No Little Dream

The start of a Little League baseball season may be routine in most communities, but Saturday’s festivities on a wind-swept field in Elysian Park were treated as a coming of age for the gang-plagued communities of Northeast Los Angeles.

“Before, the only organized thing around here for the kids was the gangs,” said baseball fan Arturo Avila of Echo Park. “Now we’re for real. We got Little League baseball.”

Added Father Juan Santillan, who gave the invocation at the opening day ceremony for the fledgling Northeast Little League’s second season: “We should not be into gangs but [instead] into the commitment of sportsmanship.”

Saturday’s ceremonies--complete with politicians, judges, a mariachi group, fire engines and a police helicopter--marked the inauguration of the Northeast Little League’s new baseball diamond in Bishop’s Canyon, a former landfill in the hills to the north of the outfield bleachers at Dodger Stadium.

The new ball field is the first phase of a $10-million municipal project that will include a second baseball diamond, other playing fields and picnic facilities. Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who spearheaded the work, said it should be completed in a year.

The new diamond was the three-year dream of Joe and Cathy Molina, who pressed city officials to help bring Little League into the Northeast neighborhoods. On more than one occasion during their campaign they reminded listeners that Cypress Park, where gang members shot and killed 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen in a 1995 incident that outraged the nation, was among the Northeast communities that would benefit from Little League baseball.

Last year, in Northeast’s inaugural season, the Little Leaguers played in a once-abandoned field in Lincoln Heights.

This season, on the new field, seems “like a miracle,” said Cathy Molina, the league’s president.

For some in attendance, especially those who once lived in Elysian Park, Saturday’s opening eased bad memories.

For example, Santillan, a Los Angeles recreation and parks commissioner, had complained bitterly about the land deal in which the city uprooted his family and others in the late 1950s to make way for Dodger Stadium. In fact, the debris from the stadium construction and the demolished area homes was hauled to the site where the new Little League field is located.

“This is a promise kept,” Santillan said, referring to a city agreement made years ago to build recreational facilities to make up for the construction of Dodger Stadium.

The priest exchanged jovial greetings with two Dodger representatives at the ceremonies--coach Manny Mota, who addressed the crowd, and rookie second baseman Wilton Guerrero.

Longtime Dodger hater Armando Fertes of Elysian Valley said he may now root for the boys in blue. Looking down at Dodger Stadium from a cliff near the Little League field, Fertes said in Spanish: “Dodger Stadium is a fine place. Perhaps I’ll start being for them.”

Little League official Joe Molina said the major league club has promised maintenance equipment and free tickets for the fledgling organization.

While the grown-ups were giddy over Saturday’s opening, some of the 250 players took the festivities in stride.

“This is no big deal,” said 10-year-old right fielder Valerie Sanchez, the only girl on the Mariners’ major roster. “I gotta work on my catching and batting.”

“I have to work on everything,” said teammate Steve Rodriguez.

With that, the Mariners faced the Rockies in what turned out to be a scoreless one-inning exhibition.

Up in the stands, spectator Rene Archuleta smiled. “The Dodgers aren’t the only action here anymore,” he said.