Their Glorious Summer
[Article]
By
SMASHWORDS EDITION
Copyright 2011 by Austin Gisriel
Austin is also the author of Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, the story of the 2009 New Market Rebels.
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Their Glorious Summer
The ability to play the game of baseball is a unique gift, and it develops in unique ways. The best Little Leaguer doesn’t necessarily make his high school team. The best high schooler doesn’t necessarily make his college team. And it is at this time in life—say at 18, 19, or 20 years old—that the scouts begin to engage in the art of judging whether a young man has already reached his peak ability and, therefore, is of no interest to them or, conversely, that he will continue to blossom if he is signed to play professional baseball. The great prize, of course, is to find a young man who will bloom at the major league level.
Often, there is no rhyme or reason as to why one player signed off the sandlots makes it to the majors, while another with seemingly equal talent does not. Far more often than we would like to admit, such success and failure are often the product of luck. An injury that derails the chances of one player, for example, enhances the chances of his replacement. Such events we deem Fate.
Sometimes, it is not luck, but a fatal flaw that is exposed at higher levels of play. Sometimes, Fate takes the form of a curveball and the attendant inability to hit it.
The summer of 1981 was indeed a fateful one for several such young men who played collegiate summer ball in the Valley Baseball League (VBL) in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. For a trio of players on the New Market Rebels, it was the beginning of a journey that would see them enjoy lengthy major league careers. For three players on the Winchester Royals, Fate had seemingly propped open the door to legitimate dreams of future seasons in the big league sun as well, but 1981 would be the pinnacle of their baseball glory. It was a summer in which the team with Dennis Clow and Steve Peruso and Clay Daniel bested the team with Tom Browning and John Kruk and Dan Pasqua. Clow, Peruso, and Daniel together totaled 11 minor league seasons. Browning, Kruk, and Pasqua each played in the majors for 10 years or more.
Set as it was against the backdrop of the 1981 major league players’ strike, the story of the battle for the President’s Cup between the Rebels and the Royals epitomizes that mix of glory and poignancy that produces such passion in those who love the game.
Today, the VBL consists of 12 teams, but in 1981 the league numbered only half that many: New Market, Waynesboro, and Madison comprised the Eastern Division, while Winchester, Harrisonburg, and Staunton comprised the Western Division.
Describing the VBL as "a sort of Cape Cod League for rednecks" in his book, Tales From the Reds’ Dugout, pitcher Tom Browning was in his second season with the New Market Rebels. Browning, who would pitch 12 years in the majors and throw a perfect game for the Reds, was almost not allowed to return to New Market for that second season.
He had left the Rebels early in 1980 to spend a couple of weeks at the beach, much to the dismay of no-nonsense head coach Preston Douglas. "A year later, when he had no place to play, he contacted me and wanted to return," remembers Douglas. "I told him that I would allow him to return, but that he would be on a short leash, and would have to be a model citizen and a leader. He accepted the challenge and the role."
Douglas himself had played in the Valley League and finished second in the MVP voting in 1969. He was quoted in the Northern Virginia Daily that summer as liking "the Billy Martin style of baseball—fiery and competitive" and whose favorite play was stealing home.
"I’m big on makeup and attitude," says Douglas, recalling the type of player he desired on his team. "I can go a lot farther with those guys than I can those jawmasters; I like those blue-collar guys."
One "blue-collar guy" that Douglas recruited for New Market’s roster was a quiet, slender, left-handed hitting outfielder from Keyser, West Virginia, named John Kruk.
"A great guy . . . a natural athlete," remembers Douglas.
Then, as now, Valley League players stay with host families, and Kruk, who would play for 10 seasons in the majors primarily with San Diego and Philadelphia, stayed with Elizabeth Tidler. She was Bruce Alger’s grandmother, and Alger, then 28, was serving as New Market’s General Manager. He has served the Rebels continuously in one capacity or another for 46 years.
"Back then, Johnny was half the size he is now, but he was quiet," recalls Alger. "He was quiet and shy, and just built like a young stud. I mean no fat on him at all, but quiet. My grandmother got him to talk a little bit, especially when she got the broomstick after him.
"Before he got there, she just had new carpet put in the living room, and Johnny liked to chew tobacco. He even brought his spittoon along. He and my grandmother always watched soap operas in the afternoon, and she came walking into the room behind him one day, and he didn’t know that she was there. He missed the spittoon so, she didn’t do a thing but go out on the back porch and get the broom and come in give him a couple of whacks with it," laughs Alger.
Success often has modest beginnings.
***
In its season preview, the Northern Virginia Daily noted that the Rebels’ hitting and speed were strong points and listed six players, including Kruk and Browning, as likely to be drafted. The paper also noted for Winchester that the pitching staff was "the key" to the Royals’ season and that "Chris [sic] Clow and Steve Peruso" among others, "were newcomers expected to help." The season would prove that the Daily knew what it was talking about.
The Valley League opened on Friday, May 29th, and the Rebels lost to the Madison Blue Jays 5-1 at Rebel Park. Defeating them that night was southpaw Bob Patterson from East Carolina, who would be drafted the next summer and spend 13 years in the big leagues, mostly with Pittsburgh. The Royals opened at home as well, taking on the Harrisonburg Turks at Bridgeforth Field. Trailing 6-3 with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 9th, the Royals used two walks, a hit batter, and a bases-clearing double from Greg Guinn for a come-from-behind 7-6 victory. Guinn had run the count full and hit a foul pop that was dropped before doubling home the tying and winning runs.
The respective openers established an immediate trend for both teams, especially the Royals. The day was significant in another way as well: The major league players had set May 29th as their strike deadline, but postponed the walkout for 48 hours.
The next day, under the headline of "Royals’ Miracle Victory," Mac Brown, a "special correspondent" to the Daily, wrote "Just like the 1980 edition of the Royals, this year’s team looks like it’s going to be another ‘never-say-die’ bunch." Brown’s breathless excitement echoes off the page still. Indeed, the Winchester Royals had come into the Valley League only two years before in 1979, but they were seeking their third consecutive league championship.
It was a Winchester radio man named Keith Lupton who founded the Royals. He had served on the Winchester Recreation Department’s committee to build a regulation-size diamond, the first in the city.
"After we built the thing, everybody said, ‘Gee whiz, who’s going to play here?’"
VBL officials contacted Winchester officials and offered the town a franchise. Then, the question became "Who’s going to take this team and run it? Nobody stepped forward, so I did," recalls Lupton, who became a true owner-operator. He did everything from selling all the advertising to driving the team bus, while his wife, Sally, ran the concession stand and did the laundry.
"Keith was a very friendly guy, a great promoter," remembers Alger. "Just a ball of positive energy."
Jim Phillips has been involved with the Royals franchise from the beginning and has served in just about every capacity in the organization. "We had a terrific fan base. There were a lot of fans who came out just because they knew Keith Lupton." While Phillips is "trying to wind down a little bit," he is currently Winchester’s official scorer and the league’s treasurer.
One of Lupton’s first acts was to hire the assistant coach from Georgia Southern University, Larry Bryant, to be the Royals’ head coach. Bryant played one year in professional baseball in the Atlanta Braves organization, where his catcher was a tall, skinny kid named Dale Murphy and his manager was Hoyt Wilhelm. Bryant's philosophy was to recruit talented players, whatever their particular skills might be, and then allow his game strategy to be dictated by "which player was in a particular situation in the game," recalls Bryant in his amiable Southern drawl.
"Larry was a fantastic recruiter," states Alger, and the Royals demonstrated immediately that they were, indeed, a talent-laden team. In their first contest with New Market on June 9th at Rebel Park, the Royals beat the Rebels 6-3, their eighth straight victory to start the season. The Rebels not only lost the game, they were about to lose one of their most talented players, as this was the day that John Kruk was drafted in the 3rd round by the San Diego Padres.
Kruk had almost become a Winchester Royal, according to Bryant. "I was given his name by a scout in Virginia, who said, ‘Larry, I can send you a great left-handed hitting first baseman or maybe DH or outfielder,’" but Bryant informed the scout that his roster was full. "We had pretty good talent, but if my crystal ball had been working that week," laughs Bryant, "I certainly would have invited John to be a Royal.
"I tell friends the story that I had the opportunity to have John Kruk play for me," continues Bryant, "and I blew it! I never got to meet John. I don’t even know if he knew his name was given to me, and he might say ‘Well, that manager in Winchester is an ass because he didn’t want me to come up there!’ But I didn’t want to have too many players. I do remember that I was given his contact information, but the next thing I knew he was in New Market."
Kruk did not sign with San Diego immediately, however, and 2 days later he knocked in two runs in the Rebels 9-5 victory over the Harrisonburg Turks. He went 2 for 5 the next day, June 12th against the Staunton Braves. This same day, the major league players finally and officially went on strike, the key issue being how teams would be compensated for losing a free agent.
The Royals met the Rebels again on June 15th at Bridgeforth Field in a game originally scheduled for June 3rd that had been rained out. Winchester banged out a 10-9 victory for their 12th straight win, which was highlighted by a Dennis Clow home run in the 7th inning off Tom Browning. It was Clow’s 7th homer in just 10 games. It was Clow and not John Kruk who was gaining rapid notice as the best hitter in the Valley that summer.
"Dennis was not on the original club, and I recall that we were in need of another catcher/utility player/hitter, and we made the call to Dennis when we found out about him. When he showed up, I mean he really showed up!" chuckles Bryant.
"Dennis was a national junior college batting champion that year," states Lupton, who relates that Clow, from Cochise Junior College in Arizona, had a reputation among scouts as a poor defender, which was why he wasn’t signed by any team to that point. "I wasn’t concerned about that because he hit almost .500 that year," remembers Lupton. "I called him up and talked to him, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to play in the Valley League.’"
And play, he did.
"I remember down in Staunton one night, there were two men on, and the Braves walked the hitter before Dennis, and I told the guy sitting next to me ‘I believe that was a mistake!’" relates Lupton. "I don’t know if it was the first, second, or third pitch, but there was a ring of pines around the outfield, and he hit it over the pines for a grand slam that night.
“I had a restaurant at the time in Winchester, and I had him working as a waiter. He got more tips than the girls got. I had fans coming in to eat lunch just to meet Dennis Clow!"
Clow and Steve Peruso both homered in an 11-7 win over New Market on June 16th, moving the Royals’ record to 13-0. It was another come-from-behind victory for Winchester, who trailed 9-7 in the bottom of the 9th, but after an Alan Balcomb double, a Peruso single, and a Clow two-run homer, the Royals were victorious. The Northern Virginia Daily reported that reliever Tom Browning dropped his head as soon as the ball left Clow’s bat.
The next day’s edition of the Daily ran an article on Clow, expressing the surprise that fans up and down the Valley felt over the fact that he was not drafted. Nevertheless, the scouts were following the right-handed slugger, and it was no wonder, as the Daily reported "Three more hits last night lifted his batting average to .454, with eight homers and 24 runs batted in in 11 games. He has 48 total bases in 44 at bats." The "Royals Notes" from the game story that day also stated that "centerfielder Everett Graham reportedly turned down the first offer made to him by the San Diego Padres, who drafted him in the second round last week." This was, of course, one round ahead of John Kruk, who by now had, indeed, signed with the Padres. The Daily League Leaders column showed that Kruk was hitting .342 with two homers and a club-leading 13 RBI, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the Rebels from starting the season a miserable 3-9.
Winchester’s winning streak was becoming notorious, up and down the Valley. The Waynesboro Generals advertised the June 18th game as "Stop the Streak Night," but it didn’t work, as the Royals romped 11-6. Dennis Clow hit his 12th home run. The next night, Clow banged out three more home runs in Winchester’s 21-5 pasting of Madison. He now had 15 homers in 14 games, and the Royals were enjoying a secondary streak in which they had topped double digits in runs for eight straight games.
Finally, in Harrisonburg on Saturday the 20th, the Royals’ streak was brought to a halt. Despite jumping out to an early 6-0 lead, Winchester fell to the Turks, 10-6. Their record now stood at 16-1.
In New Market, Preston Douglas needed a replacement for John Kruk, and he turned to another left-handed hitting, powerfully built outfielder from William Paterson University in New Jersey named Dan Pasqua. Pasqua would also enjoy a 10-year big league career, primarily with the New York Yankees.
"He had big Popeye forearms because he kept his free weights in that little Pinto, or whatever he was driving, and he was always lifting," recalls Douglas.
"I picked up him and Chuck Stewart, a catcher, off the Greyhound bus right where the Valley Sports Connection is now on Congress Street," says Bruce Alger. "Met them there around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, took them to Rebel Park, and got them suited up. They just stayed there for BP; they never left to meet their host families. Both of them started, and in the bottom of the first, Pasqua hit the longest home run that I’ve ever seen at Rebel Park. It was a bomb. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and I’ve seen a bunch of ’em! It was climbing when it left; it sailed over the lights and was still climbing."
Some in New Market claim that the ball was found the next day in the field that lies beyond the outfield fence at Rebel Park and that it was stepped off at 525 feet, but this is one of those apocryphal stories that often rise from the excited memories of those who watch baseball in places such as New Market, Virginia. Perhaps because the Pete Roses and Reggie Jacksons were not adding to the game’s lore that summer, Rebel fans remembered and embellished and recounted Pasqua’s home run until it was suitably dressed up as a legend.
The Rebels defeated Madison that night 15-7, thanks to Pasqua and a complete game from Tom Browning, who "scattered" 19 hits. The Rebels had some hope, for despite the slow start, Alger still felt that the Rebels could make the playoffs. Indeed, the format in the Valley League was to play two halves; thus, even with their slow start, New Market could come back and win the second half.
Dan Pasqua or not, the Rebels fell again to the Royals on Tuesday the 23rd by a whopping 19-5 margin at Rebel Park. Dennis Clow went 5 for 5. On this same night, up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the longest game in professional baseball history was being completed between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. The game that had begun on April 18th was finally called after 32 innings, and when it resumed, Pawtucket scored in the bottom of the 33rd, winning by a final score of 3-2.
That Friday, the Daily’s sports editor Gregory Betts penned an article entitled "Winchester’s Dennis Clow Making Pro Scouts Look Bad." Both Keith Lupton and Larry Bryant remarked about Clow’s discipline and patience at the plate. Betts wrote that while there were questions about his defense, "everyone agrees that his bat alone is enough to get him to the majors."
Finally, the next day, it happened. "Paul Snyder, who was a scout with the Braves—who, incidentally, signed me back in 1973—had been up scouting the Valley League, and he came to me about Dennis," says Bryant. "Shortly after our discussion, Paul called me and said, ‘Larry, I hate to take him from you before your season ends, but we want to get him to one of our minor league teams,’ and I said, ‘Paul, don’t apologize. I thank you for giving him the chance.’ If I can be one of the rungs on the ladder to help a player reach a dream, I consider myself fortunate."
Ken Morrison of the Winchester Star reported "Dennis Clow, possibly the best gate attraction the Winchester Royals have ever had, says he’s going to be ‘paid well’ by the Atlanta Braves, who are sending him to Anderson (S.C.) of the Class A South Atlantic League."
Clow’s final Valley League numbers are eye-popping. In 20 games, he amassed a .530 batting average with 15 home runs and 50 RBI.
Morrison speculated that Clow would receive between $20,000 and $30,000 as a signing bonus. "Dennis, I believe, got $15,000, and it got down to Texas and Atlanta," relates Keith Lupton. "I talked to the Braves after that, and they said that he just couldn’t handle the curveball. He could drill a fastball as well as anybody, but after they got the book on him, it was nothing but curveball, curveball, curveball."
"They just kept feeding Clow fastballs, and he just poked the devil out of those things," says Phillips of the pitchers in the Valley League that summer. "I don’t know why they didn’t throw him off-speed stuff. We saw him later down in Greensboro, and his stats were awful, and he said ‘Well, I got down here, and they started feeding me these curveballs and off-speed stuff, and I just couldn’t do anything."
Dennis Clow hit .219 with 4 home runs in 228 plate appearances for Anderson the rest of that summer. The next season, he hit .225 with 14 homers while splitting time between Anderson and Durham. It was his second and final season in professional baseball.
***
For their part, the Royals never missed a beat, again stomping all over the Rebels by a 14-4 score in their first game without Clow.
The VBL All-Star game was held in Staunton on Sunday. Preston Douglas managed the Eastern Division squad, while Larry Bryant managed the Western Division team. Douglas’ squad won 6-3, which was a shocker, given that no team in the East had a winning record. Tom Browning pitched an inning for the East, and despite giving up two singles and a walk, he did not allow a run. The Rebels’ Kirk Bailey started the contest, pitching two innings and recording the victory.
New Market closed out the first half one game behind division-leading Madison, but rallied for an impressive 10-9 victory over Staunton at Rebel Park to begin the second half. Despite giving up 8 runs in only 6 innings, Tom Browning recorded the victory, while Dan Pasqua hit a grand slam over the right-centerfield fence. "I’m very pleased with the way we’re playing now," said Coach Douglas in the Northern Virginia Daily the next day. The victory marked the Rebels 5th win in their last 7 games. On the 4th of July, New Market recorded what would be its only victory of the season over Winchester, 8-6, at Rebel Park.
For the Royals, this was their second defeat in what would be a four-game losing streak. The Winchester fans were restless, despite an overall mark of 23-5. This was the longest losing streak in Winchester’s brief history, but the Royals rallied for 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th against Harrisonburg on Tuesday, July 7th, to win 9-5. A loss to Waynesboro was followed by a 10-8 victory over New Market, despite Dan Pasqua’s two-out, two-run homer in the 9th.
Winchester went on another tear. A lefthander named Clay Daniel threw the Royals’ first ever no-hitter on Sunday, July 12, against Waynesboro, walking one and striking out seven.
The summer began to speed by, as all American summers do once Independence Day has passed.
On the 15th, the Royals moved back into first place in the second half standings with a victory over Harrisonburg, but the Winchester Star reported the next day that their pitching staff had been riddled by injuries, and now they were down to two starters.
Employing Preston Douglas’ favorite play, Danny Pasqua stole home in a 16-7 defeat of Madison on the 16th. He hit his 11th home run the next night against Winchester, but Steve Peruso hit two homers and knocked in five runs, as the Royals once again defeated the Rebels, this time by a score of 12-10.
By July 22nd, Winchester had won 10 in a row, despite listing only five pitchers on the roster. They clinched the second half crown on the 24th with their 12th in a row, an 11-6 trouncing of New Market yet again. Everett Graham, the outfielder who had been drafted by San Diego one round ahead of John Kruk, but never signed, went 3 for 4 with a home run. For the Rebels, Pasqua hit his 15th home run, tying him with Dennis Clow for the League lead.
The Winchester Star’s sports page ran a headline on July 25th declaring "Concern Growing That Baseball Season Is Over," referring to the strike-marred major league season. Reporter Jim Noland’s story on the Royals, however, began thusly: "Ask Winchester Royals’ fans if the baseball strike has bothered them. On second thought, don’t bother. Most of them haven’t noticed."
League officials noticed, however. They were concerned that Major League Baseball would not provide its annual allotment of a little over $31,000 to the League. Indeed, the price of admission had been raised from $1.50 to $2.00 to help the teams offset what the Winchester Star reported as "steadily rising costs for transportation and equipment." Preston Douglas was quoted as saying some fans weren’t happy with the increased ticket cost.
On Saturday the 25th, Steve Peruso hit a grand slam, breaking a 9th-inning, 5-5 tie at Staunton. It was the Royals’ 13th straight victory. They lost to Staunton the next night, ending the streak.
Winchester played its final game of the regular season on the last day of July and the Royals provided their fans with yet one more unbelievable victory. Steve Peruso hit his second grand slam of the week in a 6-run 9th inning against Madison to propel the Royals to a 10-9 triumph. That same day saw the end of the Major League players’ strike. The season would resume on August 9th, when the All-Star Game would be played in Cleveland.
Winchester finished out the season with a 38-7 record and as both first and second half champions. By League rule, they received a bye, while the two half-season winners from the Eastern Division held a three-game playoff. Despite its slow start, New Market finished strongly, winning 15 out of 20 games at one point, and the Rebels did, indeed, capture the second-half crown, meaning they would face first-half winner Madison for the right to play Winchester for the President’s Cup. It was Dan Pasqua, and not Dennis Clow, who set the new League mark for home runs, hitting 18 in a little more than half a season. It was Steve Peruso, however, who would provide the final thrills for Valley League fans.
Peruso, a Setauket, Long Island native, played his college ball at Georgia Southern and the head coach there, Jack Stallings, wanted him to work on a new batting stance during the summer. Clearly, the new stance was successful.
"I remember being on fire heading into the playoffs," recalls the right-handed hitting Peruso.
With the bye, the Royals rested their depleted pitching staff and awaited the Eastern Division champs, whoever they might be.
***
Peruso’s 9th-inning slam was a nasty precursor of things to come for the Madison Blue Jays. On Sunday, August 2nd, the day of "Baseball’s Somber Hall of Fame Gathering," according to a headline in the Star, Madison led New Market 8-5 with two out and nobody on in the bottom of 9th. The Rebels loaded the bases, however, and third baseman Nellie Martinez promptly hit an improbable grand slam of his own for a 9-8 Rebel victory. The Blue Jays apparently felt no ill effects from the crushing defeat, however, as they, in turn, crushed the Rebels the next night 15-6. The Rebels’ play was described as "sloppy" in a Daily headline. Another Daily headline that day noted that Pete Rose topped the list of Major League All-Stars. Rose would manage the Reds during Tom Browning’s first seven seasons with Cincinnati.
Preston Douglas sent Browning out to the mound for the deciding game against Madison. Striking out 12, Browning defeated the Blue Jays 8-3, so the New Market Rebels would play the Winchester Royals for the Valley Baseball League championship.
Dan Pasqua had 8 hits and 7 RBI in the three games against Madison, but the Rebels lost second baseman Billy DeCollibus to a knee injury and were down to 12 players themselves. If it weren’t for Tom Browning, they would have been down to 11, according to Preston Douglas.
Late in the regular season against Madison, Dan Pasqua pulled himself from the game, telling Douglas that a bruise on his hand was too painful to continue. Douglas, the kind of manager who would storm the gates of Hell with no arms just for one chance to kick the devil, felt that Pasqua was being selfish, and perhaps just didn’t want to face a tough left-hander who was on the hill for Madison that night. The head coach "just lost it. I was hot-headed anyway. I just called him every name I could think of." Douglas kicked his best player off the team. Browning, however, acting as the leader that Douglas had insisted he be, went to his head coach, and implored him to reinstate Pasqua, feeling that they would have no chance in the playoffs without him. Respecting the decision of his players, who were in agreement with Browning, Douglas allowed them to vote on the issue, and Pasqua was reinstated.
On August 4th, the same day that Browning was defeating Madison, Ken Morrison wrote a feature on Steve Peruso for the Winchester Star. Morrison pointed out that while the talk of the League was Dan Pasqua, Peruso hit 13 home runs himself, most of them line shots, even while missing 13 games at the beginning of the season. In another bit of journalistic prescience, Morrison also noted that "when the Royals use a non-pitcher in the playoffs, Peruso probably will be the first one they try."
The series opened on Wednesday, August 5th, at Bridgeforth Field. Clay Daniel was nursing a 5-4 lead through the top of the 8th when Winchester exploded for 11 runs in the bottom half of the inning, and the Royals captured the first game 16-4. Steve Peruso had a home run, among his three hits. The Northern Virginia Daily noted that "Daniel threw only an estimated 115 pitches, a fairly low total, which should make his comeback for Game 4 a bit easier."
Rain descended on the Valley for the next 2 days, delaying Game 2, which itself was delayed an hour in starting. The Rebels fell behind early, but rallied to tie the game on Dan Pasqua’s 8th-inning solo shot. In typical Royals’ fashion, however, Pojoe Jasensky, whom the Winchester Star reported as having received a terrific "razzing from the New Market Rebels and their fans" for committing an error and being thrown out on a steal attempt, homered off Tom Browning to lead off the top of the 9th, giving Winchester a 7-6 win. It was Jasensky’s 4th homer on the season; they all came against New Market. Browning was the losing pitcher in a complete-game effort, and Steve Peruso chipped in another three hits and an RBI.
Game 3, played the next night back in Winchester, was another frustrating affair for the Rebels. They led by 5 runs, lost the lead, regained it in the 9th, and then saw the game tied on a two-out, bottom of the 9th passed ball. First baseman Keith Gonya, who had four hits on the night, contributed his most important one in the bottom of the 11th, a game-winning double that gave the Royals a 9-8 victory. Gonya had tried to score in the 10th, but was gunned down at the plate by right-fielder Pasqua. Thanks to the two rainouts, Clay Daniel was able to take the mound for Winchester, going 9 innings and giving up 10 hits and 6 walks. Scott Schaeffer picked up the win in relief, while Peruso contributed another two hits, including his second home run of the series.
This same night, Sunday, August 9th, the Major League All-Star Game was played, which the National League won 5-4.
With Schaeffer having been used in relief 2 straight days and with both Daniel and Game 2 starter John Buckley unavailable, Larry Bryant was desperate for someone to start the potential clincher at Rebel Park. He had held a tryout of sorts before the playoffs began, looking for a few bodies to tide them over, if necessary. It was necessary for Game 4, although even if they lost, the Royals would be returning to Winchester with a 3-1 lead, and John Buckley or Scott Schaeffer back on the mound.
"We were out of starting pitching," recalls Keith Lupton. ". . . Peruso and—Grant?" he asks, as he stares 30 years into the past, searching for the correct name. "Everett Grant? Graham? An outfielder?"
Baseball men never forget, and Everett Graham’s name is confirmed to him.
"Peruso and Everett Graham were the only two that looked like pitchers."
"It was kind of like I had an ace up my sleeve," remembers Larry Bryant. "I knew Steve could pitch because he had the arm and had a little wrinkle of a slider. At Georgia Southern, he had thrown batting practice at times for us, and he pitched a few intrasquad games, and on a rare occasion, we put him in for an inning or two in a regular game. I knew that if he toed the rubber, it wouldn’t be like ‘What planet am I on?’ He’d been there before a little bit."
Jim Phillips rode the team bus to New Market that Monday night and, indeed, Peruso had been given the starting assignment, but none of his teammates knew it. Peruso himself did not get the official word until the bus pulled into the parking lot at Rebel Park.
Larry Bryant pauses when asked about that bus ride. "Yep . . . golly, I’d forgotten that . . . you know this has been 30 years! Boy, you’re bringing back some good thoughts."
***
Peruso and teammate Keith Gonya were staying with Bruce and Peggy Saville that summer. The Savilles had become a host family the year before. "We never missed any of the games, road trips or home games. Steve kept telling us that he was going to pitch that night, and we laughed at him because he was an outfielder," says Peggy.
Peggy and Bruce had traveled to New Market that Friday only to have the game rained out, and upon their return, Peggy received word that her mother had fallen gravely ill. Peggy went to stay with her mom at the hospital. According to Peggy, Steve and Keith told Bruce "‘You go be with your wife. That’s where you should be.’ Those two boys had dates, and they canceled their dates and kept our son so that we could be together with my mother."
Peggy’s mother died on Monday, the night her summer son was to take the mound in the biggest game of Winchester’s season. "Peggy wanted me to go to the game," says Bruce, "but I said, ‘No, I couldn’t go without you.’ Our son was kind of small then, and they took him on the bus, and he got to witness the game. We listened to the whole ballgame on the radio."
Bryant hoped that he could get 5 innings out of Peruso, and then he would see where the game stood. Steve gave up two runs in the bottom of the 5th, one of which was unearned. The game was tied, and Peruso went back out for the 6th and hung another zero on the board. Winchester scored a run in the top of the 7th when, employing Preston Douglas’ favorite play, Everett Graham stole home on the front end of a double steal. Peruso shut down the Rebels in their half of the 7th.
"I was on, I don’t know why," laughs Peruso, his Long Island accent a sharp contrast to the soft drawl of his host parents and head coach. "I was how many years between starts?!? I remember that my arm was hurting that day, but I don’t know if the stars lined up . . ."
The Royals scored three more runs in the 8th to take a 6-2 lead. Preston Douglas was forced into calling on a tired Tom Browning in relief. Peruso again shut down the Rebels in their half of the 8th, and then he came to bat with the bases loaded in the top of the 9th . . .
***
The beauty of baseball is that the stars do, indeed, line up just often enough in ways that no writer of fairy tales would dare put to paper. It seems pointless to write, since all readers must know what happened, that Steve Peruso hit his third grand slam in two weeks, off a pitcher who would one day throw a perfect game in the major leagues. Naturally, he shut out New Market in the bottom of the 9th for a complete-game, two-hit victory, striking out future major leaguer Dan Pasqua along the way.
"I’d like to think that I was smart enough to know the kind of performance that Steve would have that night," laughs Bryant. "However, the truth of the matter is I was probably as shocked as anybody. I remember enjoying the look on Steve’s face every inning he’d return to the dugout. He was having a ball. He was being serious; he was staying relaxed, but he was enjoying every moment."
"Nobody believed it," marvels Bruce Saville in a manner that suggests that he still isn’t sure, even 30 years later, that Peruso’s remarkable performance really took place. "Even the players didn’t believe it."
"It was a happy bus ride home that night!" says Keith Lupton.
Peggy Saville remembers Steve returning to their home after the game. "He was flyin’ high. Of course, they had us all up, talking to us, and it was quite an exciting evening."
"It was just a magical night," Peruso recalls. "To this day, I still think about that. I think about my time in Winchester. I just loved it. It was the greatest community I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been all over the country and all over the world, and I still think about that and I still think about that game. I wish I could relive it."
***
On the same night that Steve Peruso was enjoying the game of a lifetime, Pete Rose became the National League’s all-time hit leader in the Philadelphia Phillies’ first regular-season game after the strike. He received a congratulatory call from President Reagan, but the editors of the Winchester Star opined that "while Mr. Rose was lounging the past couple of months away on strike, the Royals were hustling their way, uninterrupted, to a fantastic championship. In the process, outstanding performances were turned in nightly, as records fell almost that frequently. Home-run hitting by Dennis Clow, no-hit pitching by Clay Daniel, and a virtual single-handed President’s Cup victory by Steve Peruso on Monday night are just a fraction of the season’s performances worthy of Presidential recognition. While Mr. Rose fiddled, the Royals burned up the field."
In the fall of 1981, Keith Lupton sold the Royals and went to work for the Hagerstown Suns, then of the Carolina League, the following spring. He went on to earn Executive of the Year honors in the Carolina League, the Eastern League, and the South Atlantic League. He recently retired as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations for Opening Day Partners. Ever the baseball man, he is currently serving as General Manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League.
Bruce Alger has remained involved with the Rebels, and in 2002 was once again named General Manager, as well as President of the team. He continues in that capacity today.
Larry Bryant served as an assistant coach at Georgia Southern for 20 years before retiring in 1994. He has been involved with the World Baseball Academy and the World Baseball Children’s Fair.
Preston Douglas scouted for the Angels, White Sox, Brewers, and Cubs, and has been involved in a myriad of baseball endeavors. Currently, Douglas serves as the Director of Scouting and Player Development for the American Baseball Institute in Clearwater, Florida.
Tom Browning was selected in the 9th round of the 1982 draft by Cincinnati. Clay Daniel, also a southpaw, entered the Cincinnati minor league system in 1984, the same year that Browning made his major league debut. Daniel spent most of his time in A and AA ball. He pitched 7.1 innings for AAA Oklahoma City in Texas’ organization in 1990, his last season as an active player. He later scouted for the Reds and the Angels. Browning was inducted into the Reds’ Hall of Fame in 2006.
John Kruk made his major league debut in 1986. A three-time All-Star, he overcame the quiet demeanor he displayed while staying with Mrs. Tidler and is now a popular analyst on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight.
Dan Pasqua was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1982 draft by the New York Yankees. In 10 major league seasons, he hit 117 home runs.
Steve Peruso returned to Winchester the next summer as well. Much to his surprise, he was not drafted, despite hitting over 20 home runs his senior season at Georgia Southern. Keith Lupton arranged for him to attend a tryout at Yankee Stadium in 1983, and he was signed by the Yankees as a free agent. He was assigned to Oneonta of the Class A New York-Penn League where Dan Pasqua had played four games the year before. Peruso hit 5 home runs that year in 117 plate appearances. He got as far as AA, playing in 14 games at that level and hitting one home run. Battling a shoulder injury and relegated to DHing, Peruso was released after the 1985 season, the same year that Dan Pasqua made his major league debut. Peruso is currently in management at Walgreens and lives in New Rochelle, New York.
***
"The next day after the championship game, when Steve was ready to leave . . . " recalls Peggy Saville, but her voice catches, and she must pause to compose herself; 30 years have fallen away in an instant, and the memory of their parting is as fresh as if it happened this morning, ". . . it was quite sad."
"It was probably the best time of my life," says Peruso wistfully.
For Peruso and Dennis Clow and Clay Daniel and the rest of the Winchester Royals, it was, indeed, their glorious summer.
***
If you enjoyed Their Glorious Summer, then please consider purchasing Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, which details the story of the 2009 New Market Rebels. It is as much the story of a small town’s love for its team as it is of action on the field.
For information on the Valley Baseball League, go to http://www.valleyleaguebaseball.com/landing/index
For information on the Winchester Royals, go to http://www.eteamz.com/winchesterroyals/index.cfm
For information on the New Market Rebels, go to http://www.rebelsbaseball.biz/
Please click here for the on-line photo album that accompanies Their Glorious Summer. I would love to add more photos to the album; therefore, if you have some snapshots or clippings from those days, or if you played in the Valley that year and have a modern day photo of yourself, please e-mail them to me at agisriel at yahoo dot com
An abridged, two-part version of this article appeared in the July 22 &23, 2011 editions of the Winchester Star.
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to Crystal Graham of Augusta Free Press in Waynesboro, VA for creating the book cover for The Glorious Season. Writers looking for such assistance should look no further than AFP.
Thanks to Melissa Dodge for her contemporary photographs, and to Jim Phillips for his period photos and clippings. The cover photo, of a Rebels-Royals game from June of 2011 at Bridgeforth Field, is courtesy of Melissa Dodge who does fantastic work as New Market’s team photographer. The link to Melissa’s photos in Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley alone are worth the price of the download!
Thanks to Bruce Alger, Larry Bryant, Preston Douglas, Keith Lupton, Steve Peruso, Jim Phillips, and Bruce and Peggy Saville for taking the time to walk down memory lane with me. I enjoyed each and every conversation and consider it my good fortune that you took the time to talk to me.
Thanks to Bruce Alger and Martha Gisriel for their editorial work on Their Glorious Summer.
Attempts to locate Dennis Clow were unsuccessful. Dennis, I’d still love to hear from you and any other Royals or Rebels out there. The summer of 1981 in the Valley is a great story and I want to hear more about it.
Finally, John Kruk, if you read this, I’d like to know, do you still have the spittoon?