Baseball Backers Thrown a Curve, but Aren’t Out Yet

Despite a rejection by community college trustees that appears all but certain to doom their plans, Palm Springs Suns owner Don DiCarlo and the city of Oxnard said Tuesday they haven’t given up on a bid to move the minor league baseball team to the city for the 1997 season.

Di Carlo said he and city officials will lobby Western League representatives for a two-week extension to finalize an agreement for the Suns to play somewhere in Oxnard next year. City and college officials had been laboring to reach an agreement before today’s league-set deadline.

On Monday night, Ventura County Community College trustees rejected a deal for the Suns to play on the Oxnard College field, saying they did not have enough time to carefully review the proposal. The city gave its approval to the deal earlier in the day.

Undeterred, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the Western League to extend its deadline to Dec. 10 so officials can find a new location or continue discussions with the board.

Western League President Bruce Engel set today as the deadline for a deal, because of pressure to set 1997 season rosters and schedules.

“We have a good case and we’ll present it to the league,” DiCarlo said. “The city is being extremely positive about their support to bring the team here in 1997.”

But Engel said he doubts the league members would grant a new deadline, because the 1997 season schedule has to be finalized by Sunday.

“I do not think it is at all likely that the league can do that,” he said. “We cannot without violating some of the lease provisions that depend on finalizing our schedules.”

Because of the board’s rejection, the city is now scrambling to find other suitable sites.

They have zeroed in on three or four plots of vacant land in the outlying corners of the city, said City Atty. Gary Gillig.

Although it would cost substantially more than $250,000 to build a ball field on raw land, Gillig said locating the team in a faraway field could help resolve some residents’ concerns about the noise, traffic and heavy lights ballgames would produce.

*

City officials said Tuesday that they were taken by surprise by the college board’s rejection and hoped they could persuade the league to give them the extension.

“I thought it was going to pass,” said Gillig. “I full-heartedly agree that the timing has not been the best but doing the job quickly does not mean doing it badly.”

However, league President Engel said he was not surprised the board rejected the proposal.

“School situations are difficult,” he said. “We know that they always have been and they always will be. We are talking about a political process and we know it is difficult putting stadium proposals together.”

Trustee Peter Tafoya, who voted in favor of the agreements, said he is optimistic the extension will be granted and that the board will reconsider the plan.

In the meantime, the Suns are perilously close to being homeless.

No matter what happens, DiCarlo said he has ruled out a return to Palm Springs, where there might not be a welcome mat waiting. A recent editorial in the Desert Sun was headlined “Thumbs up to team’s departure for Oxnard.”

*

DiCarlo said he didn’t think he burned any bridges with board members when he accused them of playing politics with the deal.

“I really think the trustees knew what they were doing,” said DiCarlo, who claims the trustees were influenced by Ventura and Camarillo officials who also are vying for minor league ball clubs. “I don’t think I told anything but the truth.”

Ventura city officials rejected DiCarlo’s claims.

“I know Ventura wants to watch carefully over all Oxnard’s dealings, because Oxnard is notoriously out of control and what they do affects all of us,” said Councilman Gary Tuttle, the negotiator on Ventura’s stadium deal.

Oxnard residents who supported the ball team’s relocation to Oxnard College said they were outraged by the board’s action.

“I am not surprised because the board has a tendency to treat Oxnard College and the city of Oxnard with disdain,” said Steve Buratti, chairman of the Inter-Neighborhood Council Committee in Oxnard. “I feel that if this had been a proposal to go to Ventura College, it would have been approved last week. All of the questions that they had were answered.”

The agreements were hammered out last weekend by college and city attorneys. The proposals would have made the ball club legally and financially liable for any accidents during a ballgame or practice.

The agreements also included a $250,000 loan by the city to DiCarlo, but the ball club also agreed to seek other lenders or direct investors.

While Oxnard tries to salvage its baseball dreams, in neighboring Camarillo, an Orange County attorney is continuing to plot construction of a privately built stadium on 50 acres of farmland.

Robert Pearson, whose family owns the property south of the Ventura Freeway between Central Avenue and Las Posas Road, said he has lined up a group of investors to finance a minor league stadium at no cost to taxpayers.

The Orange County lawyer also said he believes the Ventura stadium deal is practically dead, and that his investors plan to move quickly. He has scheduled a meeting with Camarillo City Manager Bill Little for next week.

Ideally, a California League team will play ball in Camarillo by spring 1998, he said.

Times correspondent Jeff McDonald and staff writer Hilary E. MacGregor contributed to this report.