Divisions Deepen Over ‘Safety’ Baseball Issue : Recreation: Laguna Niguel controversy takes a new twist as 80 parents secede from Little League.

A continuing controversy over the use of a so-called “safety” baseball took yet another turn Friday, when parents advocating use of the ball bolted from a local Little League chapter and formed their own branch of a competing league.

Saying they tried in vain to work within the system, the group of about 80 parents in this upscale community complained about being rebuffed in recent elections to the board of Rancho Niguel Little League, which last year bitterly opposed the rival faction’s efforts.

“Several of the board members said, ‘If you don’t like our rules, make up your own.’ So, in essence, we decided to do that,” said Felicia Breshears, 28, whose twin sons were among those at the center of the controversy.

As the latest outgrowth of what one of the parents called “Ballgate,” the group will introduce to Southern California the Palo Alto-based Youth Baseball Athletic League, which, since 1988, has grown to 10 leagues in 16 cities in Northern California.

The YBAL, as it’s called, uses only the safety ball, a polyurethane foam alternative to the traditional hardball which is said to cause fewer injuries.

“It’s a very sad situation,” said YBAL founder and league commissioner Chuck Alley, of the controversy in Laguna Niguel. “Little League has really got some blinders on when it comes to the future of kids’ baseball. There’s been a national outcry among people wanting to go to the safety ball, and the only reason they can come up with for keeping the hardball is tradition. But in my opinion, adherence to tradition is what’s killing baseball.”

Dayton Meyer, the president of Rancho Niguel Little League and an opponent of the parents’ efforts to introduce the safety ball, declined comment on their move to secede.

The new league will begin play on a private field in Laguna Niguel with an “informational picnic” scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 30 in Crown Valley Park. So far, the city has not made public fields available, which Alley said may require the intervention of YBAL’s law firm.

Alley cited YBAL’s status as a nonprofit corporation and the fact that Laguna Niguel’s fields are public fields as giving the new league equal status with more established Little League chapters.

But Pamela Lawrence, assistant to the city manager of Laguna Niguel, said the new league is being denied because the city simply has no space available on existing fields.

“We just don’t have a place to put them,” Lawrence said Friday. “It just boils down to the fact that we’re full up--and nothing more.”

Lawrence said she encouraged Alley to present his case “to the commission of parks and recreation, but he didn’t seem to want to. If the commission wishes to make space available, it’s their decision. But I don’t know where they’d find any.”

What about next year?

“I doubt that it would be any better,” Lawrence said. “Little League was here first.”

The dispute that drew national attention began here in May, when the rival faction cited studies that showed 73% fewer injuries among children who use the RIF--or reduced injury factor--ball, especially in lower-age divisions.

They noted that the size and stitching--even the smell--of the safety ball is identical to that of the hardball. What’s inside the balls makes them dramatically different, and therein lies the conflict.

The core of the safety ball is a substance made of foam, as opposed to the natural wool yarn or coarse synthetic fiber found in hardballs. Its softer core gives the ball a light, almost delicate, feel.

Advocates say safety measures are part of a nationwide trend sweeping youth-league play. State legislatures in New York, Georgia, Texas, Michigan and Tennessee recently passed resolutions urging children’s baseball organizations to adopt stronger safety measures.

And five cities--Ann Arbor, Mich.; Toledo, Ohio; Rockville, Md.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Roanoke, Va.--recently mandated the use of youth safety baseballs and softballs in affiliated league play.

In 1991, the National Summit for Safety in Youth Baseball Softball--a symposium endorsed by then-President Bush--advocated the use of softer balls as “a minimum requirement . . . for reducing the incidence and severity of head injuries and soft tissue injuries in youth baseball and softball.”

The symposium featured statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which notes that since 1973, more than 250 baseball-related deaths to people of all ages have been reported to the agency, representing an average of 10 to 12 a year. Children ages 5 to 14 were the victims in about one-third of the 250 reported deaths, the agency said.

But officials for Little League Inc. in Williamsport, Pa., counter by saying that although injuries--even deaths--have occurred on its playing fields, its safety record in 56 years is remarkably good and thus fails to warrant favoring one ball over another.

However, Little League officials say that some of their chapters do use safety balls, and furthermore, it’s a battle they don’t care to wage. The type of ball used in Little League play is left entirely to individual chapters throughout the country.

Proponents of the traditional hardball here and elsewhere cite conflicting studies, including one by the Institute for Preventive Sports Medicine in Ann Arbor, Mich., that contradicts three other studies--all financed by a prominent manufacturer of safety balls.

But after a controversy that featured coverage by network television, the board of Rancho Niguel Little League relented to some extent last spring, allowing the safety ball in its two youngest divisions--which it will continue to do--and in its division of 7- and 8-year-olds, where the issue had the effect of alienating parents and coaches from league officials.

With sign-ups for this year’s season fast approaching, board members apparently decided to end the controversy once and for all.

They recently released a flyer that contained the following pronouncement: “Please note that Rancho Niguel Little League will be using a standard Little League hardball in all future play.” Almost 600 6- to 12-year-olds participate in the league’s six divisions.

“We thought that was unusual--that they chose to highlight that,” said Jeanne Peterson, 35, a pro-safety-ball parent whose 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter will both play in the new league. “This whole thing had gotten so negative, we’re just happy to have a positive place to put our energy.

“We don’t care if [the new league] ever gets real big. We’re just happy to put an end to this safety ball thing. Now, we can do what we want, and know our kids will be safe.”