Court Places Woodland Hills Back in State Legion Playoffs

The Woodland Hills and Camarillo American Legion baseball teams took their fight for a berth in the state championship playoffs to the courtroom Thursday. Now, it appears they will take it to Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday morning.

A Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner in Van Nuys issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that puts Woodland Hills back into the state American Legion baseball tournament, which begins Saturday in Yountville.

Superior Court Commissioner David R. Nisall issued the order that reverses state American Legion Commissioner Julio Yniguez’s decision Tuesday to rule Sixth Area champion Woodland Hills out of the tournament--and Camarillo in.

El Segundo, the Fifth Area champion, which also is in the state tournament, charged Woodland Hills with violating player eligibility rules on Monday.

The restraining order allows Woodland Hills to take advantage of all travel provisions made by the American Legion for the tournament, including an 8:05 a.m. flight to Oakland on Saturday.

But Camarillo team Manager Dan Anderson, after consulting with lawyers he declined to identify, disputed the order Thursday night and said his team was going to the tournament on the same flight.

“The judge has no authority,” Anderson said. “He can postpone the whole tournament, but he cannot say that Woodland Hills is back in the tournament. This is not a civil matter, and I say this on the basis of legal counsel.”

Woodland Hills team Manager Lee Hersh said he believes that Nisall’s word was final.

“Julio was told by the American Legion adjutant general to comply with whatever the judge said,” Hersh said. “Julio told us to show up at the airport and everything would be taken care of. We’ll be there at 7 a.m. and see what is what.”

Yniguez was unavailable for comment Thursday.

An agent of the American Legion will hand the tickets out at the airport on Saturday morning. Woodland Hills assistant coach Mitch Fair said the agent will have no choice but to give them to Woodland Hills.

“We have a copy of the judge’s order that has to be served on the person holding the tickets, saying they have to recognize us,” Fair said.

Woodland Hills attorneys Sanford Schulhofer and Oskar Stark, the fathers of two Woodland Hills players, filed for the restraining order on Thursday. Their 10-page document--which Hersh filed on behalf of the team against the American Legion, Yniguez and the nine area chairmen who voted to disqualify Woodland Hills--also seeks $150,000 in damages.

Woodland Hills (35-6) qualified for the state tournament by winning the Sixth Area championship over Camarillo and is scheduled to play Fullerton, the Fourth Area champion, on Saturday at 4 p.m.

A hearing will be held in Van Nuys on Aug. 22 to determine whether the injunction should remain in force or be dissolved because the protest could affect Woodland Hills if the team advances to regional playoffs.

Schulhofer said the lawsuit would be pursued if the American Legion tries to take action against Woodland Hills.

“If the legion will realize its error and not pursue the ouster of this team, it may be that we’ll settle and let bygones be bygones,” Schulhofer said. “If the legion pursues it, we’ll pursue the suit because we’re dead bang on the beam and right.”

“We’re very pleased with the decision,” Hersh said. “We presented our case before the judge and he felt as we did, that the protest was filed late. We were not questioning the validity of the roster. Our sole purpose was to allow the boys to play in the tournament.”

To make sure that happened, Hersh also appealed to the American Legion national headquarters in Indianapolis, claiming that El Segundo’s protest was filed after the legion’s Aug. 1 deadline and that the eligibility rule was ambiguous.

American Legion eligibility rules state that a team can draw players from as many schools as it pleases, as long as the total of the schools’ enrollment of sophomores, juniors and seniors does not exceed 3,600 students.

But there are exceptions to the rule, and differing interpretations have led to protests.

“No matter how this comes out, they’re going to have to rewrite the rule book,” Fair said. “They’re going to have to put in examples, explaining how certain sections are applicable. The attorneys probably handed the rule book to the judge and said, ‘Here, if you can make heads or tails out of it, you win.’ ”

“The way that rule book is written, nobody on Earth could understand it,” Schulhofer said.

“It is not my position or the position of anybody connected with the Woodland Hills team to embarrass the American Legion or make it look bad,” he said. “All we did was merely stick up for our rights. To have some outsider come in and say we’re out of the tournament, because they didn’t want to play us at the tournament, is ridiculous.”