Has the Strike Struck Out Baseball? Coaches Hope Not

Several L.A. City 4-A baseball coaches remain optimistic that their season will be extended even if the teachers strike is not settled until after the start of playoffs Wednesday.

However, City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness has not wavered from his statement that the season will be canceled if boycotting 4-A coaches do not field teams by the opening round.

“If they don’t play Wednesday, there won’t be any playoffs,” Harkness said Tuesday. “If the coaches think otherwise, that’s their prerogative. It doesn’t matter what they think.”

South Bay coaches seemed surprised by the deadline, considering the school year doesn’t end until June 23 and there would be sufficient time to make up games if the strike was settled within two or three weeks.

“Isn’t that something?” said San Pedro Coach Jerry Lovarov when informed of Harkness’ ultimatum. “I guess the only thing we can hope for is that they can settle the strike by Friday or early next week.

“I hope we never get to the point where we have to cancel the season. I could roll with it, but I’d feel sorry for the kids, especially the seniors. I could come back and coach next year, but they couldn’t come back and play.”

Banning Coach Syl Saavedra believes Harkness is bluffing in an effort to pressure 4-A coaches into abandoning the boycott. All 12 of Tuesday’s 4-A regular-season finales were canceled, including the showdown between Banning and San Pedro for the Southern-Pacific Conference title.

“I still think everything is negotiable,” Saavedra said, adding that the season could be extended. “If we don’t play at Dodger Stadium, who cares?”

The city finals are scheduled June 1 at Dodger Stadium. If the season was extended, the finals might have to be held at another ballpark.

“I think (Harkness) is trying to tell us something,” Saavedra said. “But don’t tell the kids they can’t play. If they’re going to punish me, fine.”

Saavedra believes the 4-A baseball coaches might meet for a second time to decide whether or not to boycott the playoffs. The 4-A coaches voted Monday to suspend the season despite a recommendation last week by the L.A. City Coaches Assn. that allowed coaches to honor picket lines and direct their teams after school.

All but one of the 24 City 4-A baseball coaches honored the boycott Tuesday. The lone holdout, Westchester Coach Ron Kasparian, was awarded a forfeit over Palisades but failed to qualify for the playoffs because the Venice-University game was ruled a “no contest” by Harkness.

Westchester needed a victory and a Venice loss to tie Venice for third place in the Western League and force a playoff for the league’s final 4-A playoff berth. Kasparian had hoped the Venice-University cancellation would result in a double forfeit.

The veteran coach was upset when informed otherwise.

“Then we’re done,” he said Tuesday night. “That’s ridiculous. I can’t believe that. It just eliminates us.”

However, don’t expect Kasparian to receive sympathy from coaching colleagues.

Said Banning’s Saavedra: “If I had his team on my schedule, I would say: ‘Hey buddy, I’m not going to play you.’ I couldn’t bring myself to play a guy who wants to win at all costs.”

The next round of the L.A. City 4-A baseball season is Friday when four third-place teams are scheduled in two wild-card games to determine the final two berths in the 16-team bracket.

Gardena is supposed to play Birmingham of Van Nuys and El Camino Real of Woodland Hills is scheduled to play Cleveland of Reseda, although nobody is quite sure where those games are to be played.

“No one has said anything to me about it,” said Gardena Coach Mike Sakurai, whose team finished behind San Pedro and Banning in the Pacific League. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

The winner of the Gardena-Birmingham game will meet top-seeded Chatsworth in the first round of the playoffs. Chatsworth routed Gardena, 29-4, in the opening round last season.

Asked if he was looking forward to a possible rematch, Sakurai said: “No, no, no. I’ve been through enough punishment already.”

How high are emotions running in the teachers strike?

Banning teacher and assistant football coach Rocky Garibay was charged with assault on a school employee Wednesday morning after he allegedly struck and spit at a substitute teacher.

Two swimmers and one diver from peninsula high schools captured individual titles at the CIF-Southern Section divisional finals Saturday at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Debra Kory of Rolling Hills won two swimming events in the 3-A finals, Sara Marsh of Palos Verdes set a 3-A record in springboard diving and Jessica Tong of Chadwick turned in one of the most impressive performances by a freshman at the 2-A finals.

Kory set a 3-A record with a time of 1:05.87 in the 100-meter breaststroke and won the 100 butterfly in 58.00. Marsh dominated the diving competition by amassing 480.90 points and Tong won the 50 freestyle in 24.28.

Tong’s time was better than the winning mark in the 3-A finals and would have placed fifth in the elite 4-A finals.

Tong is “just naturally talented,” Chadwick Coach Bryan Weaver said. “She has strong legs and she’s very competitive. She has about eight years of swimming background behind her.”

Weaver said Tong holds six national top-16 rankings in her age group.

Palos Verdes basketball Coach John Mihaljevich, who coached current NBA players Bill Laimbeer of the Detroit Pistons and Mark Acres of the Boston Celtics, will conduct two three-week clinics this summer for boys entering fifth through eighth grades.

The clinics cost $150 and are limited to the first 30 boys who enroll. The first clinic will run from June 26 to July 14 and the second will run from July 17 to Aug. 4 at Palos Verdes High.

Applications can be obtained at the Rolling Hills Estates City Hall or by contacting Mihaljevich at Palos Verdes High.

PREP NOTES--Joy Jackson of Chico High and Caleb Roope of Yosemite High in Oakhurst have been named the 1988-89 Scholar Athletes of the Year by the State CIF. Jackson competes in track, volleyball and basketball while Roope participates in wrestling, baseball and football. Both carry perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Palos Verdes distance runner Ashley Black and Miraleste tennis player Kim Po were among the 10 girls finalists . . . Black and Blake Boggess of Palos Verdes have been invited to compete in the mile at the Jack in the Box Invitational track meet Aug. 6 at UCLA . . . Erec Fitzgerald, a senior pitcher for Newbridge School in Los Angeles and a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes, has signed a letter of intent to play baseball for Chapman College in Orange. The 6-foot-3 right-hander transferred from Rolling Hills High after his sophomore year . . . Juliana Yendork of Walnut set a CIF-Southern Section 2-A record in the triple jump with a mark of 40-5 1/2 at the divisional prelims, eclipsing the record of 40-1 1/2 set last year by Althia Moses of Morningside. In the 1-A prelims, Netta Perkins of Palo Robles won the triple jump with a mark of 37-6 to break the record of 37-0 1/4 set by Redondo’s Anna Ralph in 1984.