City 4-A Baseball Playoffs Canceled Because of Boycott by Coaches

City Section officials Tuesday canceled their 4-A Division high school baseball playoffs, scheduled to start today, because of a coaches’ boycott stemming from the teachers’ strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The 3-A Division playoffs will start today as scheduled, Commissioner Hal Harkness said.

Harkness announced the cancellation after a poll of the 16 schools whose teams had qualified revealed that only six were willing to field teams without the coach of record. Harkness declined to name the schools. District rules dictate that the school official coaching a team must be a credentialed employee.

Despite a recommendation by the Los Angeles City Coaches Assn. that teachers honoring picket lines continue to coach their teams, a group of 18 4-A coaches voted last week to boycott the season until the strike ends.

Playoffs have continued in all other spring sports--golf, gymnastics, softball, swimming, track and volleyball.