Officials Hope It’s Last Time : Little League: Delay in Williamsport action allowed for almost daily innuendo and countercharges.

The controversy that rocked Little League baseball and forced the Philippines to forfeit its World Series title began as a simple disagreement between two Filipino Little League officials, then escalated to a cover-up that was compounded by Little League’s slow response to the crisis, interviews and news reports show.

Late Thursday, Little League officials stripped the Zamboanga City team of the World Series crown it won last month and awarded a forfeit victory to the Long Beach team it beat in the championship game, 15-4.

But accusations that the Filipinos were overage or lived outside of Zamboanga City, in violation of Little League rules, plagued the team from the day it was welcomed home by a ticker-tape parade in Manila on Sept. 2.

Then early Thursday, the original Zamboanga City coach corroborated some of the allegations.

In a story that appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Coach Eduardo Toribio claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed and that several of the players on the championship team were ringers.

Toribio apparently had fallen into disfavor with Armando Andaya, the district administrator. Andaya admitted Friday that he had stacked the Philippine team with ringers and changed the coach, both violations of Little League policy.

Andaya told Philippine consulate spokesman Roy Gorre that he initially intended only to discipline the Zamboanga City coach by removing him from the team and replacing him with Rodolpho Lugay, a national baseball hero.

According to Gorre, Toribio and Andaya had had a falling out over the way Toribio was handling donations to help defray expenses for the Zamboanga City team, which had won the Philippine national tournament.

Andaya, who resigned Friday, added eight players from cities in and around Manila--540 miles north of Zamboanga City. According to Little League Western Regional Director Carlton E. Magee, two of the ringers were members of a baseball league not affiliated with Little League.

But when it arrived in Williamsport, Pa., the Philippine team was the talk of the town. The Filipinos had just beaten the powerful Taiwanese team and were said to have been told by Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos to bring home the gold to atone for the Philippines’ poor showing in the Olympic Games, where the country won one bronze medal.

The Philippines lost only once in a meaningless game with Latin America. When the team defeated Long Beach, several thousand Filipino fans gave them a rousing send-off in Williamsport.

But during the weeklong series, Lugay acknowledged that he had recently been appointed coach and that sparked the controversy.

When more charges surfaced, Filipino Little League officials denied them vigorously, first at a news conference in Los Angeles, then in stories in the Filipino press.

Sergio B. Bernal, the executive director of Little League Baseball, Philippines, Inc. read a rambling statement at the news conference that called the charges “baseless.” He blamed a rival baseball organization for planting stories in the Filipino press that were intended to discredit “our Filipino boys (who) so convincingly won the World Series.”

Later, when Toribio spoke out, he was portrayed as a malcontent who was shooting off his mouth.

Little League officials compounded the controversy when they initially refused to investigate, despite Lugay’s statement. But they realized their mistake Sept. 8, when they received box scores from the Philippines’ national tournament, which proved that there had been tampering with the Zamboanga City lineup.

Although criticized by Long Beach officials for acting slowly, First Vice President Steve Keener said from Little League headquarters in Williamsport Friday that the final decision had to be made that way.

“We’re not good at doing this,” Keener said. “We’ve never had to do it and we hope we don’t have to do it again.”

Still, the delay in Little League’s response allowed for almost daily innuendo and countercharges from both sides.

Threatened with a national government investigation Friday, Andaya was still sticking to his guns. He said he had made the changes for “justifiable reasons,” then blamed the United States for being poor sports.

“The Americans in Williamsport just could not take it at the hands of the Filipinos,” he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Columnists and commentators in the Philippines blamed Andaya and his staff for embarrassing the country.

One, Francisco Evangelista was quoted as saying: “Because of the intense desire to win by all means, the spirit of sportsmanship loses its meaning. Because of braggadocio and desire for being the champion, we have sacrificed our young players and we lost face in the country and in the eye of the world.”

Long Beach officials believe there is a silver lining.

Said team Manager Larry Lewis: “Perhaps by taking this kind of action, (Little League) ensured that this will not happen again. Hopefully, this will allow the World Series to bring joy to future Little Leaguers.”