Legion Calls Woodland Hills Out : Team to Seek Second Restraining Order

The Woodland Hills American Legion baseball team Thursday was ruled ineligible for next week’s regional playoffs in a decision called “final and conclusive.”

But Woodland Hills attorneys will be in Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys at 1:30 p.m. today, hoping to get a temporary restraining order that will allow the team to play in the Legion’s Northwest Regional playoffs that begin Wednesday in Corvallis, Ore.

If the restraining order is not granted, El Segundo will go to the playoffs in Woodland Hills’ place.

Woodland Hills seeks its second restraining order in eight days. Last Thursday Woodland Hills was granted a restraining order that permitted the team to play in the state championship playoffs last Saturday through Tuesday.

“It’s in the lawyers’ hands now,” Woodland Hills Coach Marc Hersh said. “To me, this is plain bull all the way through. I’ll be real disappointed if we’re ineligible, because we feel we’re eligible under their guidelines. You don’t wait until after two tournaments to disqualify someone.”

If the restraining order is granted, American Legion national Commissioner George W. Rulon will order Legion officials to abide by it, Woodland Hills attorney Sanford Schulhofer said.

“We’re still swinging,” Schulhofer said. “Maybe history will repeat itself, maybe it won’t. My question is, what has taken the American Legion so long to rule on this? We’ve played an entire season through the state playoffs. Were they hoping we would lose, so that it wouldn’t matter?”

Rulon said he was directed by the American Legion National Baseball Appeal Board to issue this statement Thursday afternoon:

“The American Legion National Baseball Appeal Board has reviewed the appeal of the Woodland Hills Post 826 baseball team, dated Aug. 6, 1986, concerning Woodland Hills’ team eligibility to play American Legion baseball, and finds the Woodland Hills team ineligible because of recruiting violations. This decision is final and conclusive.”

The decision against Woodland Hills, which finished second in the state playoffs on Tuesday, was not unexpected.

“We’re not at all surprised, neither me nor Sandy, that they denied our appeal,” attorney Oskar Stark said. “We were just hoping they’d wait a little longer.”

The appeal board’s 3-0 ruling upholds the Aug. 5 decision by American Legion State Commissioner Julio Yniguez that disqualified Woodland Hills for violating player eligibility rules as charged in a protest filed by El Segundo.

Rulon said those who ruled on Woodland Hills’ appeal have “long-standing experience” with American Legion baseball and are members of the National Americanism Commission of the American Legion, which sets baseball policy. The members are Robert Turner of Brunswick, Ga.; Charles Gangaware of Harrisburg, Pa., and Al Moeller, of Westfield, N.J.