Walnut : Softball Strikes Out

The Invaders have been turned away.

The Walnut girls softball team struck out in its bid to use the city’s Suzanne Park as the site of a 45-team tournament the weekend before Thanksgiving. The City Council last week voted 4 to 1 to deny the application.

Residents living near the park had complained that previous softball tournaments created massive parking, noise and litter problems.

“There would be 1,200 cars in my rose garden,” complained Tommy Smith, president of the Gartel-Fuerte Homeowners Assn.

He said 42 of the 45 teams would have come from outside Walnut, prompting a neighbor, Maurice Cofer, to gripe: “We do not know these people. They are not our people.”

Councilman William Choctaw, who cast the only dissenting vote, lamented the loss in snack bar sales revenue for the Walnut Youth Softball Assn.