SIMI VALLEY : Adult Softball Team Is Unity Games Winner

The stands were far from full, but that didn’t stop the softball players in the Fourth Annual Unity Games from competing fiercely in the hot Los Angeles sun Saturday.

The teams from Simi Valley and South Central Los Angeles split their games, with the Simi Valley adults winning 10 to 7, and the youths from the Foshay Learning Center in South Central defeating their suburban counterparts, 13 to 10.

About 40 Simi Valley residents--half of them players--turned out for the game at Jesse Owens Park in Los Angeles, while about 100 South Central residents attended.

“I’m a little disappointed,” said Keith Jajko, a Simi Valley native who played in the game. “I know a lot of these people here commute five days a week on the freeways and they just don’t want to do it on the weekend.”

South Central organizers have complained that the Ventura County community has lost interest in the games, which started in 1992 to heal a rift that developed when a jury in Simi Valley failed to convict four police officers accused of beating Rodney King.

Jajko said he is hoping to turn next year’s Unity Games in Simi Valley into a tournament, drawing teams from across Ventura County.