Failure to Attract 8 Teams Might Spell End of Tournament

The fifth International Tournament of Friendship, a six-team high school baseball tournament sponsored by Oxnard High, is scheduled to begin today despite a week of bad weather, the pullout of three foreign teams and fears that this might be the last year for the event.

The tournament includes two teams from Mexico, one from Canada and another from South Jordan, Utah, plus Oxnard and Dos Pueblos. Originally, teams from Japan, the Netherlands and the Soviet Union were invited, but they canceled their travel plans because of the war in the Persian Gulf.

Tony Diaz, the tournament director and Oxnard’s baseball coach and athletic director, traveled to Mexico earlier this year in an attempt to allay fears of terrorism in the United States among coaches of teams in Octolan, Jalisco, and Mexicali. F. P. Walshe High in Fort Mcleod in Alberta, Canada, rounds out the field.

The week’s rainstorms forced the postponement of Wednesday’s opening-round games until today, adding another headache for Diaz, who since the tournament’s inception in 1987 has been unable to schedule an eight-team event. The effort seems to have eroded his enthusiasm.

“It’s a great time, and there are no winners or losers,” he said. “There never have been and there never will be. But it’s real tedious and it’s hard to keep (the tournament) going. It was really a hassle this year. Usually we have the pairings set in December, but everybody started their plans so late that I didn’t finalize the pairings until Monday. I think we’re going to give it one more year, to try to get eight teams, but I don’t know if it will work.”

Diaz founded the tournament after participating in similar tournaments in Mexico in 1985 and 1986.

“When we got back in 1986 we thought it was a pretty nice exchange and thought we ought to try to do it over here,” Diaz said.

Games will be played at Oxnard and Dos Pueblos highs. The tournament, which is scheduled through Saturday, includes a banquet at 8 p.m. Saturday at Oxnard High.