South L.A.-Simi Game Seeks Unity

In one of the more unusual community service projects spawned by the Los Angeles riots, a Simi Valley woman is organizing a softball game that will pit Simi Valley police officers against residents of South Los Angeles.

Susan Davenport, 43, said she hopes the game, set for Aug. 1 in a Simi Valley park, will draw 1,000 spectators and help improve relations between the communities.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about people from Simi Valley and about people from South-Central,” Davenport said.

The game will show South Los Angeles residents that “Simi Valley is not a racist city,” she said. And Simi Valley residents will see that “not everyone in South-Central Los Angeles is a gang member.”

Davenport said she has received some negative comments from local residents about her plan.

“I think there is some apprehension,” particularly because of the disturbances and arrests that occurred during a counterdemonstration at a recent white supremacist rally there, she said.

But she said the response from residents has generally been enthusiastic.

Mayor Greg Stratton and other officials said they do not expect outbreaks of racial hostilities at the game.

Davenport, an accountant at an Inglewood computer company, got the idea for the game after she and a black co-worker discussed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial and the ensuing riots.

Her co-worker, Jan Hardy, 38, coaches the softball team for KJLH-FM, a South Los Angeles radio station owned by pop singer Stevie Wonder.

Hardy said she initially said “no way” when Davenport suggested a softball game between the KJLH team and Simi Valley residents.

But Hardy warmed up to the idea as a way to dispel negative stereotypes of blacks.

Hardy’s softball team has six men and seven women, including her. The team has included Anglos and Latinos, but all the current players are black.

“I want the residents of Simi Valley to know we’re human beings just like them,” Hardy said.

Hardy said a softball game is an ideal situation for Simi Valley and South Los Angeles residents to mix. “It’s outside, it’s fresh air, it’s not in a stuffy office building where everybody’s going to put on airs,” she said.

About 400 to 500 South Los Angeles residents are expected to attend the event, including 250 members of First African Methodist Episcopal and Bethel AME churches in Los Angeles, Hardy said.

It was Hardy who suggested that the Simi Valley team include local police officers to send the message that South Los Angeles residents “still respect police officers,” she said.

Simi Valley Police Detective Gene Hostetler, 43, who is organizing the game’s home team, said some officers have told him not to expect many local residents to attend.

But generally, “Everybody’s enthused about playing,” he said. “It’s not going to be a grudge match. Whoever wins, wins.”

The event is scheduled to be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park.