Matador Baseball Sign-Ups

Michael Velazquez and Jack Mitchell have never seen a Cal State Northridge baseball game.

Nor are they acquainted with former players or coaches from the 39 seasons of Matador baseball.

The middle-aged friends who live a mile apart in La Crescenta aren’t even Northridge graduates.

But, they are baseball fans.

They’re two ordinary guys who believe the national pastime should not be eliminated from the Valley’s only NCAA Division I university and they are spearheading a petition drive to get it back.

“To me, it’s a labor of love,” said Velazquez, who has transformed his Velazquez & Associates certified public accountants’ office into Save CSUN Baseball Central.

Velazquez and Mitchell, who met more than a dozen years ago when their sons competed in youth baseball leagues, are fighting to have the sport reinstated at Northridge.

On June 11, university officials announced the cancellation of four men’s athletic programs--baseball, volleyball, soccer and swimming--due to budget and gender-equity concerns. Soccer and swimming were later reinstated for one year.

Velazquez, 43, and Mitchell, 48, formed a crusade to save baseball six days after its cancellation by issuing a petition statement.

They were so distraught over the cancellation and the long-term effects it may have on the Valley, they appointed themselves Head Crusaders and thrust themselves into action.

“Somebody has to step up and get involved,” said Mitchell, a sales supervisor for Anheuser-Busch Inc. “I think the key is to make it public.”

Initially, they hoped to collect 10,000 signatures to their petition statement by June 30.

“Originally we were concerned if we dragged too far into the summer months, people would forget their indignation,” Velazquez said.

Now the deadline is mid-July, sometime before the July 16 meeting of the California State University board of trustees in Long Beach, where the signatures will be delivered.

Velazquez hopes the signatures will prove to Northridge administrators who made the decision that the community does care about Northridge athletics and wants an opportunity to formulate options for fund raising.

“Talking to people along the way, everybody seems to feel the same way--they don’t buy into the way the [Northridge administration] went about this,” Velazquez said.

Mitchell believes Northridge administrators were uninformed and misguided and opted for the “easy way out.” Instead of giving the community a head’s up, they issued a death penalty without any regard to the surrounding communities.

“I think they should have stepped up and said, “Hey, baseball’s in trouble,’ ” Mitchell said.

Northridge administrators have done very little to generate funding to reduce an $800,000 budget deficit, Velazquez said.

In his conversations with dozens of Northridge alums during this crusade, Velazquez said, “Not one has said they were ever solicited [by Northridge for money].”

Dozens of petitions were sent to various sport shops, convenience stores and youth baseball leagues in the San Fernando Valley and the surrounding areas. The response has been overwhelming, Velazquez said.

One morning a woman graduate of Northridge dropped off a signature sheet of 50 names at Velazquez’s office and “apologized profusely” for not getting more, Velazquez said.

“The women who we’ve talked to seem to be a lot more upset than the men, which surprises me a bit,” Velazquez said.

Velazquez could not estimate the number of signatures acquired because most petitions are not yet in his hands. But he is optimistic--and most definitely in it for the long haul.

“It may take two or three years to revive [baseball] but it should be done in the interest of the community,” he said.