AMERICAN LEGION NOTEBOOK : Legion Team Finds a New Way to Forfeit

The buzzword for Burbank-Providence on Saturday was, as usual, forfeit.

But the manner in which it happened . . . that’s a whole new ballgame.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of its American Legion game against Encino-Crespi at Valley College, Burbank-Providence led, 10-7.

Encino-Crespi pitcher John Dempsey hit Steve Ross with a pitch. Ross glared at Dempsey, prompting players from both benches to head to the field.

Although a major fight was averted, Ross and Dempsey were ejected along with Encino-Crespi right fielder Mark Cavarretta and Burbank-Providence’s Larry Hatley, who exchanged insults.

Minus the two players, Burbank-Providence could not field a full team and had to forfeit a game for the fifth time.

Burbank-Providence’s previous forfeits came in the wake of a controversy involving an American Legion roster regulation. The team is a new entry in District 20 this season and draws its players from the same area as Burbank-Burroughs, an established team.

According to Legion rules, Burbank-Providence can use players from Providence High, but in order to draw players from other Burbank-area high schools, Burbank-Burroughs first must grant a waiver. A player clears waivers when he receives written permission from the established team in the area, freeing him to play with a different team.

Currently, six players on Burbank-Providence have not cleared waivers from the Burbank-Burroughs team. Any games in which those players appear will be declared forfeits, provided the opposing team appeals the game.

Despite that, Burbank-Providence Coach Marc Saraceno continues to use the six players, five of whom appeared in Saturday’s game. In effect, Saraceno is rendering 1987 a lame-duck season and questions the integrity of future Burbank-Providence games.

“The thing I hate to see is if they know we’re going to forfeit, they won’t throw their best players at us. And that’s not the true reason for having American Legion baseball,” he said.

Saraceno might have nothing to worry about if Sunday’s doubleheader was any indication. Burbank-Providence’s opponent, Van Nuys-Notre Dame, played to win, regardless of the forfeit situation.

“I just told my guys what I always tell them, to go out and play straight up,” Van Nuys-Notre Dame Coach Jody Breeden said. “We played the same guys we always do.”

Van Nuys-Notre Dame swept the doubleheader from Burbank-Providence, 5-2 and 9-4. Coupled with the five forfeits, the losses dropped Burbank-Providence to 1-12 in the Eastern Division.

Keeping a positive outlook in the face of the dismal record and forfeits is Chris Westbury, one of the six players in question.

“We’ll just have to play out the string,” he said. “I just look at it now that if we are going to have to forfeit those games, hey, let’s just play the games and work on the fundamentals and hope that we will be legal next year.”

Westbury, who will be a junior at Burroughs, is a starting pitcher, left fielder, and third baseman for Burbank-Providence. Westbury’s major concern is the time he spends on the field.

“All that I want to do is play baseball better,” Westbury said. “I just want to play some ball and get some experience.”

.400 as a team? Through its first 13 games, Woodland Hills of the Western Division has the best record, 11-2, in District 20. A potent lineup has loomed large in the team’s success.

Woodland Hills, in 495 at-bats, is hitting . 402 as a team, scoring 154 runs, an average of 11.8 runs per game.

Of the 14 players on the team with 15 or more at-bats, 13 are batting better than .300. Of those 13, nine are batting .400 or better. Two players are batting better than .500: Denny Vigo is 18 for 31 for a .581 average, and Jim Wolf is 8 for 15 (.533).

Woodland Hills batted .375 last year but Coach Mitch Fair doesn’t think the team can reach the .400 mark.

“We haven’t faced the greatest pitching in the world,” he said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m putting a knock on our team, because I’m not. But we’re not that good, let’s be honest about this.”

Case in point: On June 30, Jordan Cook of Encino-Tarzana beat Woodland Hills with a no-hitter.

Mini-quiz: Fair recently won a trip for two to San Francisco by calling Stu Nahan’s KABC Sportstalk radio show and correctly answered a baseball trivia question.

Can you match baseball wits with Fair, a baseball trivia buff?

The question: Who holds the American League record for most games played at first base?

The clues: The player is not Lou Gehrig, and he played in the major leagues over a four-decade span, from 1939 through 1960.

Foul time: Encino-Crespi’s John Goetz was in a foul mood against Reseda-Cleveland on Sunday. But it isn’t that Goetz has a lousy disposition: He just couldn’t get the ball in fair territory.

In the second inning of the second game of a doubleheader, Goetz worked Reseda-Cleveland pitcher Mike Bergren to a full count. Then he fouled off eight straight pitches before walking.

“I haven’t seen anything like that in a couple of years,” Encino-Crespi Coach Craig Sherwood said.

“Every time he’d foul it off, everybody would high-five each other in the dugout.”

Doroteo expelled: Van Nuys-Grant’s best pitcher, Juan Doroteo, has been kicked off the team for an undisclosed breach of team discipline.

“Juan had obligations he failed to meet,” Van Nuys-Grant Coach John Le Conte said. “If you don’t do these things, you’re not going to be on the team.”

Le Conte set a deadline of last Thursday for Doroteo to meet the obligations, the nature of which the coach would not reveal.

Doroteo had a 2-1 record and 2.80 earned-run average in three games for Van Nuys-Grant, 4-6 and in fourth place in the Eastern Division.

Error-prone: Of the 18 runs Granada Hills pitcher Arnie Aguanaga has allowed in 23 innings this season, 14 have been unearned.

“We tend to have our problems in the field on occasion,” Granada Hills Coach Ed DeBoer said.

The miscues, however, haven’t sounded the death knell for Aguanaga. He is 3-1 with a 1.39 ERA.

Playoff hopes: Although the District 20 playoffs are nearly three weeks away, 11 teams have emerged as contenders for eight playoff spots.

The front-runners, through games of Tuesday, are:

Western Division: Woodland Hills (11-2), Chatsworth (9-2), Encino-Tarzana (11-4), Reseda-Cleveland (9-3) and Reseda (8-5).

Northern Division: Newhall-Saugus (12-3), Mission Hills (10-4) and Granada Hills (9-5).

Eastern Division: Glendale (11-3), Van Nuys-Notre Dame (10-4), Burbank-Burroughs (8-4).

Hot Henderson: Jim Henderson, the former Westlake High catcher who will play at USC next spring, has accumulated more runs batted in than hits for Westlake’s District 16 team.

After hitting .442 with 5 home runs and 28 RBIs for Westlake during the high school season, the 6-3, 200-pound player has 12 hits, a .632 batting average and 13 RBIs in 19 at-bats.

Quiz answer: The durable first baseman whom Fair correctly identified was Mickey Vernon, who played primarily for the Senators.