Legion Commissioner’s Forfeit Decision Assailed

Commissioner Mel Swerdling’s unilateral decision to overturn a forfeit in the final week of the regular season that might have affected the American Legion District 20 playoff race has drawn criticism from two umpires and a first-year coach.

The decision resulted in a victory for Woodland Hills East, which advanced to the district playoffs and then placed second to earn a berth in the Area 6 playoffs that will begin Thursday.

Umpires John Pacheco and Art Singer ruled the July 14 game a forfeit victory for Granada Hills West because of a lineup-card mix-up. They have complained that Swerdling never heard their version of the dispute. Van Nuys South Coach Alan Amitin, whose team contended for the playoffs, said Swerdling has too much power.

When asked whether he thought he should have pursued the umpires’ side of the story, Swerdling said, “You are probably right, but a decision had to be made. If not, these things drag out.”

The scenario: Woodland Hills East led Granada Hills West, 15-8, after four innings.

According to Pacheco, one of Woodland Hills East’s co-coaches--Mark and Mike Clouser are identical twins--approached him before the top of the fifth inning and said David Helman would replace Mike Ferguson and Greg Venger would replace Brandon Witkow.

They were Woodland Hills East’s only available substitutes. Pacheco has supplied his lineup card, which showed the changes, to The Times.

During the inning, Woodland Hills East’s starting center fielder, Gabe Kapler, left the game for a doctor’s appointment, leaving the team with only eight eligible players. American Legion rules prohibit teams from playing with fewer than nine, so the umpires forfeited the game to Granada Hills West.

According to a written protest filed by Woodland Hills East the day after the game, Mark Clouser stated that he intended to leave Witkow in the game and put Venger in Kapler’s spot.

Swerdling, who made the decision the day he received the protest, said he did not contact the umpires because he was expecting them to file a written explanation. Pacheco and Singer said they completed their responsibilities by reporting the forfeit to Terry Stoller, the supervisor of umpires.

Neither Stoller nor the game umpires knew that Swerdling had overturned the forfeit until they read a newspaper account on Saturday. Had Stoller known a protest had been lodged, he would have requested a written account from the umpires, he said.

Swerdling said he ruled quickly because of the lopsided score of the game and because there was little time to schedule a makeup game before the start of the playoffs.

However, the game was only 4 1/2 innings old, and therefore unofficial, the umpires said, regardless of the status of the protest.

Pacheco admitted it would have been an unfortunate way for Woodland Hills East to lose, considering the score and the importance of the game. But the team clearly broke a rule, he said.

“Who are we to arbitrarily rescind the rules?” Pacheco said. “Then (Swerdling) goes and does it. How does that make us look?”

If Swerdling had not overturned the forfeit, Woodland Hills East would have finished the regular season in a four-way tie with Van Nuys West, Van Nuys South and Palmdale East for the final two wild-card berths.

How the playoff berths would have been determined is unclear.

Swerdling said Monday that Woodland Hills East and Palmdale East still would have made the playoffs as the seventh- and eighth-seeded teams, respectively, because of a tiebreaker system that is based on head-to-head play, then record against common opponents, then divisional record.

The tiebreaker system is not spelled out in any District 20 document that is available to coaches. Swerdling said the system comes from a book he owns called “Tiebreakers.”

“I wish I would have known about this earlier,” Amitin, the Van Nuys South coach, said Monday when he first learned of Swerdling’s decision.

“It doesn’t surprise me. As hard a worker as Mel Swerdling is and as dedicated as he is to the program, this sort of thing seems to happen often in our district.

“This is my first year, but one of the things I’ve learned is there is a tremendous amount of power entrusted in one guy.”