Youth Baseball Mimics Life, and It’s All About Duplicity : Jurisprudence: Charges fly after Toluca Lake drops Little League for Pony Baseball.

Mud-slinging, shattered friendships and claims of deceit.

The next episode of Melrose Place?

No, just another day in the fight for the soul of Toluca Lake youth baseball, where a lawsuit has overshadowed games and two warring groups of parents believe they know what is best for their children.

On one side are Toluca Little League supporters who objected when the league dropped its charter and created a new affiliation with Pony Baseball. They say the move was made simply to field better teams for postseason tournaments.

On the other side are the parents of Toluca Baseball, the newly formed Pony League. They say Little League by-laws are too restrictive, that they wanted more freedom to self-govern.

Little League Baseball, headquartered in Williamsport, Pa., and Toluca Little League filed suit against Toluca Baseball in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 23, alleging that former Toluca Little League directors misappropriated cash and equipment valued at $50,000 to support the rival Pony League.

The suit asks for actual and punitive damages in excess of $100,000.

The general membership of Toluca Little League voted in December to drop its charter and create a Pony League for all age groups. Previously, Pony League was available only for youngsters 13 through 16 years old.

Little League supporters objected to the Pony League assuming control over equipment and funds that had been the Little League’s.

Little League by-laws stipulate that if a local charter is unable to function, funds and resources must be transferred to another Little League charter.

That did not happen after the break-up, according to Jim Ferguson, the attorney representing Toluca Little League.

“All of the money collected by Little League should be Little League’s,” he said. “It shouldn’t be transferred over to another baseball league.”

Toluca Baseball officials counter that the money was raised by volunteers who now support Pony Baseball. Equipment was routinely shared by the Little League and Pony League for the past five years, said Frank Miceli, president of Toluca Baseball.

“We’ve been mixing it up for too many years now,” Miceli said. “Everything got all jumbled up and nobody knew what was who’s.”

As for the cash, Miceli believes it should benefit the players.

“My business doesn’t sponsor Little League baseball,” said Miceli, whose restaurant sponsors a Pony League team. “It sponsors the kids.”

Little League supporters claim that in December the membership was duped into voting to drop the charter.

“Most of the membership was pretty apathetic,” said Mike Hirsh, a former Toluca Little League director.

“(Toluca Baseball) buffaloed everybody, saying they just wanted to change the by-laws. They didn’t say were changing from Little League to Pony League. They did it as underhanded as they could.”

The motivation was for the league to become more competitive in postseason tournaments, Little League proponents claim.

“Some of the people involved over the years have felt that we don’t do as well in tournaments as we should have,” said Diane Bryant, a past president and longtime volunteer of Toluca Little League.

“In effect, that’s what Pony Leagues are for. You can stack a team in Pony League, but what happens to the other kids who play?”

Friendships have been torn apart because of the dispute.

“There are a lot of good friends that have been lost,” Miceli said. “I wouldn’t know what to say if I went to some of these people’s houses and knocked on their door.”