Palisades baseball cleared by City’s rules committee

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The Palisades baseball program will not be sanctioned by the City Section in the aftermath of last spring’s playoff game in which seven Chatsworth players were hit by pitches.

Palisades Athletic Director Rich McKeon said Thursday the City’s rules committee also accepted the school’s decision to remove Tom Seyler as its baseball coach.

The rules committee met with Seyler and McKeon at the section office on Sept. 11 to hear testimony, primarily from Seyler, regarding the playoff game of May 30. During the game, which Chatsworth won 11-1, seven Chancellors batters were hit by three different Palisades pitchers.

Seyler said he had instructed his pitchers to throw inside to the batters because they stood close to the plate. After Chatsworth Principal Jeff Davis asked City officials to investigate the game, Palisades assistant principal Charlotte Atlas conducted an internal investigation and decided Seyler’s actions were inappropriate. Seyler and his staff were removed from their baseball coaching duties, though Seyler remains employed as a counselor at Palisades.

‘The rules committee did not say either party was right or wrong in the dispute,’ McKeon said. ‘But it decided no further action was needed.’

When contacted by The Times, Seyler said he was unaware of the rules committee’s decision. ‘But I’m glad to hear they decided not to sanction the school for what’s common in baseball, pitching inside. And I assume I can apply for another baseball coaching position somewhere else.’

But not immediately as Seyler, who underwent hip replacement surgery this past summer, said he was going to take a year off from coaching ‘and continue to heal.

Mike Voelkel, who coached three high school baseball teams in the state of Washington before recently moving to Southern California, has been named Palisades coach.

- Mike Terry