GILROY – First-year Gilroy High baseball manager Johnny Ramirez
is channeling the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and a 1970’s pop song to
create the new motto for the 2010 Mustangs baseball program.
GILROY – First-year Gilroy High baseball manager Johnny Ramirez is channeling the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and a 1970’s pop song to create the new motto for the 2010 Mustangs baseball program.
During the Pirates’ 1979 World Series championship run, Sister Sledge’s song “We Are Family” ignited a movement that brought together the team and its fans throughout the postseason.
“It’s like that old song,” Ramirez said. “We are a family. This is our family. We don’t point fingers here. We are going to win as a team and lose as a team. Between the lines it is us against everybody else. I told them, ‘look to your right and look to your left…that is your brother.’ For us to succeed we have to come together.”
The Mustangs are coming off of a 17-13-1 overall record and a third-place showing in the Tri-County Athletic League under the guides of long time manager Clint Wheeler last season.
Gilroy returns two TCAL all-league recipients in seniors Taylor Chris and Jordan Holler, as well as a revamped, young infield led by sophomore shortstop Bubu Garcia.
Chris, a left-handed pitcher who will attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next fall, led the league in strikeouts last season with 72.
Ramirez said he has been adamant since day one with his message to the team – he wants them to believe.
“I told them right off the bat that they are going to be champions,” said Ramirez, who played for GHS and has made stops at Sonoma State and Anchorpoint Christian as an assistant coach prior to taking the gig back at his alma mater. “You want them to believe. They don’t know how good they can be. This community is going to love them.”
With Ramirez clear with his point, the players have adapted to the new style of coaching and so far, the team’s chemistry couldn’t be at a higher level, Garcia said.
“We want to back up his talk because he is doing it for us,” Garcia said. “We aren’t such individuals now. We all talk. We pretty much back each other up. It’s like a family now.”
The Mustangs also welcome back the team’s leading hit producer, Eric Vegas, who also led the TCAL in home runs with seven. Vegas also knocked in 27 runs, sharing the team-lead in that category with Chris.
Though the Mustangs line-up is “stacked” from top to bottom, according to Garcia, coach Ramirez isn’t looking for his guys to bang one out of the ball park every time up at bat. Instead, he said he wants his guys to focus on fundamentals.
“You have to play unselfish baseball,” Ramirez said. “The little things, fielding the ball, sacrifice bunts, stolen bases; the little things are what’s going to win or lose us ball games.”
The Mustangs host Kerman High School out of Fresno on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. before opening up TCAL play on March 9 against Salinas at GHS.
“They want TCAL to start right now,” Ramirez said. “That’s how ready they are.”
