verdugo288

There were (I believe) around 4,000 American Legion baseball Teams all around the United States back in the early 90’s.

It really was the best brand of summer baseball around for high school players and even College Freshman if they were still under the age of 18 by a certain date.

Of these 4,000 teams there were many different philosophies from all the coaches as to how they wanted to run their Program.

For example, some teams played their underclassman only, like Crespi did. It was a summer of “developmental baseball” for the players returning to Crespi the next season.

Other Teams would try and load up their Rosters and use whatever combinations of schools they could to put together “dream teams” and try to advance as far as they could in a quest to play in the World Series Tournament in Fargo, North Dakota….like we tried to do, and like the vast majority of teams around the Nation tried to do.

A team from Idaho won the Legion World Series in 2019. By the time they were done, they had a 61-6 record and that Team had traveled a total of 15,000 miles in state and regional tournaments all around the country just to get to that World Series Tournament that they won.

Pretty crazy I know. And it would have been fun to travel with one of our ball clubs. We came close.

I obviously wanted to put together the best ball clubs we could every year and regardless of how far we went, I just wanted us to compete.

That was really all our Program was about.

Competing.

It was about “getting a lotta bodies flying around out there on the field” defensively….as I’ve said so many times on this blog.

We accomplished that and plenty more….

And we did it with the environment we created. Sure, The General and myself were there from day one. But having Henry, Scott, and ultimately Josh with us as coaches only made it better. I think having those three guys as coaches helped us get to the next level.

I was creating a product. A brand.

When you’re on the field, you’re too close to it. You really can’t see your product from the dugout.

I think our finest hour was at Stengel Field sometime in July of ’93. In a game we lost to Notre Dame, 8-7.

We trailed that game 7-0. I got launched because we were playing like shit and was pissed.

Best “managerial” move I ever made.

I sat in the stands at Stengel and finally watched our product for the first time. I didn’t say much of anything. I just sat back and watched.

It was the greatest game we ever played.

It was the greatest game we ever played and the Greatest game we ever coached.

Henry was absolutely magnificent…as was Scott, Josh, and The General. But Hank took the reins that night and almost fucking pulled off yet another Verdugo miracle.

Because the product I started in 1990, and was developed by all of us…..was now a turnkey operation.

I didn’t even have to be on the field or a part of it anymore.

It literally ran itself.

Verdugo was more than just a team now….it was an “entity”

Verdugo was now something that it didn’t matter who was on the field anymore or who was pulling strings from the dugout.

All Verdugo was now….was a monster that couldn’t be stopped.

Because we all now were the fiercest group of competitors I had ever seen.

Watching what happened that night was one of the most memorable moments in my life. I will discuss this in detail when we get to the ’93 season on this blog.

I wanna thank every player who played for us during the four years who battled for Verdugo and helped us become “The Most Feared Team in the 20th District”

It didn’t happen overnight. We all worked for that. We all fought for that.

We all competed for that.

And that’s the only word I can use to describe Verdugo….

That’s all this whole thing was all about.

Compete!!!!

Thanks to everyone!!!! Players, coaches, and fans!!!!