Fists to be Tied : Recreation Officials Knuckle Down on Violence in Park Leagues With Player Bans, Suspensions

Every year, thousands of people in the San Fernando Valley participate in softball and baseball programs sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. You won’t find any Pedro Guerreros roaming the outfields. What you will find are a lot of guys who consider themselves fortunate if at the end of seven innings their groin muscles are more or less intact and they have a few cigarettes left for the ride home. If there are any scouts in the stands, they are the kind who wear merit badges and sell cookies, not the kind with radar guns.

“It’s a great game,” said John Pierce, the Recreation and Parks senior sports supervisor for the San Fernando Valley. “Mostly, we get people who just want to have a good time and know how to keep things in perspective.”

Mostly? You mean some of these guys don’t just want to have a good time and keep things in perspective?

You mean some of them get drunk and loudly proclaim their belief that the umpire’s parents were neither married nor human?

Some of them round third base with the intention of knocking the catcher out into the street?

Some of them punch out a base-hit and then punch out the first baseman?

Some of these guys get so incensed during a game that they grab a bat and temporarily mistake the umpire for a pinata?

Yes, some do. When they do, they are gone. Ejected and suspended. In some cases they are suspended for just one game, sometimes for a season or two. In a few cases, they are suspended for life, never again to play in a Recreation and Parks event, banned forever by a committee headed by Pierce.

All who misbehave end up on what the Recreation and Parks department officially calls its Suspended Player List. Unofficially, the department calls it the Bad Boy List. Currently, there are 28 people on the list.

Umpire-bashing, opponent-bashing and even teammate-bashing isn’t confined to Recreation and Parks leagues. During a 1985 semi-pro baseball game at Hansen Dam Park in Pacoima, an ugly scene transpired. Umpire Jim Ellis was working the bases. Home plate umpire Joe Prieto called a balk on the 24-year-old pitcher, who erupted in anger, most of it directed at Ellis, who the player believed initiated the balk call.

“I remember it was on St. Patrick’s Day. My lucky day, I guess,” Ellis said.

“The pitcher was ejected for verbally attacking me, and at that point he hit me in the face with his glove. He threw it from 10 feet, right into my face. Right then I forfeited the game to the other team. Under no circumstances ever is an amateur umpire to continue a game when he’s been physically attacked like that.”

As Ellis walked quickly off the field and into the parking lot, he was confronted by the pitcher’s mother.

“She slapped me in the face, real hard,” Ellis said. “So I slapped her back. I’m not real proud of that, but that’s what I did.

“Then all hell broke loose.”

Ellis was knocked to the ground by the woman’s husband--the pitcher’s father--and then the pitcher and two of his brothers joined the attack, punching the 6-foot, 200-pound Ellis and kicking him repeatedly with their steel-cleated baseball shoes. Ellis’ attackers finally were pulled off by Prieto and other spectators. He suffered numerous bruises and cuts and a ruptured blood vessel in one eye.

“If not for Joe and the other spectators, I’m sure I wouldn’t even be around to talk about it,” Ellis said. “They were holding me and others were kicking the hell out of me and then one of them went for a baseball bat.”

Ellis sued his attackers and won a judgment in San Fernando Municipal Court against the father, who was ordered to send Ellis monthly restitution checks for medical bills and wages lost during an eight-day recovery period. Charges against the sons were dismissed.

Ellis is now an umpire in the Recreation and Parks leagues. At least one of his attackers plays softball in that league.

“We can’t ban them from our league because of what they did in another league,” Pierce said. “Some of the guys involved in the incident with Jim Ellis have played in our leagues since then. We know who they are and we keep an eye on them. We’ve had no more trouble with them.”

Another attack, although less severe, occurred last summer. Umpire Frank Tomaro, 34, was working behind the plate in a fast-pitch softball game at Sepulveda Park. A pitch hit the ground several feet in front of the plate and bounced against the batter’s leg. The batter trotted to first and two baserunners also advanced a base, under the hit-by-a-pitch rule.

Tomaro ruled that the hitter had made no attempt to get out of the way of the pitch. He called the batter back and sent the runners back to their original positions. Tomaro was suddenly swept up in a screaming protest not by the team that was batting, but by the defensive team.

“The batter argued a little, but nobody else on that team said anything,” Tomaro said. “All of a sudden, the other team’s first baseman leaves his position and charges me, screaming at me that the guy--his opponent --should be awarded first base and what an idiot I was. I was shocked. I found out later that this guy was kinda strange, that he had had this problem with other umpires . . . of arguing calls that went in his team’s favor. Don’t ask me why.”

When Tomaro felt he had taken enough abuse, he ejected the first baseman. Then the pitcher came off the mound and joined the screaming session, then the catcher. Tomaro said that in seconds the entire team had surrounded him. Because the ejected first baseman refused to leave the field, Tomaro forfeited the game to the other team.

“When I forfeited the game, these guys really came at me,” he said. “They told me I better not leave the field alone, that I better get an escort to my car because they were going to pound me, things like that. Then the first baseman spit on me. That’s always good for a nice dry-cleaning bill. Then the right-fielder grabbed a bat and ran at me. Three of his teammates tackled him. I think they saved my life. All I could think was, ‘I hope my life insurance is paid up.’

“If those guys didn’t reach him before he reached me, I really believe he would have cracked me with the bat.”

The team was suspended for the rest of the season. The first baseman who spit on Tomaro was placed on two years’ probation by the department’s executive committee. If he is ejected from another game, he will be suspended for two years. The right-fielder who threatened to hit Tomaro with the aluminum bat appeared before the committee “and humbled himself,” according to Tomaro. He is now back on the field along with the rest of his teammates.

“All in all, it doesn’t seem like they got punished very much,” said Tomaro, who still umpires in the league. “I’m kind of angry about the whole thing.”

It wasn’t Tomaro’s first bad day behind the plate. Several years ago he was umpiring in an entertainment league, with teams made up of actors and stagehands from several television shows.

“I called this big guy--about 6-1 and 250 pounds--out on strikes,” Tomaro recalled. “He wasn’t an actor. He was a nobody. He started arguing with me and I took off my mask to talk to him. As soon as I did, he punched me. When the mask came off, his fist came in.

“I went down like a folding chair at the beach.”

In that loosely organized league, there were no officials to dole out punishment to the player. Tomaro said he just took his rather large lump and went home.

“But I came right back,” he said. “I love umpiring. It seems there are always arguments and people threatening you after a game, but it usually ends right there. The next time you see them they apologize for acting like such jerks. They’re playing and competing and getting caught up in emotions. If an umpire can take it that way and not take any of it personally, then he can survive as an umpire.”

Sometimes, players ignore the umpire and attack opposing players.

“Two years ago I was working a fast-pitch game,” veteran umpire Harold Roper said. “It was a typical play at the plate. The catcher already had the ball and the runner was going to be out by at least 20 feet. Normally, in this league, you just give yourself up. You’ve made a baserunning mistake and that’s that. But this guy had different intentions.

“He just put his shoulder down and crushed this catcher. I was right on top of them. He brought his knee up and it caught the catcher right in the temple. It was a sickening thud, like throwing a rotten tomato against a brick wall.

“The catcher went down and was unconscious. The side of his head was slightly caved in. We summoned an ambulance and they rushed him to a hospital. It turned out he was OK. He had a concussion but no permanent damage.”

After the collision, Roper ejected the baserunner and then decided to end the game. He began taking notes for his report, talking to the baserunner and every player who witnessed the crash. Roper said the incident nearly made him sick.

“Running into a catcher like that is against everything that Park and Rec ball stands for,” Ellis said, who witnessed the incident. “It’s against everything we try to do out there. When I started talking to the baserunner I noticed he had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. I’m not saying he was drunk, because I’m not a police officer or a doctor, but there was a very strong odor of alcohol. His teammates were even disgusted at him. They escorted him off the field and put him in his car.”

The baserunner was suspended for life.

In the same year, Roper was involved in another violent confrontation in a slow-pitch softball game. One of the catchers began a steady stream of distasteful dialogue with opposing batters in the first inning.

“He was just one of those real irritating guys, constantly chirping at the batters. He was just one of those irresponsible pain-in-the-ass kind of guys, and he never let up,” Roper said.

In the fifth inning, Mr. No Friends became a baserunner.

“The catcher on the other team was one of those hard-nosed physical players that you don’t want to run into,” Roper said. “One of those guys who doesn’t say much and you don’t want him to say much, especially to you. Well, here comes the guy with the big mouth around third base, and this other catcher decides it’s time to shut this guy’s mouth.

“He tagged the runner with more physical violence than what is needed, if you get my drift. The catcher made the tag and then continued to tag him. He tagged him in the face with his mitt, he tagged him in the face with his glove, he tagged him in the face with his right fist and he tagged him in the face with a knee. And he just kept tagging him, if you know what I mean.

“He just beat the crap out of this guy.”

A few seconds later there was a 20-man pile at the plate.

“I had to eject the second catcher, the one who made the tag, because he started the brawl,” Roper said. “He got a long suspension, even though most people would say that the guy he beat up got what he deserved. The player that reacts violently like that and commits bodily harm on another person, he’s the worst.”

Darryl Griff, 28, of Van Nuys, was involved in a brawl at Balboa Park in Encino in 1982 and hasn’t played in a Recreation and Parks league since. He said the umpire’s actions during the fight may have prevented serious injury.

“It was a meaningless game, two teams playing for last place,” Griff recalled. “But the other team had a bad attitude. I was running the bases and as I rounded second their second baseman pushed me down real hard. He really knocked me down. So I gave him a push. I wasn’t really trying to start a fight, but I had to even things up. He knocked me down, I knocked him down and let’s get on with the game.

“But the next thing I know the guy’s swinging at me. Then another guy hit me from behind. I was out of it for about minute. I was pretty groggy. He really cold-cocked me. A second later, everyone’s going at it.

“The umpire didn’t have any control over it, but the first thing he did was run to both benches and grab all the bats and he held on to them. I guess that was a pretty good idea. We were really going at it and I think someone would have picked up a bat eventually.”

All of the players were suspended. Most are playing again, after being cleared by the executive committee. Griff, however, never appeared before the committee and has been on the suspended list ever since the fight.

“Someday maybe I’ll play in their league again,” Griff said. “Maybe I’ll try to clear things up with them. But there are other ways to play softball. I have friends and we play every Sunday. That’s enough for me.”

Umpire Terry German became a boxing referee and then a football player during a softball game last month on that same field at Balboa Park. There was a collision between a baserunner and the first baseman and both came up swinging. German jumped in and broke up that fight.

“I ejected both of them, and one of them, a guy who was obviously drinking, came back onto the field with a bat and went after the other guy,” German said. “He was screaming, ‘I’m gonna kill you.’ I intercepted him and tackled him. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do, but as soon as I had him corraled a half a dozen other players came out and got the guy.

“That guy is gone. He’ll never play again.”

In addition to players attacking umpires and players attacking their opponents, there are also cases of players attacking one of their teammates. Gordon Coulsell of Chatsworth was involved in one of those incidents. It happened in 1985 during a slow-pitch softball game at Chatsworth Park. Coulsell, now 29, was the manager of his team and a player.

“I was playing right-center and this other guy was playing left-center,” Coulsell said. “We had a disagreement during an inning about who was playing where or something. After the third out he ran over to me and we got in an argument and he punched me. It was a one-punch fight. He broke my nose and I had to have an operation to put it back together.”

The player who punched Coulsell was ejected by the umpire. Coulsell’s heavily bleeding nose forced him out of the game, too, but the umpire did not eject him from the game.

“Two weeks later, I get a letter saying I’m suspended,” said Coulsell, who said he could not recall the name of the teammate who punched him. “The day I had to appear before the board I was working in Long Beach and couldn’t get away. I called them to tell them that, but they said I was suspended until I did appear. Their next meeting was three months away. I appeared before the board last fall and got reinstated, but they made me miss the entire 1986 summer season.

“And all I did was get punched in the nose.”

The Recreation and Parks department rule is that anyone involved in a fight is suspended until he appears before the executive committee.

Other players have been suspended for swearing at other players or swearing at umpires.

Marc Danny, 24, of Reseda, was found guilty of that offense two years ago. He was suspended for a year.

“The umpire was just so incompetent,” Danny said. “He did everything wrong, but what really took the prize was a ground ball up the middle, a live ball, and the umpire bent down and picked it up, just like he was playing. That really got to me. I started a big argument, a big confrontation with him. I told him he was incompetent. He was an older guy and I told him he should be playing golf and told him to quit wasting our time.

“Then it got dirty.”

Some have been suspended simply for playing too much. Alan Kingsley of Canoga Park is one of those. He likes to play softball. A lot. But the Recreation and Parks department allows a person to play on just two teams at a time, ensuring that there will be room for all who want to play. Kingsley was playing in as many as five games a week. Not all, however, under the name Alan Kingsley.

He was discovered and suspended for a year.

“I was playing outside the rules,” said Kingsley, 25. “I enjoyed playing four or five times week, so I kept playing on different teams. And maybe not with the same name.

“I got caught and they made an example of me. I tried to explain to them why I did it, that I just liked softball a lot, but they didn’t care. I was going down before I even talked to them.”

Kingsley was reinstated last August and plans to resume his career this spring, using just his own name.

The problems are not confined to the San Fernando Valley. Similar incidents have occurred throughout the Los Angeles area, at venues as different as Evergreen Recreation Center in the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. to Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills Park and Recreation Center just south of Beverly Hills.

John Vernell and Huey Walton have worked those parks and many others in and around the downtown area. Vernell is 73 and has been umpiring softball and baseball games for 35 years. Walton is 65 and has worked as an umpire for the past 11 years. Both have seen much from behind home plate.

“Just a few years ago, when I was 70, I had to jump in and break up a fight during a game at Eagle Rock Playground,” Vernell said. “It wasn’t the first fight I’ve had to stop. I hope it was the last.

“The real problem at a lot of the parks I work at is dope. I see it all the time, guys smoking it or whatever. I’m sure some of the players use it. I see guys acting pretty weird sometimes and I know they’re on something. The police always patrol the parks, but you can see them coming. I watch guys toss bags of stuff onto the roof of the recreation building. When the police leave, they go up after it.”

Walton recalled an incident that occurred during one of his games two years ago at Westchester Park, adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport. It was a brawl between teammates on a slow-pitch softball team.

“The left fielder was having a rough time in the field and at bat, and his own third baseman started making fun of him,” Walton said. “The third baseman was an overbearing kind of guy. I had ejected him from a game at the same park just a week earlier. Somehow he got reinstated in a week.

“When these two guys took the field about the fourth inning, the third baseman just walked over to his left fielder and punched him. Knocked him right on his butt. I threw him out of the game right away and he was suspended for a year. I had never seen anything like that before. I thought only the New York Yankees did that stuff.”

Alcohol, which is banned at all times from city parks, causes its share of problems. Umpires automatically eject any player seen drinking, and most eject any player who smells of alcohol.

“All players are told before their first game that no alcohol, under any circumstances, is allowed,” Pierce said. “Because we’ve enforced it so well, it’s become less of a problem. But people still bring beer to the parks on occasion.”

Recreation and Parks officials and umpires insist that what takes place on the field is mostly friendly competition.

“You have to realize that 99 1/2 per cent of all of the people who participate in our programs are excellent people,” said German, an umpire for 27 years who has worked for the Recreation and Parks department since 1979.

“The problem is a minor one,” Pierce said.

Jim Ellis, who found himself at the bottom of an angry family pile two years ago, hasn’t walked away from sports.

“I’d be foolish to say I haven’t been afraid out there on the field since the day I was attacked,” he said. “But I’m an efficient official, and I’ve had a lot more pats on the back from players than kicks in the pants. You run into a helluva lot of nice people out there.”

Said umpire Roper: “We’ve got bats lying around out there. That’s a very dangerous thing. We’re always wary of the fact that there are bats out there.”

DR, RICHARD MILHOLLAND / For The Times DR, RICHARD MILHOLLAND / For The Times