every now and then REGROUPING.  Oh, and I’ve been working, too.  Even though I haven’t posted anything in a couple of weeks, we’re still getting quite a few hits on this Blog and we are closing in on 3,000!  I love this Blog and now that we are less than 60 days to THE BASH…I better get my ass in gear!   So expect plenty of NEW material…I got a lot of stuff to cover!  We will be announcing WHERE the Reunion will be held soon. 

I wanted you all to see some video footage that was recorded back in October of last year.  General, Gee, Hank, BullOxen, and Weapon were scheduled to meet for a “planning” session.  Weapon didn’t make it.  We were at a Bar and Grill in Montrose and hung out from 2:00 PM till around 6:00PM.  The problem was…..NO planning took place!   We just sat around and talked Verdugo the whole time! Awesome!  Before we left…we did gather in front of a videocam. 

It was a requirement that day to wear old-style, retro sportcoats.  BullOxen and General had the coolest retro sportcoats that day…but by the time the camera crew rolled in….they were no longer wearing them.  I think General bought his at a thrift store (including that shirt he was wearing) for FIVE BUCKS!  We all looked pretty brutal when we showed up…..but in typical Verdugo style–that was EXACTLY what we wanted to do!  Ahhh Verdugo!  And once again……They’ve DONE IT!!!

As it turns out…HACK was in town.  So was Thunder.  So we had a little get-together at the Wood Ranch BBQ in Northridge on Wednesday night.  I was looking forward to seeing them both just like I look forward to seeing all of you guys.  We had an ETA of 6:30 pm.  I can’t really describe how I felt on the drive over.  I mean, I hadn’t seen these guys since 1993!

I got there about five minutes early.  At 6:30 sharp the phone rings.  It’s HACK.  “Hey coach I’m running a little late can you hit me in the nine hole and start the game with eight guys on the field?”

I called Thunder and he was a little behind schedule as well.  About 6:45 I walked in to the restaurant and there stood Thunder, waiting in the lobby.  We sat down and started talking a bit and around 7:00 in rolls HACK.  All I can say is that it was awesome to see these guys after all of these years.

We got a table and didn’t order anything until 8:15!  Too busy talking Verdugo!  We had a similar “Planning event” last year with BullOxen, General, myself and Hank and NOTHING WAS PLANNED that day!  Again, too busy talking about our Reign of Terror!

However, on this night we did try to spend the last ten minutes (which turned into about a half hour) “planning” for The Bash. I liked what they both had to say about it.  Hack will be flying in from Portland and Thunder is North of San Luis Obispo.  This will be MAJOR trips for these guys.  We have other guys who will be making even LONGER treks to make their way to our Bash.  They want to make sure that everything is SOLID and there are NO snafu’s.  Period.  I think they kind of spoke for EVERYONE who will be traveling from out-of-state.   And I agree with what they said.  I can assure all of you…the DATE we have is ETCHED IN STONE.  There will be no “Dear John” phone calls telling you it has been cancelled or rescheduled.  The Verdugo Hills Reunion will be July 9/10 2011, Period.  So make your plans in confidence, and most importantly…BE THERE!!!

I didn’t get the feeling that they were concerned about anyone flaking out, but I appreciated what they said.  I REALLY liked what Thunder said about the whole thing.  You could almost use this as a catchphrase for The Bash itself.  He said………..”It’s a road trip, but it’s a road trip where you’re going home.”

You know, it is.  While we were talking I suggested we get the MONTROSE BOWLING ALLEY for the Saturday night portion of The Bash.  It’s only fitting that we hold this thing close to our old stomping grounds.  We all liked the idea but I found out this morning that someone else has it rented out for that night.  I was a little disappointed at first, but realized that it won’t matter TOO much where we have it…it’s the people who will be there that will breathe the life into it.   We’ll find a cool place, of this I am certain.  But we are still looking and any suggestions you have will be appreciated!  BullOxen has offered to hold some portion (or even the entire portion) of this Bash at HIS HOUSE (which is pretty damn cool of Bull), and I wanted to say thanks to Bull for that. 

Both Hack and Thunder are looking great.  A little bit of grey in the hair….but not nearly as much grey as I have!    I’ve never seen Hack “looser” than he was last night.  Both guys more confident than I have ever seen them.  We had been there about 20 minutes when Hack told Thunder and I that he had a “little car accident” on Tuesday night.  “Yeah,” he said “It was a head-on collision.”  Thunder and I about fell out of our seats.  Sure enough, Hack pulls out his cell phone and shows us pictures of the carnage.  In typical Verdugo-style….the car was destroyed….and Hack was unscathed!!!  Ahhh Hack!!!  Even today, just like 17 years ago…nothing fazes ‘Ol Hack! 

I even got a text message from Hank while we were there…..it said (among other things) “Tell those FUCKERS I LOVE ‘EM!”

We left at 10:00.  We even got a couple of pictures.  I had a great time.  I can only imagine what a great time it will be with 25-30 Verdugo alumni there! 

My first instinct when the Bowling Alley was NOT available was to reschedule the date.  NO.  NO.  NO.  There will be no rescheduling.  The Bash will be July 9/10, 2011.  Again, The Bash will be July 9/10, 2011 at a Location “to be determined.”  And you know what?  We’re gonna have a GREAT TIME!  Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!  Confidently make your plans…AND BE THERE!!!

The Reunion will indeed be a Road Trip.  Some of us will travel longer distances than others.  But don’t forget guys…….it’s “THE ROAD TRIP HOME.”

The weekend STILL wasn’t over.  We had knocked off Quartz Hill on Saturday, punished North Hollywood 10-0 Sunday morning, and now we had yet ANOTHER road game.  This one was at Stengel Field.  Stengel Field?  That’s right, Stengel Field, against the Glendale team.  Glendale had refused to share Stengel Field with us after the pre-season dispute over Vic, so now we had an AWAY game…..at Stengel Field!!  It didn’t matter…our guys just wanted to play ball…and it showed on this night.

Glendale had beat us pretty badly in our third game of the year 13-2.  I was thrown out of that game.  There was a routine pop fly hit in the third inning….that’s when I got thrown out.  We actually led at that point 2-1.  Eric Berger had hit a pop fly towards Hank, who was playing first.  As Hank waited for the ball to come down he was about 70 feet down the line from home plate with his right foot in fair territory and his left foot in foul grounds.  Before the ball even came down Berger mowed down Hank.  It was a cheap shot.  Berger was called out on the play but I got run when I argued he should have been ejected from the game.  It always amazed me in the four years I had that team that when I argued about shit like that it always somehow got twisted into ME being the bad guy………

So that ejection kind of took the wind out of our sails and they ended up blowing us out.  But honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with their ballclub and I not only knew we could play with these guys…I felt we could beat ’em.  We were coming into this game on a high note, and at the very least I wanted to leave the yard that night with a little respect.  And I was happy we had gotten through the Quartz Hill and North Hollywood games without using Hank on the mound.  So everything was lined up pretty well for us going into this one…..we were playing well, and we had HANK on the mound.

Hank didn’t disappoint, shutting them off for the first three innings and we had a 2-0 lead.  We came out swinging….five hits in the first two innings.  Doubles by Weapon and Sammy and singles by Canale, Frost and Chili.  Canale came up in the third and doubled, and after Hank laced a base-hit Glendale pulled their starting pitcher.   Damn I was fired up with the way we were playing!!!!!!!!!!  We had these bitches on the ropes!!!!!!!

Hank said he was hurting in the third inning.  We sent him out to pitch the fourth.  He threw a gutsy inning.  But before the inning ended they scored an unearned run.  Chili came in to relieve Hank with two outs and the bases loaded and got us out of the jam.  We still led 2-1.  

Glendale scored another unearned run in the fifth to tie it 2-2. 

We started a rally in the sixth.  The first two guys of the inning reached base and Sammy bunted them over perfectly.  Second and third with one out.  Up came Cal Frost.  Frost hit a sharp ground ball to the Glendale  shortstop Aguilar.  There was no way we could score on that play so I held the runners.  But don’t forget…Frost could motor.  He came out of the box like a demon, and put enough pressure on Aguilar to make a bad throw to first.  The throw pulled the Glendale first baseman Aviles off of the bag.  Frosty made a great slide to elude the sweep tag but the umpire was totally out of position.   General saw it, I saw it…hell, everyone at the field saw it EXCEPT the base umpire.  There was NO TAG.  Aviles made a great sales job and they called Frost out.

I went down to discuss the call…..with the PLATE UMPIRE!!!  I remember telling him “C’mon that guy was in no position to even make that call you saw what happened.”

But he wouldn’t budge.  Fuck I was pissed.  After getting run in the first game we had with Glendale…I backed off.  Like every game I ever managed….I wanted to win this one BAD.  I decided to play it cool and stick around……..

This was a huge turn of events.  If Frost is safe, we now have the bases jacked with one out.  Frost was in the nine hole that game so VIC was coming up to hit.  Now, it’s second and third with TWO out with first base open.  If the bases were loaded, they would have HAD to pitch to Vic.  Instead, they intentionally walked him and struck out our next hitter to end the threat. 

They scored another weak unearned run on us in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead 3-2.  Hank reached base in the top of the seventh with his second base-hit of the night with two out………but we couldn’t bring him in.  It was a very tough loss.  I felt we had clearly outplayed them.  They scored three unearned runs and had seven hits.  We had banged out ten hits, played our asses off, but just couldn’t close the deal.  But we did leave the yard with one thing that night..respect.  We battled that overrated team big time and I was very proud of the way we played.  I wasn’t surprised when playoff time came around at the end of the season that Glendale was knocked out of the tournament early. 

While it wasn’t a perfect weekend….it kind of WAS a perfect weekend.  We took two out of three.  We beat a team that went 19-4 (Quartz Hill) at their own yard and we put the fear of God into another team that went 18-5.  We damn near SWEPT the three games we played that weekend….at THREE different Fields! 

One of the players came up to me after the game, sat down next to me in the dugout, and apologized for the way he played. It must have been hard for him to do that…but he did it.  It was kind of a heavy moment.  But this was the great thing about Verdugo.  We had players who had heart and took responsibility for whatever happened on the field.  He felt pretty bad about that game.  I just asked him “Were you physically ready to play?”  His answer was yes.  Then I asked him “Were you mentally prepared?”  His answer was yes.  “Then you got nothing to hang your head about,” I said “Just keep doing what your doing.”

I will never forget that it was THIS GAME that started another great tradition for us.  It was the phone calls I would get after the games we lost.  I must have got AT LEAST six calls that night from different guys who wanted to talk about that game.  Guys who were pissed we lost and wanted to vent about it.  It was good for the players, and it was good for me.  Sometimes I wanted to vent, too.  This is where I think I did more coaching than I ever could have done on the field.  I never liked kicking players when they were down…..as long as they were playing hard, it was always my style to pat ’em on the back.  I saw the effort they gave for us, and I appreciated it. 

When I went to bed that night I looked at the ceiling for about an hour and thought about how cool it was that we had some guys that wanted to win as badly as I did.  Little did I know, that this was just the tip of the iceberg.  And while all of this was going on, we were developing this image around the League as “The Bad Guys.”  Hmmmmmm…….people were labeling us “THE BAD GUYS”….and I got guys calling me up and venting after a loss?  Guys coming up to me and apologizing for the way they played?  Guys that took responsibility and weren’t pointing fingers at their teammates or blaming anyone but themselves?   You call those guys “THE BAD GUYS?”……….well then, I got one word for you…………Bullshit.

Just a friendly reminder for the guys who played for us in ’92 and ’93………Yes-sir-ree……..I still got ’em!!!!!!!!!

On the left is our Team Fungo from the ’93 season….and ’92 is on the right.  For WHATEVER REASON…beginning in 1992 I would bring with me to every game a VICTORY CIGAR to smoke after we would win the game.  Not IF…but WHEN we WON the game…I would light it up and start smoking it.  After it was burning really well…I would hand it to whomever our winning pitcher was and they would BURN a mark into the bat!!!  This is why each bat looks like it has been “Branded” with something.   This ritual went on for the entire ’92 and ’93 seasons….all to the utter CHAGRIN of our demoralized opponents!!! And it happened QUITE OFTEN….as we went a combined 38-5 during the regular season those final two years!!!!!!

Then, depending on how I felt…I might just smoke that “Gar” while I drove home from the game.  Other times…especially if it was an AWAY game….I might hang around the field for a while and make sure the other team saw me enjoying that GAR.   Then as we left the field I would grab the scorebook, the ball bag, and the GAR and walk straight out to their MOUND and STOMP THAT GAR OUT….and leave it there!!!!!!  Boy that used to piss ’em off!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don’t know why they got so irate about that!?!?!  I was just marking our territory before we left!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both fungo bats were taped up just before our season openers in ’92 and ’93 by THUNDER!!!!

I removed them from their case for this picture.  The tape is coming loose on both of them and that needs to be fixed.  I will have another VIDEO shot of the bats when they return to their case.  Case?  What Case? …you are probably asking.  Well…’Ol Gee drilled holes in the ends of both bats.  The bats then sit in a glass case I had made and I can flip a switch and they SPIN inside of the case……ROTISSERIE-STYLE!!!   AHHHHHH!!!!  So I will embed the VIDEO of these historical artifacts soon!!!!  You see….they HAD to end up in a case and SPIN because there are so many “GAR” Burns on ’em that you can’t see ALL of the burn marks unless they are spinning!!!!!!!!!

Now……….(and I am laughing as I type this)………….CALF!!!!!!!!!…………….No more talk about these bats until The Reunion!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Even the Los Angeles Times wrote about our little ritual……..

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL / STEVE ELLING : Verdugo Hills’ Evans Tries to Sweep Aside Memory of Bad Break Against Glendale

We have all kinds of stuff like that going on with this team,” Magee said.A loose bunch? Without question.Before Sunday night’s game with Sun Valley, shortstop-catcher Kirk Hagge (who is 6-foot-6) showed up wearing a blond wig. Reserve John Jackson donned it during the game and paraded around proudly with what he dubbed the “rally wig.””These kids are weird,” Magee said. “But we want them to have fun. We’ve kicked the butts of some Legion teams and their coach will have them out running laps after the game.”We’re out to kick butt, but we have fun doing it.”

Yes indeed it does.  The response we are getting from everyone who has RSVP’D and declared “I’m In” is really kind of overwhelming.  I used to say back in 90-93 what great young men you guys were….and of course no one agreed with me!!…….Yet here we are almost 20 years later and nothing has changed except the fact that NOW you’re all great men.  Just the fact that this thing is coming together like this is awesome.  You guys were great kids……..you’re great men now….and you all had great parents as well.

I got an email from “HACK” about a month ago and I wanted you all to read this excerpt from it:

BTW – after reading the “Nance” blog, I was thinking about not only her, but all the great parents that supported us over the years.  It made me also think about what a special group of kids we had, and as I thought back, you may not know this, but there is some history, pre-Verdugo that you should know, which speaks to why this group was so great.  As I was thinking about parents that were influential, I thought of Nance, Fielder’s dad, Bir’s dad, my Uncle Harold (coached little league) and my dad among others.  Then it hit me…. Rogers, Breckow, McBride, Canale (Bull), Hack, Fielder, Bir all played for Glendale City Employees (aka City) in little league.  That was the team that my uncle and dad coached.  They always smoked the rest of the managers in the draft, managing to pull off the unbelievable.  My rookie year, when Rogers, McBride, Breckow and a guy named Ryan Rieber were the 12 year olds, we went 20-0!  It all started in the pre-season when we used to play triple headers at three different parks every weekend!  The parents were dedicated, carting us from place to place, and enjoying every minute of it.  Nance on the scorebook, Mr. Bir taking us to the batting cages all the way out in Temple City on Thursday nights in his Volkswagen bus, Fielder’s dad leading the crowd in cheers as we played All-Stars back in the day.  It was the team stop at jack in the box after the batting cages, where we were always scraping together nickels to get an extra cheeseburger, or in Canale’s case, eating half a burger, catching a fly (no joke), stuffing it in his burger and going up to ask for a new one as a result…. 

 Thanks for sharing the memories HACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That’s right……….Verdugo not only had the Greatest Players…we also had the Greatest Parents!!!  Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

July 9th and/or 10th, 2011.   This is the Date.  This gives everyone a full 90 days to block off this weekend.  Whatever you need to do…..let’s make it happen!!

This is not an invitation.  This is the date.  BE THERE!!!!  Find a way…VERDUGO-STYLE!!!

If you are from out-of-state, I need to know if you need HELP with airfare or if you need the funds we will be accumulating to PAY your entire airfare.  We will do whatever it takes to get you here and home………….and take care of you while you are here……fair enough?

There will be a planning committee meeting in the next week or two that will iron out more details and we will keep you abreast of what is happening.  There is a lot of work and preparation ahead in the next 90 days, and any help you can give will totally be appreciated.  I will finish the Blog before this date and will cover our ENTIRE history……..I have alot of writing to do in the next 2-3 months….and I am looking forward to writing it all.

We get ONE SHOT at this guys.  ONE SHOT.  What’s nice is that this will be the first Verdugo event that takes place where NO ONE can remove you from our roster or throw you out of this game!!!   Pretty cool, huh?  We will have some cool stuff planned and gifts for everyone as well to make sure a memorable time is had by all!!!

I need everyone to send a simple message to the Blog here.  You can leave the comment at the bottom of this Post.  All it needs to say is two words…..the words are “I’M IN”……………..

Commenting is easy.  Put in a user name, enter your email address and simply type in the words “I’M IN”………now what could be easier than that?

“No” is not really an option……….we get ONE SHOT.  It will be great fun for all, of this I am certain!!!!!

I will see ALL OF YOU July 9th and/or 10th 2011……….The Kings of American Legion Baseball shall gather once again………..to celebrate our four-year REIGN OF TERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!