verdugo288

It happened.  The Verdugo Hills Reunion Bash!!!!  We celebrated our Four-Year Reign of Terror.  From 1990-93 we left quite a mark on the 20th District.  Many call it a “mark”…..I like to call it a “Trail of Carnage.”  Every year we got better.  It was four years of “Shock and Awe.”

We shocked a LOT of Teams the first couple of years.  We went 12-10 in 1990.  We were the ONLY expansion team from 90-93 to have a winning record.

The ’90 Team had a winning record and just missed the Playoffs as well.

In ’91 we finished in 2nd place in the Northern Division at 13-9.  Again, just missing the Playoffs.

After a couple of years of  “shocking” The 20th District, we started in on the “awe” campaign.  Or was it the “Ahhhh!!!!” campaign?

We thundered through the last two seasons at 38-5.  We went 20-3 in ’92.  We went 18-2 in ’93, won the Division Title, and lost both games by ONE run. 

One of our two losses in ’93 was to Woodland Hills West.  We trailed them 15-10 in the ninth inning and rolled a four, and had the bases jacked.  Calf came up.  Woodland Hills West had the Fear of God in them as we did our usual thing.  Calf was only a ninth grader.  He fouled off Randy Wolf about five times before going down on strikes.  Yeah…the “celebrated” Randy Wolf (in all of his glory) had trouble whiffing a NINTH GRADER.  But this wasn’t just any ninth grader.  This was a VERDUGO HILLS ninth grader.  And it was a Canale.  And if you’re facing a Canale….you’re in for a god-damn DOGFIGHT!!!!

Our other loss in ’93 was to Notre Dame.  We trailed that night 7-0.  We mounted yet another furious rally.  Within a short time it was 8-7.  And the bases were jacked AGAIN.  HACK came up and may have hit the hardest line drive we hit the entire season.  It took about a three foot vertical leap by the Notre Dame second baseman to spear it.  I still don’t know to this day if he really even SAW it.  If that ball goes through….well, you know the story. 

The Notre Dame game we played that day was in my opinion the Greatest game we ever played.  And I will write about that game in detail in a later Post.  Once again, even in defeat….I had the pleasure of seeing the Fear of God in the opposition. 

It was my dream to create the most FEARED TEAM in the 20th District.  And by the middle of the ’92 season….we had accomplished that.  Making our first playoff appearance in ’92, you would think we had been in the playoffs EVERY YEAR.  We won our first two games in that post-season Tournament and came within two outs of ADVANCING to the Area 6 Tournament.  If we had made it there, we would have faced the Team that ultimately WON the World Series that year.  Well, it turns out they weren’t so great after all.  The barely beat Notre Dame 7-6.  We took two-out-of-three from Notre Dame in ’92.  It’s safe to say that Verdugo was one of the Top Teams in THE NATION in ’92.  I wish we would have had the chance to face that Team that won it all….

The ’93 Team didn’t quite have the offensive punch of ’92, but we had probably the greatest pitching staff ever assembled in 20th District play.  Possibly the deepest pitching of any Team ever in the history of Legion ball.  Gantt, Greeny, Vo, Lee, and HACK.  Plus we had a guy playing third base for us named Cowsill who also pitched Pro Ball for the Angels for about five seasons.  Yeah, he could pitch, too.

We didn’t go into ’93 hoping to make the playoffs.  We damn near won the District in ’92.  It was a known fact we were going to the Playoffs.  We had our eyes on a much bigger prize.  The World Series Tournament in Fargo, North Dakota.  We had more quality pitching on the ’93 Team than the combined pitching of all of the other Teams in the District.  I looked at that Team as a World Series contender….and had MANY other players, coaches, and sportwriters tell me the same. 

But we didn’t fit the mold of the upper brass in the 20th District.  They hated our swagger, our style, and the fact that we didn’t back down to anyone.  They couldn’t believe that there was an organization that was as obsessed with winning as we were (is that really such a bad thing?).  They hated seeing a younger coach pounding on the older coaches who had been “pillars” of the 20th District for many years.  But were they “pillars?”….or were they dead weight?

Yes indeed, there was a new Bully on the Block called VERDUGO.  A few games before the regular season ended in ’93, they decided to declare three of our players “Illegal”…and pulled them from our Roster. 

We WON our last three regular season games without those three players, and played a couple of tough playoff games before being eliminated.  It was the only way they could have stopped us.

There is a Rule in the Rulebook that states that if ANY players are determined to be illegal, then EVERY GAME they played in must be forfeited.  Interesting, huh?  How they declared three players to be “Illegal”…yet Verdugo was not forced to forfeit ANY other games.  Interesting how they still “allowed” us to go into the playoffs.  I say, if any of these guys were “illegal”…..we should have forfeited every game in the ’93 season.  But that didn’t happen.

Hmmm….something FISHY was going on indeed.  They told us and the newspapers that a guy named Harold Hall had made this ruling regarding the legality of these three players.  That’s funny….Harold Hall had already approved our Roster for ’93.  He actually reviews every roster BEFORE the season begins, and I had documentation PROVING he already approved it.

I was told by the 20th District Commissioner that if I even TRIED to contact Harold Hall regarding this decision that we WOULD forfeit all the games we played and would be ineligible for the Playoffs. 

When we got to talking about this Reunion about a year ago I wondered what had ever happened to The 20th District Commissioner.  He died about five years ago.

So I started wondering about this guy Harold Hall.  I wondered if he was alive.  I “Googled” his name.  Within a few seconds, I found out that he was not only still alive….but they even had his home phone number listed.

After sitting there for a few minutes.  I decided to call him.

He picked up the phone.  Yes, this was THE Harold Hall.  I explained what had happened back in ’93.  He said he had No recollection of EVER making a decision like that in all of his years with The American Legion.

First of all, he said he wouldn’t have made that decision that LATE in the season.  He said he would have “caught it” much earlier. 

Secondly, he said that even if he did pull guys from the Roster, then we would have HAD TO FORFEIT every game and NOT be eligible for The Playoffs.

He was so taken aback by it all that he asked ” Are you sure that it was ME who made this decision?”

I asked him if I could fax him ALL of our paperwork for ALL FOUR YEARS and if he would be kind enough to “review” it again and READ the newspaper stories that stated that HE had made the decision.  It turned out that Mr. Hall was as eager to get to the bottom of this as I was, and he agreed to check it out.  He said he would review everything and email me or call me that night.

Wow.  18 years later.  I had that day off and paced around quite a bit that day.  Had the ringer on my cellphone set to “loud”….and I kept checking my inbox on my email. 

Sure enough, around 9 PM that night….I got the email.  I waited about five minutes before I opened it.  Just staring at the computer screen.  All of the great memories of the great Teams we had raced through my head.  Finally, I clicked on it.

His spelling was not that great.  But Mr. Hall’s message came though crystal-clear.   He said “The three players who were ruled to be ineligible for the Playoffs SHOULD HAVE been allowed to play.”

He apologized that this had happened.  And he also stated “I have no recollection of ever making a decision like this…EVER.”

I stared at the screen for quite some time.  I remembered how we had been kind of dragged through the mud with this “scandal.”  It made myself and the Program look bad.  The last season in Legion, I was the Assistant Commissioner of the 20th District.  In fact, I was (to my knowledge) the ONLY person who ever had been given a position as a Commissioner or Co-Commissioner in the HISTORY of the American Legion who had NOT served in the military.  Lets make one thing clear…I knew that Rulebook better than most people know how to spell their own name…..

For 18 years I had thought about this ruling against our ballclub.  Many years I had thought HARD about it.  Some years I just tried to forget about it.  All I wanted on this whole thing for the last 18 years was “closure.”

As I stared at the screen and read his message….I got to admit, I wanted to cry.  But I couldn’t.  I started to think even more.  I now knew who was behind all of this.  I could see the writing on the wall.  I was angry about it at first. 

Then I accepted it for what it was.  It was the greatest compliment we EVER could have received. The fact that the higher-ups went to such incredible lengths to STOP The Verdugo Train.  And then to blame it all on Harold Hall.  Wow.  For them to do something like that….well….we must have been something pretty god-damn SPECIAL.

We must have been quite a threat.  We must have been….well….everything I always wanted us to be.  The MOST FEARED TEAM in the 20th District!!

It was one of the Proudest moments of my life when I read Mr. Halls message. 

Why?  Because we were the REAL DEAL. 

They only did all of this because they KNEW we were going to go very, very DEEP into the Playoffs that year….and maybe even win the whole damn thing. 

And they wouldn’t have been able to stomach it if we did win it all….

You know….all four years it was us against the world.  That was part of the environment I was trying to create.  I embraced that.  I loved that.  It was who we were and what we were all about.  That’s right!!!!  Verdugo against the WORLD.  And in the end….the truth came out, even if it was eighteen years later.  And the truth that we have discovered is something we should only feel GOOD about. 

Think about it for a minute.  Think about what happened behind the scenes and “Off the Field” to STOP VERDUGO.

Are you smiling with me now?  You should be.  The only thing that The 20th District had left to throw at us was something from “Off the Field.”  Because they sure didn’t have any teams left to throw at us who could stop us ON THE FIELD.