NOTEBOOK / KIRBY LEE : Path Cleared for L.A. Court to Hear Lawsuit on Basketball Player’s Death

The state Supreme Court has cleared the path for a Los Angeles court to hear the lawsuit filed by the mother of former Lynwood High and Oregon State basketball player Earnest Killum. The court denied a review of an appeal by the state of Oregon, which argued it had jurisdiction in the case.

Killum, 20, died Jan. 20, 1992, while on a trip to Los Angeles, three days after suffering his second stroke in six months. Killum, who suffered from a rare vascular disorder, had been cleared to play a month earlier by university doctors, who reduced his dosage of anti-clotting medication that increased his susceptibility to bleeding.

The suit against the university, a Portland hospital and the state of Oregon filed by Thelma Lillard claims Killum was not properly informed of his condition, was allowed to play prematurely and was not diagnosed and treated properly.

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A minor league baseball franchise is coming to Long Beach as part of the newly formed Western Baseball League. The double-A team, part of an eight-team league, will play a 90-game schedule running from May through September.

Home games will be played at Long Beach State and nearly $1 million in renovations are planned to the field by 643 Sports Inc., the ownership group of the Long Beach franchise.

Team owners have agreed to install lights at a cost of about $250,000 and temporary bleachers to accommodate as many as 5,000 spectators. Permanent seating will be installed in upcoming years.

Other teams in the league include Palm Springs, Salins, Rohnert Park, Winnatchee, Wash., Tri Cities, Wash., Aberdeen, Wash., and Surrey, British Columbia.

Players for the league will be selected from tryout camps and a draft. Teams are restricted by a $92,000 salary cap and a maximum of six players with more than four years of professional experience and a minimum of six players who have not played professionally.

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Goodwill Series IX, an international high school baseball tournament featuring teams from the United States, Korea and Japan, is scheduled to be played Friday through Monday at Blair Field in Long Beach. Games will be played at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. daily.

The 18-player U.S. team was chosen from nearly 300 athletes at last month’s Area Code games at Blair Field.

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Dave Serrano, the pitching coach for the past seven years at Cerritos College, has been named pitching coach at the University of Tennessee.

Serrano has coached 31 players who have signed professional contracts or received Division I scholarships.

In 1991, Serrano served as interim head coach and was named the South Coast Conference coach of the year after guiding the 28-6 Falcons to the league title and within a game of the state championship.

A Cerritos High graduate, Serrano was an All-American pitcher in 1985 for the Falcons when he finished with a 12-1 record.