SOUTH-CENTRAL : $69,000 Grant for Little League Field

A diamond in the rough may soon become the star of Martin Luther King Park. The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles has awarded the park and Little League Baseball Inc. a $69,000 grant for the construction of a baseball stadium.

“Hopefully (this) will help put a facility there because there is a lack of good facilities in the area for the kids,” said Barry Zepel, a spokesman for the foundation.

The money will be used to upgrade the current baseball diamond as well as build bleachers by April, 1995, at the park at 3916 Western Ave.

“We have no regulation Little League facility in the South-Central area,” said Jackie Tatum, general manager for the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks. “We have ball diamonds but there is no Little League field with two dugouts and a grass infield.”

The cost of the improvements and stands is about $169,000, Tatum said. The city will use additional donations from the Hilton Foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers to refurbish the diamond.

The Amateur Athletic Foundation, whose funding comes from the surplus of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, awards grants to youth sports programs and organizations.