Woodland Hills’ Season Ends After Defeat in Court

Standing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, a grim Lee Hersh sighed, straightened his suit and said: “Well, we ain’t going.”

Hersh referred to his Woodland Hills American Legion baseball team, which will not play in the regional playoffs next week.

After an 18-minute hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner David R. Nisall denied Woodland Hills a temporary restraining order that would have put the team in the Northwest Regional playoffs, which begin Wednesday in Corvallis, Ore.

“Obviously, this was the final exhaustion of our appeals,” Hersh said. “I wouldn’t want to subject the boys to any more.”

It was the second time in eight days that the District 20 team had fought in Nisall’s courtroom for the right to play in the Legion playoffs. On Aug. 7, Woodland Hills was granted a temporary restraining order allowing the team to play in the state championship tournament that ended Tuesday in Yountville.

Sanford Schulhofer and Oskar Stark, attorneys representing Woodland Hills, argued for another restraining order on the same grounds that Nisall had granted the first: That a protest against Woodland Hills, filed by El Segundo on Aug. 4, was filed three days after the American Legion’s California deadline. National rules allow protests until the first day of the playoffs.

But Nisall disagreed, claiming he didn’t have the jurisdiction to grant a temporary restraining order for a tournament in Oregon. He added that because Woodland Hills had submitted itself to the American Legion national office’s ruling--which upheld El Segundo’s protest on Thursday--that the team was bound by it.

“I don’t think you have shown that the American Legion has handled your appeal in a wrong, arbitrary or capricious manner--so patently unfair that your team be allowed to play,” Nisall told the Woodland Hills lawyers. “You filed the appeal, they took it, they ruled on it and you didn’t like the ruling.”

“It’s over,” Schulhofer said. “Woodland Hills is out of further play this year and there are no hard feelings.”

Woodland Hills also agreed to forgo a hearing next Friday at which time the current restraining order expires. Woodland Hills also dropped a $150,000 suit against the American Legion for damages.

“We want the reading public to know that we had absolutely no desire to subvert any Legion rules,” Schulhofer said. “The Legion understood that.”

Said El Segundo Coach John Stevenson: “I’m pleased it’s been resolved. I have sat through similar situations both as a participant and an observer and it’s been my observation that the courts generally let organizations run their own ships as long as their rules aren’t unconstitutional.

“If you overrule them, then who makes the decisions? Do judges make every decision that comes along? You have to have authority.”

American Legion State Chairman Julio Yniguez, who was in the courtroom when the decision was announced, said he was happy the controversy was over.

“I’m only glad because I’ve been awake too many nights thinking about it,” he said. “We don’t like to see this happen. It hurts the boys more than it does us and the parents.”

Yniguez ruled Aug. 5 that Woodland Hills (37-8) was disqualified from further postseason play. He said the team had violated player eligibility rules throughout the District 20 regular season and the Sixth Area tournament.

Although District 20 Commissioner Mel Swerdling approved the team’s roster at the start of the season, Yniguez said nine of the team’s 16 players were ineligible because the team had not properly counted those players’ school enrollments.

Legion rules state that a team may draw players from as many schools as they please as long as the combined enrollment of sophomores, juniors and seniors does not exceed 3,600.

The ineligible players are Mike Kerber, Adam Schulhofer, Scott Strickland and Mike Urman of Canoga Park High; Chris Billig, Scott Campbell and Derek Stark of Crespi; Pablo Suarez of Chaminade, and Greg Ruh of Calabasas.

“Actually, I’m kind of still in a state of shock,” said Suarez, a 12-0 pitcher who learned from a reporter Friday that he was one of the ineligible players.

“We had a schedule to practice Sunday,” he said. “I thought that, through court, we’d end up playing in Corvallis. I don’t know how to respond. It’s like we’ve been robbed of something. We were the best team out there. Why should we have to suffer for something we had no part in? We should just be allowed to play.”

American Legion Notes

Camarillo team manager Dan Anderson, whose team was kept out of the state tournament by the Aug. 6 temporary restraining order from Los Angeles Superior Court, was happier with Superior Court Commissioner David R. Nisall’s ruling this time. “That means we’re the Sixth Area champions,” Anderson said. He said the Legion’s national office ruling denying Woodland Hills’ appeal meant the team had to forfeit all its wins, making Camarillo the best team in the Sixth Area. “The only thing that happened is, that the best team never got to the state playoffs,” Anderson said. . . . Woodland Hills attorney Sanford Schulhofer said he wouldn’t charge American Legion State Chairman Julio Yniguez with contempt of court for not giving Woodland Hills the second-place plaque after the team lost the state championship Tuesday. The restraining order entitled Woodland Hills to full participation in the tournament. “He didn’t give us full participation, but we forgive him,” Schulhofer said. . . . Yniguez said Legion officials will meet in November, and said that may be a good time to clarify the rule book. “To us, the rules are clear, but we have to go over it with everyone. We have to explain it to them,” he said. . . . Nisall said he held the hearing in public because of the interest it had drawn and because he thought his chambers might be too small for him and the four lawyers to meet.

Woodland Hills’ Odyssey: A Chronology

July 27--Woodland Hills defeats North Hollywood, 19-6, to win District 20 playoffs and qualify for Sixth Area tournament at UCLA.

Aug. 3--Woodland Hills defeats Camarillo, 19-5, to win Sixth Area tournament and advance to state playoffs in Yountville, Calif.

Aug. 4--El Segundo, Fourth Area champion, protests to American Legion Chairman Julio Yniguez, charging Woodland Hills with violating player eligibility rules.

Aug. 5--Yniguez upholds protest and rules Woodland Hills ineligible for further play. Yniguez notifies Camarillo that it will replace Woodland Hills in the state playoffs.

Aug. 6--Woodland Hills appeals the El Segundo protest to the Legion’s national office in Indianapolis.

Aug. 7--Attorneys for Woodland Hills receive a temporary restraining order from Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner David R. Nisall, allowing the team to play in the state playoffs. The order is in force until a hearing scheduled for Aug. 22.

Aug. 8--Camarillo Manager Dan Anderson, upset that Woodland Hills will enter the tournament because of court action, threatens to have his team show up at Los Angeles International Airport to use the tickets the Legion has provided Woodland Hills for transportation. That night, he agrees to back down and not show up at the airport.

Aug. 12--Woodland Hills finishes second in the state tournament, losing the championship game to San Mateo but finishing ahead of El Segundo. Woodland Hills apparently has made the Northwest Regional playoffs Aug. 20-24 in Corvallis, Ore., but is denied the second-place plaque by Yniguez, who says final results are still pending a ruling by the Legion’s national headquarters on the appeal.

Aug. 14--Legion’s national baseball appeal board denies Woodland Hills’ appeal in a unanimous ruling called “final and conclusive.” Woodland Hills’ attorneys seek a second temporary restraining order that would govern the regional playoffs.

Aug. 15--Woodland Hills is denied a temporary restraining order by Nisall.