When It Comes to City Playoff Baseball, the Bases Are Loaded

The section is called the City, but its baseball playoffs promise to be as wide open as rolling countryside.

The tournament begins after the regular season concludes Tuesday, culminating in the final at Dodger Stadium in three weeks. Valley teams almost always face one another for the 4-A Division championship, and this season a full bat rack of clubs believe they can get there.

“Contrary to the last four or five years, there is no dominant team,” said El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio, whose team is two-time defending champion. “Everybody is equal in that first playoff game. It’s what you do today, not what you did for 25 games.”

With a .352 team batting average and four dependable pitchers, Kennedy (21-4) is a slight favorite. The Golden Cougars had a 14-game winning streak snapped by Granada Hills on Thursday, but after having been eliminated deep in the playoffs the past two seasons, the North Valley League champions have their eyes on the prize.

East Valley champion Poly (18-5) and Mid-Valley champion Monroe (17-8) each must ride the arm of a single dominant pitcher. None of the top 40 batting averages among area City players are from Poly and although Monroe hits well behind Ray Rodriguez, David Lusk and Josh Miranda, the Vikings’ defense has been inconsistent.

Fortunately for Monroe, not much defense is needed behind right-hander Wayne Nix, the area’s top professional pitching prospect. Nix is 9-2 with an earned-run average under 0.50, has 117 strikeouts in 74 innings and has pitched a no-hitter and two one-hitters in his last three starts.

Poly’s Hugo De La Torre leads the Valley with 16 appearances and is 9-2 with three saves and an earned-run average under 1.00. Tony Iovino (four saves) gives the Parrots another strong arm, but no one on the team is batting better than Steve Guerrero’s .338.

Chatsworth (15-9) has not played up to expectations, but Coach Tom Meusborn believes that is changing--and not a moment too soon.

“We’re headed in the right direction,” said Meusborn, whose team has lost to El Camino Real in the final two years in a row. “Early on, we were worried about stats and about who was gonna play where and who wasn’t playing. Finally we said, you know what, it’s time to play baseball and win games.”

The return of Ray Daryabigi, academically ineligible for the first 18 games, has been a plus. Daryabigi had three hits and pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings in the Chancellors’ 3-0 victory over El Camino Real last week.

Sylmar (17-7) can’t be counted out, not with eight starters batting over .300. Chris Ruley has 30 runs batted in and Rene Zavala is batting almost .400. Rafael Velazco (8-1) has allowed only 33 hits in 60 innings and gives the Spartans an ace, but they have had difficulty finding a consistent second starter.

As for El Camino Real (16-8-1), never count out the two-time defending champion even if this year’s edition is inexperienced. Soft-throwing junior left-hander Mike Conn has walked only seven in 49 innings and sophomore right-hander Shaun Fishman has come on strong.

Sleepers include Granada Hills (15-9) and Birmingham (15-10). The Highlanders rely on a one-two pitching punch of Josh Goldberg and Jessie Carrenza, the hitting of Jared Penwarden and Jarrett Gold, and the senior leadership of shortstop Jimmy Landress.

Birmingham has surprised opponents behind Ecuadorean transfer Fernando Centeno and catcher Jimmy Uline, a pair of .400 hitters. Centeno leads the area with 13 doubles.

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Individual players have flourished on some of the weaker City teams.

Reseda boasts three standout hitters, including Brian Menkin, the only area City player batting over .500. Bobby Carrera and Matt Rutter are well over .400.

Mike Schultz of Cleveland has pitched much better than his 5-7 record indicates, posting a 1.18 ERA in an area-leading 77 innings.

Taft’s Greg Venger, Grant’s Walter Rios, and San Fernando’s Javier Navarro have produced offensively playing for teams with losing records.

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Mike Scyphers, the scrappy Simi Valley High baseball coach, can be irritating, stubborn, sharp-tongued, pugnacious, argumentative and maddeningly arrogant--a giant-sized, strutting ego compressed into an undersized, wiry body.

We grant those traits and have witnessed them in ample portions throughout his 17-year career. Still, he’s the best high school coach in the area, an inspired teacher of the game whose teams have been characterized by crisp, alert play and high-spirited aggressiveness.

And now his bosses--Principal Kathryn Scroggin with the apparent blessing of the Simi Valley Unified School District--have forced him to resign over the flimsiest of offenses.

In 17 years, Simi Valley has averaged 20 victories a season, posting a 343-113 record, and has won nine Marmonte League titles. His teams were ranked No. 1 nationally in 1986 and 1993. Scyphers has sent 11 players to professional baseball, including current major leaguers Scott Radinsky and Tim Laker. Numerous others have played in college.

Other than the parents of those in his program, the only people more fiercely loyal to the 42-year-old coach have been the players themselves.

So, what crimes has Scyphers committed to warrant his ouster? When the dust settles, they amount to administrative indiscretions no more serious than stealing paper clips.

The trouble started a year ago when Scyphers was suspended while the district and Simi Valley police investigated charges that he mishandled team discipline and finances.

That sounds ominous, but when the cops dropped the case and Scyphers was reinstated and rehired as coach, we learned that the coach had accepted $2,000 in donations and spent it on the program and his assistant coaches.

He admitted the offenses, pointing out that he didn’t pocket a dime. But he didn’t follow proper channels. The district is supposed to receive and distribute outside money.

OK, so call Scyphers on the carpet, even punish him for the indiscretion. In fact, he was punished. His suspension cost him the final seven games of the season.

We also learned that the Pioneers’ longstanding practice of “the block”--in which players bid small sums of money for the right to paddle teammates who have broken team rules--violates the state education code.

So, Scyphers scrapped the practice, even though his teams had voted each year since 1980 to continue it.

Scyphers ran into more trouble this year when Ray Rainer accused the coach of phoning his son, Mike, and persuading him to remain with the Simi Valley program instead of enrolling at Royal. Rainer did transfer to Royal and Scyphers was found to have violated the Southern Section’s undue-influence rule and was suspended for six games.

Might be the first time a coach has been penalized for losing a player to another school.

This week it was revealed that the six-game suspension was only part of the penalty--Scyphers also had been forced to resign, effective at season’s end.

Now, after the Pioneers lost a controversial coin flip Saturday that will keep them out of the playoffs, Scyphers’ Simi Valley career is over.

The scales don’t balance. The punishment far exceeds the crimes. This man should not be driven from the profession.

“They make it so it’s not even fun anymore,” Scyphers said Saturday. “It’s been made miserable for me. If someone wants you out, they’re gonna get you.”

We agree that Scyphers can be a handful. Because of his outspokenness, he’s probably a difficult employee. Large bureaucracies, especially school districts which seem to delight in devising arcane rules that defy logic, have little tolerance for opinionated, strong-willed individuals.

We find it hard to ignore Scyphers’ contention that he became a marked man. He already has served two suspensions for his crimes. To force him to resign seems downright vindictive.

At least Scyphers seems to have made some peace with the decision.

“I thrive on the joy of competition,” he said. “They can’t take that away from me. They can’t take my integrity away from me. They can’t take my competitive spirit away from me. But they can take my job away.

“I don’t want this . . . job.”

* Contributing: John Lynch.

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WHO’S HOT . . .

* Brian Fortman, senior center fielder at Moorpark High, batted .654 (17 for 26) with 14 runs, five RBIs and eight stolen bases in his last nine games.

* Ventura catcher Monty Moritz is 10 for 18 with two home runs in his last five games.

* Simi Valley outfielder Robert Comeau was four for seven in two games.

* Ventura’s Karissa Tidwell was four for seven with a two-run home run in two victories.

* Four players at Montclair Prep finished the regular season with batting averages higher than .400. Josh Persell (.429), Joe Cohen (.426), Brandon Michaels (.413) and Andrew Miller (.408) are all Mountie starters.

* Faith Baptist’s Judd Granzow hit four home runs and had 11 RBIs in three games. Granzow has 10 home runs this season.