verdugo288

Sammy and “Moose”…….They’re In!!!

Posted: June 21, 2011 in Uncategorized

Well, we got ahold of McBride this week. He’s IN!!!

Then I got an email from “Sammy”……..He’s IN!!!

And today……I spoke with “Moose” Saltsman…….and He’s IN!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s a list of who is attending as of today: Gee, Hank, Weapon, General, BullOxen, Calf, Big Breck, Chili, Hack, Haggs, McBride, Sammy, Moose, Turner, Gabe, Ganny, Cowsill, Cowsill, Evans, Thunder, Wiley, Tex, and Rogers. 23 and counting!

Here are the guys we are going to make a furious run at…….and may God be with them if they tell us “NO.”

Yves, Bir-Dawg, VIC, Moreno, Lister, Frost, Chandler, Barrett, Greeny.

We need to hunt these guys down and get ’em there!

VIC! If you’re out there reading this…….Weapon says “We’re calling you out right now brother.”

Opening Day 1991

Posted: June 19, 2011 in Uncategorized

Opening Day. Ahhh!!! You gotta love Opening Day. Opening Day kind of sets the tone for the year. It’s a great opportunity to get off to a great start. In 1990….HANK was our opening day pitcher. I think I made the right move giving him the ball in 1990. Hank came out of that game after six great innings and we had a 4-1 lead. He battled Verdugo-style!! It’s an HONOR to get the ball opening day. So who was I going to give the ball to opening day in 1991? BullOxen? Big-Breck? Chili? It could have been ANY of those three.

I had a good relationship with all three of those guys. But we needed that 4th guy to step up in the rotation. All three guys were “cool” with not getting the ball opening day. I talked to all of them…and decided to give the ball to “Go-Go” Gomez. Bad move…….or was it a bad move?

Why did I do it? Well, we needed him to throw some innings for us that summer. And I felt this was the best way to give him a vote of confidence, kind of let him know he was going to be a part of what we were doing that summer. I certainly didn’t do it because he was the “Ace” of the staff…..but I think HE thought that’s why I did it…..

Well, Gomez was hammered and we got beat 10-3. After the game he asked me when his next start on the mound was going to be. He also wanted to know why he wasn’t entered into the game as a position player after he got blasted on the mound. I was starting to get the feeling that this guy was confusing “Facts” with “Opinions.” And while it may well have been his “Opinion” that he was a “Franchise-Player”…..the “Fact” of the matter was…he wasn’t. Nor would he ever be.

Even before the game he asked me to buy him a “fitted” cap. He said the caps we had didn’t fit his head. John Rogers told him “That’s because you’re head is the size of a bowling ball.”

Go-Go didn’t like that. It was clear he wasn’t going to be able to handle the “internal needling” we do at Verdugo. You see, this is how we roll at Verdugo. As we gather before a game we rag on each other and give each other a hard time about everything in a light-hearted manner. Then when the game starts we start RAGGING on the opponent. When the game is over…we start back in on each other. It’s all GOOD….it’s just “How we roll” at Verdugo.

Go-Go and I had a little “come-to Jesus” conversation over the phone between our opening game and our second game. I tried to spell out his role to him. He didn’t really get it. He called me a couple of hours later and QUIT the Team. I was nice over the phone with him….but I did make it clear to him that he was no Chili, Canale, or Breck.

I just kind of laughed. It was a blessing. Losing a guy with an attittude like that never HURTS a ballclub….it only helps it. The way I saw it, I had about 35 innings penciled in for that guy before the season started, and if he continued to pitch like he did that opening day for Verdugo….he would’ve been cut-off at about NINE.

Whatever, dude…….I made the decision….Opening Day I had narrowed it down to BullOxen or Go-Go. BullOxen should have gotten the ball out of history, tradition, and respect. Bull knew it. But that’s the kind of guy BullOxen is…..he saw the big picture, and never had any ego. Bull, Chili, and Breck had no egos. In fact, not having an ego was kind of an unwritten law for Verdugo. None of our guys ever did. That’s what kept me coming back. And the parents were awesome as well. They may have second-guessed me at times but none of the parents ever got “weird” or made a scene about ANY decision(s) I ever made.

The song “Round Here” by Counting Crows ALWAYS reminds me of Verdugo. I love the line in the song where he says “Round here, we talk just like lions…but we sacrifice like lambs”…….

But looking back on it all………I DID make the right move by giving him the ball. We got a potential cancer out of there early on in the season. It was Good that Go-Go decided to “Go-Go.”

It just kind of opened the door for BullOxen to do what he did in our second game of the ’91 season. And I was GLAD Go-Go was gone. Because frankly, Go-Go was not worthy of sitting in our dugout, wearing our uniform, and watching the HISTORY BullOxen was about to make………the single-greatest performance EVER by a Verdugo pitcher. And maybe the single-greatest game ever pitched in the 20th District History.

Yeah buddy…Counting Crows…”Round Here.” In my book, he wrote that song about Verdugo. It’s eerie….it’s like he’s talking about our Team! In the Chorus it says “Round Here, we always stand up straight….Round Here, something radiates.” Later, he says “Round Here, we’re carving out our names……Round Here, we all look the same”………………

It’s true with great Teams…..they DO “talk just like lions” (they RAG)….they DO “sacrifice like lambs”…..they Are “carving out their names”……while at the same time “looking the same”….they DO “stand up straight”……..and indeed with great Teams…..something DOES “radiate.”

All of those lines (to me) describe what we created at Verdugo.

Something ALWAYS did, in fact, RADIATE about Verdugo………

And we were about to watch one of the most selfless guys we ever had…..’Ol BullOxen……walk out to the mound for our second game of the ’91 season….and truly, truly SHINE!!!!!!!!!

A New Look, Some New Faces, and Stealing a Field

Posted: June 18, 2011 in 1991

When you’re building a Ballclub…you gotta always keep an eye on the future. I liked the nucleus we had coming back from the 1990 Team. BullOxen, Sammy, Rogers, Turner, Moose Saltsman, and Big Breck. Through a rather strange set of circumstances, we even got Chili back on the Roster. I’ll explain the details of how that came about later. But this was a great group of players coming back for the ’91 campaign. “Moose” had seen limited action in the ’90 campaign from an injury he received while being bowled over by a baserunner at the plate in the first game of our history. Heroically, he held on to that ball. He was an All-League catcher in ’91 at the High School and led the Pacific League in Homers with Nine.

In Legion ball you gotta have three pitchers you would throw against ANYBODY. Three guys you had the confidence in that they could (on any given day) beat any team. We had that…with Bull, Big Breck and Chili.

We still needed depth for the staff and I liked who we picked up in the off-season. JR Workman, Brendan Cowsill, Brett Miller were great acquisitions. We all know about Workman’s career with Verdugo. Cowsill was playing on the Basketball team at CV and I knew up front that he would see limited time with us that first season. But still….you gotta love “B.” Brett Miller was a football star who threw pretty well and had a great attitude. These were three guys I felt would develop into GREAT pitchers. They were all only 16….once again…our future was looking bright.

You can never have enough pitching in Legion. I learned that in 1990. We added in Josh Willis, another Basketball star. We didn’t expect to see much of him that summer either but he had a live arm. I still was leary about what happened to our pitchers in 1990…I didn’t want to have to go through that again. I also picked up Paul “Go-Go” Gomez from St. Francis. He had thrown about 60 innings that season for their Varsity Squad. While he wasn’t a “stopper” by any stretch…he had shown that season he could rack up some innings. I was planning on using him against some of the weaker teams to give the other guys a rest if need be.

We also had Rogers who could throw an inning here and there and not hurt you and I also brought along a left-handed junior-to-be from my JV squad at CV named Eric Cadena. There’s an old saying with Pitching…you can never have enough of it, and you can never have too many lefties. While Cadena never developed into what I thought he might become, he did keep coming to the ball park that summer. He was a great kid, had a great attitude, and worked hard.

We had a hell of a lot of guys who could pitch on the ’91 squad. But still, the Roster was too big. We had eighteen guys at the start of the season. I must say I really liked the economy of the ’90 Team. At the end of that season…we had about 11-12 guys. Everybody had a role…and they understood what that role was. Going to the Ballpark was for those guys just like going to work. It just…..worked.

I also brought along a couple of other players from my JV Team at CV that summer that probably didn’t belong on the Roster.

We picked up a couple of GREAT position players as well before the ’91 season. Ivan Moreno, an outfielder/first baseman from Maranatha and Yves Brancheau, a second baseman from St. Francis. Moreno was also a Football star at Maranatha.

I rounded out the Roster with Mike Parker….the starting catcher for the CV Baseball team in 1990. Parker had red-shirted his freshman year at a college in ’91, and I felt he could help us. Defensively he was a very good catcher. He had a reputation off all-defense, no-hit…..and he had a little chip on his shoulder about his hitting. I liked that. He definitely had something to prove about his hitting so it was going to be interesting to see how he panned out. Moose Saltsman was going to be our catcher this season, but Parker was going to be a solid backup. Rogers was a damn-good back-up catcher as well. Behind the plate, we were going to be solid.

It was a pretty strong Roster. But we still were going to have scheduling conflicts. The conflicts were going to arise when Cowsill and Willis were at Basketball functions and also when Moreno and Miller were at Football functions. It was what it was…and I was prepared to deal with it.

We had a new look with the uniforms. The Post had given us about $1500.00 that season. We had our own catchers gear. We had our own helmets. And we had THE GATORADE cooler. By the way, I still have that thing in my garage! Ahhh Verdugo!!!!

We also had a year of experience under our belts, so we kind of knew what to expect.

They moved us into a new Division. The Northern Division. What did that mean? More traveling into Antelope Valley. Yep…Lancaster, Quartz Hill, Newhall-Saugus, Palmdale, Little Rock. Load up the shit boys cause we were gonna be driving up the 14 Freeway every time we turn around. The other squad in our division? San Fernando.

And while we didn’t get our own field like we wanted…there was a coaching change for the Glendale team. And the new guy wasn’t much cooler than the old guy. He was going to “let us” use the field for a total of four games that summer. Wow……..how generous. And I had to kiss some major ass to get those four games. But it was better than nothing. But behind the scenes, ‘Ol Gee was getting to know the Parks and Recreation Director from the City of Glendale. He took a liking to me. I just kind of did my best to develop a good relationship with that guy and waited for the Glendale coaches to make a mistake with the field (which they ultimately did).

Yes-sir-ree………it wasn’t a PERFECT season for us…but it was a damn-good season. And by the time it was over…..I had STOLEN Stengel Field from the Glendale Team. There were a couple of other pieces in the puzzle that we had to find before our break-through year in ’92, but hi-jacking their field was HUGE!!!!!!!!!

We had two more additions to the ’91 Team. Coaches. Hank and Weap joined the staff. What great additions. It made life a lot easier for ‘Ol General and I. Hank and Weap….there couldn’t be a Verdugo game without those guys being a part of it. They were all geared up for it too! They wore the new uniforms proudly. They had earned it. And it was an honor to have them want to be a part of the future of Verdugo. Yes indeed, a great tradition was starting to evolve……and we all had front row seats!

FOUND: MCBRIDE!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: June 18, 2011 in 1990, McBride, Uncategorized

All I can say is I found him today and he’s going to THE VERDUGO BASH!!!

AHHH McBride!!!!!!!!!!

Now….we still got some guys to track down. We need everyone to PULL together Verdugo-style these last few weeks. We gotta close the deal and not give in. Don’t let any of these guys we’re trying to track down tell us NO!!! ANY HELP YOU CAN GIVE THE LAST FEW WEEKS HERE IS NEEDED. Help us get every possible guy there to this BASH!

No is not an option!

Let’s GO!!!!!!!

AHHHH VERDUGO!!!!!!

A Prediction from 1976 Happens…..

Posted: June 16, 2011 in 1991, Behind the Scenes

I played on the JV Team at CV in 1976. Well, maybe I should say I wore the uniform. I certainly didn’t get much playing time. So as a Manager you could say I “understood” what it was like to get kind of jacked around there. Hell, there was even a picture of me in the Yearbook that year entertaining the rest of “pine-riders.” I had finished doing my little juggling act with a bunch of balls….and was holding one in the air that another guy was reaching for. It looked like I was holding court, you know…teaching a class or something. The caption read “This…is a baseball”……and then it had my name. That was pretty much my “legacy” there. Wow.

But no one ate, lived, or breathed the game like I did. That is a fact. Baseball consumed me. They had recruited me HARD to play Basketball there at the High School. I told the roundball coaches I wanted to play Baseball. They told me the Team had already been picked. I told them then I guess I won’t play ANYTHING. I wasn’t into all the running with Basketball. And I was sick of everyone saying to me (because of my height) “you must play basketball.” Baseball was all I cared about. I loved hanging out on the field…swapping stories…sunflower seeds….standing around…the whole deal. It suited my personality.

I played behind some guy who was on the FOOTBALL Team the whole season who I had completely DOMINATED my entire career. It sucked. He ran the 40 pretty quick….but is that the criteria? Half the time he came up to hit he whiffed….brutal. And he was even quicker SPRINTING back to the dugout after he K’d……..what a lunch-pailer! I just kept grinding. Kept suiting up, showing up, and paying attention. I listened to what the coaches were saying. At the very least I wanted to coach someday….I absorbed it all.

The season was winding down…only two games left. We were having a shitty season…playing about .500 ball. No one was into it. Except ‘Ol Gee was……I was ALWAYS into it!

Then one day the coach was hitting balls to the outfielders. My turn came up. He blasted one over my head up at Scholl Canyon. I went back…stayed on it….it was going out of the park. Guys were yelling for me to back off of it. Hell no!! I hauled it in…. hit the fence….and went OVER the fence. I held on to it. I ripped my body up pretty bad flying over that chain link fence up there. We were practicing that day in gym shorts!

Coach Dan Holland screamed at the top of his lungs “I LOVE IT!!!”…..”I LOVE IT!!!”…..”MAGEE YOU’RE STARTING TOMORROW!” Assistant coach Thad Brown was out there going wild as well. It felt good.

I never came out of the lineup the last two games. ‘Ol Gee had done it. I finished the season 2-7 with an RBI. One of the hits was left-handed. And that was it for my “career” at CV.

They supposedly had “plans” for me my junior year. Yeah right…on the JV Team! Don’t get me wrong….we had a huge enrollment at that school and it was a BIG DEAL back then if you played on the Baseball Team. I was proud to have been a part of it. CV had a great program…but the legendary coach Gelsinger was on his way out and was about to be replaced by Coach Seibert.

I loved Coach “Seibs.” I think the only reason I made the Team was that I had taken a summer Baseball camp that Coach Seibert ran. I was the only guy who was there every day. I didn’t have much talent, I was slow, and you kind of had to hide me defensively….but I could hit. I think he liked my attitude. I’m sure he put in a word for me when they had that “walk-on” tryout where me and one other guy were the last two guys to make the squad in ’76.

Seibert was a good guy. Coach Gelsinger had built up a great Program and Seibs was about to inherit it.

I had decided to quit my junior year. Seibs at least talked to me about it, for that I give him credit. You gotta realize…at that time in my life I was (believe it or not) a completely introverted kid. I was really shy and didn’t understand people. I didn’t know what to say, but it was one of the first times in my life I spoke my mind.

“I hear you’re not going to play.”

“No…I think I’m gonna move on”

“Why?”

“I think we should have Baseball players on the field not football players.”

“So what are you unhappy about? You’re gonna play SOME this year.”

“I know…..but I’m INTO it. I love it. It hurts for me to sit and watch guys who are playing miss signs….guys who don’t care about the Team. This is really ALL I care about. And the coaches don’t really get it. I like you Coach Seibert. But I’ll be in this game LONG after all of these other guys who are playing are finished. This is all they will ever have. I’ll probably end up COACHING HERE someday.”

He was nice about it…but he didn’t put up much of a fight. He let me go. He knew I had made up my mind. We parted on good terms. Like I said….I always liked Coach Seibert. And Coach Gelsinger was totally awesome as well. But I planted that seed.

I would run into coach Seibert sometimes on Foothill Boulevard at Foster’s Doughnuts at about 3AM long after I had graduated. I always reminded him. “I’m still in the game.” I was coaching…long hair and all. “Why do you wear your hair long?” he’d ask me. “I’m in a band now…..but long hair and all, just as I predicted…I’m STILL in this game. And if I ever cut it someday…..I just might be on the sideline with you.”

He never really gave that idea a second thought.

Seibert ran the Program at CV for 12 or 13 years. Had a lot of great Teams.

Meanwhile, in late ’89…I DID cut my hair. My musical career was over. Six months later, I was an assistant coach at Burbank High.

Around that time Coach Seibert gave up his Post at CV. I think he moved to Colorado. One of the football coaches at CV took over the Baseball Program.

After our 1990 Legion season, it happened. It started with a phone call. And after several interviews….I was named the Head JV Coach at CV. I was so happy I cried.

I had DONE IT!

The next time I saw Coach Seibert was in the coaches office at CV. You know what he said to me? Nothing! But he did take an extra long look at me, winked at me, and smiled. Coach Seibert was a man of few words…..but that smile he gave me meant alot. I don’t know if he had remembered my little prediction from 1976 or not. But I know he was happy I had chopped off all of that HAIR!! And yeah, all those years later after “moving on”…..’Ol Gee was STILL in the game. And there WAS one guy who remembered my litle prediction from ’76…….ME.

You know…if you LOVE IT…if you EAT IT…and if you BREATHE IT….good things will happen in life. No matter WHAT it is you want to accomplish. It can be done. You just gotta keep grinding!

Well, I had wanted this gig for a long time. And getting it kind of “exorcised the demons” from my playing days there at the High School. I felt kind of vindicated.

It was going to be painful leaving Burbank. But I didn’t think I was going to get any other chances to coach at CV if I turned this opportunity down.

Like I said, I was really happy to be going there to coach. But looking back on it all of these years later……I’m still undecided as to whether it was a blessing or a curse.

Plotting for 1991……..

Posted: June 15, 2011 in 1991, Behind the Scenes

The original Team put together a brilliant season, all things considered. I’ve already written about all the factors that were kind of working against us that first season.

At the end of the season I took a hard look at what I wanted and what we needed to make overall improvements to the Team. We needed a field. We needed more than just water at the games…we needed COLD water. Oranges to eat in the dugout would have been nice, too. And I wanted some nicer uniforms. Bottom line was…we needed more money from The Members of Post 288….and I was ready to ask for it.

Dave Haskell was The Commander of Post 288 our first season. He took a liking to me and the program, and he even went to several games. Every year at The Post they hold elections. So in 1991 there was going to be a new Commander. I wondered how we would fare once Haskell was out.

Well, things went well for us during the “off-season”…and a guy named Ken Zeutell was elected Commander of Post 288. Zeutell, fortunately, was behind the Verdugo Legion Program. See my earlier post “From $1000.00 to a Team Bus?”……

Zeutell, Haskell, and I met around December of 1990 and began “plotting” for 1991. They agreed with the items on my wish list. I also told them I had my eyes on some players from St. Francis that I thought would be great acquisitions to the roster. They were totally supportive of all I was trying to do with the Team.

All I wanted to do from the beginning with this Team was kick as much ass as we could. Haskell and Zeutell had figured this out about me, and they liked that about me. And with all of the money they were giving us……it made me want to win even MORE. I wanted to deliver to them a playoff Team. I figured they were the De Facto “Owners” of the Team….and I was their manager. I never felt they would dump me if we had a losing season…..but Haskell, Zeutell, and myself all certainly ENJOYED winning as many games as we could. We had a great first season, and I wanted to build on it.

It was fun going to a few Legion meetings in the off-season and listening to Haskell, Zeutell, and another guy named Jess Rogers “sell” our Team to the rest of the members of The Post. These guys were instrumental in keeping the Program going and getting us more money each year. They had built myself and the Team up to be something bigger than we actually were….and it helped. The sales job these guys did to the rest of the Members of The Post was nothing short of brilliant!!

I had heard (loud and clear) from the players that first season about our uniforms. And the caps. I didn’t figure out the importance of the caps until 1992. The first season, we used a Cleveland Indians hat. I liked it. It kind of represented Verdugo. A smart-ass looking, laughing, red-faced Indian and all of that. And I….having about 8% Cherokee blood in me…..IDENTIFIED with that hat. I bet all of you out there didn’t even know that “Ol Gee isn’t quite as white as he looks!

But most importantly, we needed some kick-ass looking shirts to play in. Button Downs! I got with Jack over at Tiernan Athletic in Glendale. Jack and I started designing the jersey that would become the staple of our look for the rest of our existence. I knew we wouldn’t have the money to get the right caps in ’91…but we would have it by ’92. Every year we improved the look of our uniform. In ’92 we added the Official Verdugo Hills cap…and in ’93 we went with a grey pant with a pipe-stripe navy blue line down it. If we did the ’94 season….we were going to have home and away shirts. The list of all the stuff I wanted to get for the players was long…..but after the ’90 campaign, I realized how important it was to the players. Who knows what that Team would have had if it was still going today!

So we decided to change the hat, at least for one year. Looking back on it…we should have kept that Indian hat. But the Atlanta Braves hat we selected looked cool with the new shirts. The Atlanta Braves hat was navy, red, and had that white “A” on the front of it. So the “A” looked out of place with the new shirts. So what were we? The Verdugo Hills “Atlantans?” It didn’t make sense. I remember taking a survey before we commited to changing the caps. Everybody seemed to want the Atlanta hats. I’d ask “What’s the ‘A’ for?” John Rogers provided the answer…..he said…”We’re the assholes!” Well, that seemed to fit the personality of the Team….so it stuck. We knew it would be temporary, and the caps did look cool with our new uniforms.

So that’s who we were going to be in 1991. The Verdugo Hills “Assholes.” I liked it. I asked around, but couldn’t find the cap I was REALLY looking for with that Team. If they had the Internet back in those days, I’m sure I would have found it. I wanted a hat that was red, navy, and had a BIG white “F” on the front of it!

1990 PITCHING STATS

Posted: June 13, 2011 in 1990, Big Breck, BullOxen, Chandler, Chili, Hank, McBride, Rogers

App

ERA

Breckow

9.1

3.01

Canale

3.86

Chandler

19.1

1.45

Fernandez

32.2

2.19

McBride

39.2

4.76

Rivera

9.1

0.75

Rogers

10.2

6.56

Forfeit

Team

155

149

107

112

3.47

1990 STATS

Posted: June 13, 2011 in 1990, BullOxen, Chili, Frost, Hank, Rogers, Sammy, Spongy, Turner, Vic, Weapon

1990 was a pretty damn good year. I like what we pulled off. I really enjoyed pulling the strings from the third base coaching box with this group because we had a lot of speed on this Team. Straight steals, hit-and-runs, delayed steals….taking an extra base….it all added up. Rogers hit .246, but he led the Team in stings (eight), sacrifices (six), and was right near the top in RBI. Rogers’ six sacrifices were an all-time Verdugo record. Rogers also played EVERY position on the diamond for us that season! Hank had 21 hits….20 of them singles! Martin led in average, slugging percentage and doubles, Weap and Canale led in RBI. Canale, a 16 year old in his rookie season led Verdugo with 27 hits! Canale struck out only ONE TIME!….an all-time contact percentage record that was never broken. And Martin’s 10 doubles was another Verdugo record that was never broken. Same with VIC’s 19 stolen bases…no one ever broke that record either. Vic also set an all-time record for walks in one season (18). Vic also led the squad that year in runs (18), triples (three), on-base percentage (.549), and times reached base (45). Sammy was one of two players we ever had in our history to steal more than 10 bases in one season (12) and NOT get caught stealing. Yep…12 for 12! Turner may have only hit .178…but he was 5th in on-base percentage. Turner also was second on the Team in walks with 15, and fourth on the Team in runs scored with 13. As you can also see….Chili had a great year for us at the plate. He had four doubles in nine games. And then there’s Frost. He didn’t play any ball his senior year in High School and look at what he did. I looked back in the scorebook and he started the season one for 12! So he had a nice year for us as well once he got back into the swing of things.

Our .865 contact-percentage as a Team in 1990 was also a record that was never broken. 1990 Also hit the most triples we ever had in a season with 11…..a record that was TIED by the ’91 Team.

Check out the Original Verdugo numbers…..pretty impressive indeed! Ahhh Original Verdugo Team!!!!

A Few Words from “THUNDER”…….

Posted: June 12, 2011 in 1992, 1993, Behind the Scenes, Thunder

As our reunion approaches….I think we’re ALL doing a little reminiscing. Thanks for your words Thunder.

In a reminiscent state…

Well, it’s that time of year again and it’s my favorite time of the year. Not because summer is upon us and good times are sure to be had. No, it’s because the College World Series is about to begin. While watching the Super Regionals yesterday something came over me. I think I finally realized why this time of year and the College World Series brings such joy to me. It’s because I’m watching, essentially, a bunch of kids play their hearts out and leaving it all on the field. A lot like we did during our Legion 288 seasons. Most of the guys in the College World Series will never see another game after their last in the “The Series” and for most, their last game will be the most memorable. Watching the ASU Vs. Texas game yesterday I caught myself drifting off into thoughts of Little League Baseball and American Legion. The best and most vivid memories I have (With the exception of the birth of my daughter) are of my times in Little League and American Legion. My wife caught me looking at the TV but she knew I wasn’t watching the game. I was in my own head recounting times spent on the ball field and remembering the incredible friends I made along the way and the coaches, players and parents that helped shape my life in the process. My wife turned to me and said “Hon, what are you thinking about”? I turned to her and simply said “Baseball, it’s fucking AWESOME”.

I spent the rest of the day on the Verdugo 288 Blog and I swear I must have read 75% of the blog. Some of the stories I had read before but purposely searched for them because I remember them striking a cord with me. I stumbled upon the post “Harry Leroy (Insert My Last Name Here)” Posted: February 9, 2011. The post was about Gee’s grandfather who passed on his love of the game to Gee who ultimately passed his love of the game on to all that read this blog. The story brought me back to a memory of a man who in three days one summer when I was 6 years old sparked the love of the game in me and ultimately instilled the philosophy that when your are between the lines everything else in life just seems to fade away and nothing else matters. His name was Orville and I’m sure he has long since passed away as he was the neighbor of my Great Grandmother and at the time he was probably about 60 years old. Now I could go into a long story about those three days playing for hours with only a broken wooden bat one old baseball and one really old glove. However, that’s not what this post is about, it’s about remembering the love of the game and those we came across during those seasons whom we will never forget.

My wife could sense I was in a reminiscent state and she quietly got up and left the living room. She returned about 20 minutes later said “Come in the guest room”. She had an old dusty box open and two Jerseys laid out on the bed my Glendale City Employees jersey from Little League and my Verdugo 288 Legion jersey. I was overcome with emotion and more and more memories came flowing in. In the box, believe it or not, was the glove and ball Orville had given me at the conclusion of out three days together. That glove and ball, along with those two jerseys are all I will ever need to remind me of my love for the greatest game on earth BASEBALL!!

I look forward to seeing all you guys at the reunion. Between now and then I hope you all take some time to get lost in the memories of the game. “Baseball, it’s fucking AWESOME”.

I want to thank my wife Jessica for her support and for encouraging me to get into the Blog and to reconnect with the “Guys”. Most of all thanks for realizing these seasons were not just a bunch of games, it was life. And life was GOOD!

Ahhh!!

Regards,
Dave Fielder