T1B

I gotta go with Hart but what Welch has re-achieved is remarkable...

Crespi????

<----------Graduated from Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks.

Actually, Crespi used to usually be better than us in football while we were better in baseball and basketball, but I noticed where Notre Dame eventually ended up becoming much better than Crespi in football.

I just know they were in rich ass Tarzana or wherever yet they played their home baseball games at a crappy public park with an all dirt infield. Man, I hated that field.

Van wrote:Crespi????

<----------Graduated from Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks.

Actually, Crespi used to usually be better than us in football while we were better in baseball and basketball, but I noticed where Notre Dame eventually ended up becoming much better than Crespi in football.

I just know they were in rich ass Tarzana or wherever yet they played their home baseball games at a crappy public park with an all dirt infield. Man, I hated that field.

The Seer - Birmingham

Van, what year? Balboa park was for baseball. What a dump. I coached at Crespi during the real good years. They're back now and they'll be in a D-1 league with ND, Loyola, and Amat next year.

Seer....when I spoke with Harry after their semi final win the first question he asked me was, "How did the Celts do?" He's still a Celt at Hart. I think it will be a good game. I'll give my opinion on the Wycals Carpet pre game show.....it's gonna be a good one. I'm pulling for Canyon though.

Lax, ND class of '82...

The next year we were ranked #1 in the nation with Jack McDowell and that group...

HEY! I take exception to the title of this thread, damnit!

Oh and I went to grade school with all of the McDowells. Little Jack was a "few" years behind me.

Back in the day, some of Crespi's biggest games were played at Birmingham.

Holy crap Van...I'm Crespi 1982. McDowell was awsome. Do you remember our senior year at (dammit, I can't remember where the game was) but there was a fight after one of the baseball games. Denny Barrett? Remember? We beat you guys in football that year and I got in a fight before the game. That was fantastic.

Greg's a Crespi boy too, but he's got a few years on us...well, maybe more than a few.

Lax, that was an American Legion game, the one where Denny Barrett (our second baseman) ignited that brawl near second base...

I was in center field. :-)

(Actually, we were at bat so I was on the bench laughing....)

No, this was a league game and it was ND Crespi. The guy who is not the superintendant for the school district I'm teaching in was our baseball coach. I'll e-mail an old friend to find out. Small fucking world.

Denny got into two fights that year but the only one that was really any good was that American Legion game.

Dude was a serious hothead. :-)

Maybe that second less memorable fight was against Crespi but I don't recall...

It was against Crespi because we went to rush the field and were stopped. I guess we just didn't have the desire to really get out there. Amazing......It wasn't at Valley College and I'm killing myself trying to remember where it was.

That's too funny. I wonder how many "Valley boyz" post on this board.....

Lax, it was at that public park, Balboa Park, or Birmingham High, I think.

It definitely wasn't at Valley College. We never played at Valley College.

Van wrote:Lax, it was at that public park, Balboa Park, or Birmingham High, I think.

It definitely wasn't at Valley College. We never played at Valley College.

Birmingham played their home games at Balboa Park......

Then our road games with Crespi must've been at Balboa Park...

They were definitely at a public park with a dirt infield, and it sucked.

Van wrote:Then our road games with Crespi must've been at Balboa Park...

They were definitely at a public park with a dirt infield, and it sucked.

That sounds like Balboa. We played some little league games there. All dirt infields definitely suck ass.

Dirt infields suck ass, but no more than the ass sucking involved in those public park configurations where you have four diamonds sharing one giant expanse of grass and there's no outfield fence for any of 'em.

I was a center fielder and man I hated having no fence behind me. Some guy hits a gapper and it goes forever, or you run into the outfield area of the game being played behind you!

It never happened to me during a game but there was one time during warm ups when I was just sitting out there in center field minding my own business when all of a sudden somebody ran into me from behind. I don't know which of us was more startled, but the batter ended up legging out a home run as the center fielder scrambled up too late to retrieve the ball...

After the play was over we both just looked at each other as if to say, "Sorry, dude. Is this place pathetic or what..."

All in all, between the dirt infield, the lack of outfield fences and those cheap softball style chain link dugouts and backstop overhangs it just felt so "beer league".

Never understood how a school as wealthy as Crespi was could never manage to have a decent home field.

Small world indeed.

SJB '82. Come to think of it there was a fight during the '81 season...nope that was Alemany.

Crespi's uniform as I recall was quite the San Diego Padres ripoff: mustard yellow and burlap brown. You'd have been better off dressing as an actual friar.

Balboa Park did suck but it was kinda cool playing in the shadow of the Rose Bowl in April.

SJB, as in St John Bosco?

I played my first ever varsity game against you then, my sophomore season. It was at your place.

All I remember is you had a short left field fence and I walked in my first ever varsity at bat and I rolled a gopher killer through the right side for a single in my second at bat.

By far the two coolest roadies back then were to St Francis and to Loyola. St Francis played at this beautiful field in this beautiful park right below the Rose Bowl. I mean, it wasn't like you could merely see the Rose Bowl far off in the distance. It was like this park was in the Rose Bowl's parking lot. I'd sit there and just stare up at it.

Our coach got pissed at us one year because we didn't have enough guys to do the pregame drills. Seems half the team bailed for awhile to go check out the Rose Bowl grounds. None of 'em ever actually got into the stadium though.

I wanna say they also had real sunk in dug outs, like we had at ND. Nobody else seemed to have 'em. That field was just awesome.

Speaking of Padres unis rip offs, St Francis really had the brown and gold Dave Winfield/Randy Jones era Padres unis! "Friars", sure, but I always thought "UPS driver".

Loyola was cool because they were the only "inner city" school in our conference. Hell, they were pretty much the only team with any blacks. Everybody else was in the 'burbs. This was 1980-1982 so I pretty much looked like Jeff Spicolli back then and man did I take a bunch of crap from the Loyola crowd for having surfer looking blond hair hanging out the back of my cap.

Their field was a total dump though. Their whole school looked pretty dumpy, actually.

socal wrote:

Balboa Park did suck but it was kinda cool playing in the shadow of the Rose Bowl in April.

When did they move the Rose Bowl to Van Nuys?????

I can't remember where that game was. I hae an e-mail out to a friend who played to see if he remembers. Wow, a bunch of old Del Rey Leaguers in here. Update....Crespi wins the D-X championship over Lompoc. Canyon beats Hart last night in a thriller. Notre Dame plays Dominguez tonight at the Home Depot Center and Loyola plays Esperanza. Everyone will be in a D-1 league next year. Small freaking world......
St. Francis still has those ugly brown unis but Crespi has changed theirs. They removed the gold from them and now have white helmets with the michigan logo in brown. ND and Loyola still have the best looking unis. Should be fun with everyone back in the same league.

Yes, St. John Bosco.

I wasn't varsity material sophomore year. Nor was I senior year for that matter.



I'm confusing St. Francis with Crespi.

I remember playing football freshman or sophomore year in what basically amounted to a dirt parking lot at Loyola. That's why they play their varsity home games at Glendale H.S. (correct?).

Lax, perhaps a Del Rey League tourstop?

The Seer wrote:That's too funny. I wonder how many "Valley boyz" post on this board.....

Bitchin' guys

So Cal...Loyola's freshman would play their games no that crap field right across from the cemetary, half of which was a baseball field. St. Francis had those weird numbers. Remember how they would come out and warm up with their game pants on and those windbreakers?

We beat you guys for the league championship our sophomore year.

I do remember.

Hey, who won the D1 game last night? Esperanza or Loyola?

Loyola 49-42 and Notre Dame had their 35 game winning streak stopped by Dominguez 41-14. They were going for 4 CIF championships in a row.