2 Little Leaguers Ousted Over Residency

The rumors floated around San Fernando Valley youth baseball circles for months.

In its quest to reach Williamsport, Pa., site of the Little League World Series, Woodland Hills Sunrise Little League allegedly had recruited two strong players from outside its league boundaries, pitcher-first baseman Junior Garcia and outfielder Garrett Feig, both 12, to help make the team nearly unbeatable.

“It wasn’t that big of a secret,” said a member of another league.

This week, Rob Glushon and others at Encino Little League finally played hardball, saying out loud what had long been whispered. With rent receipts, canceled checks and other documentation, they formally accused Junior of living in Van Nuys instead of Canoga Park, Garrett of living in Tarzana, and the Woodland Hills team of brazen cheating.

Junior and Garrett were disqualified by Little League officials, who also announced that Woodland Hills would have to forfeit a 7-4 victory over Encino in a district tournament game last week.

The Woodland Hills team of all-stars--which might have been California’s best hope for a national title--has appealed, and a decision is expected today from Little League headquarters in Williamsport on whether the youths will be reinstated. Without the pair, especially the versatile Junior, Woodland Hills’ chances of advancing are slim. Indeed, playing without the two Saturday in a sectional tournament in Lompoc, the team lost to Thousand Oaks, 11-7.

“It was only after all [the accusations] were substantiated that it could not be ignored anymore,” said Glushon, manager of the Encino all-stars, a team dad and a lawyer who was recently elected to the Los Angeles City Charter reform commission.

Geri Czabo, president of Woodland Hills Sunrise, maintains that she did her best to keep everything above board, routinely asking the father of Junior--the team’s star--for utility bills, phone bills and other proof of his son’s residency.

Instead, Czabo was hit by her own pitch because the material she supplied to Merle Sanders, the local district’s chief administrator, to defend her team was the very information Glushon used to build his complaint against it.

“Those documents were supposed to convince Merle and everyone else who looked at them that everything was fine,” Glushon said Saturday as his son Jason played a game in Encino. “But it did the opposite.”

The most incriminating evidence, Glushon said, are three rent receipts for an apartment on DeSoto Avenue in Canoga Park where Junior, an outstanding hitter and pitcher, purportedly has been living with his father. According to Czabo, the senior Garcia has said he is separated from the boy’s mother, who lives in Van Nuys.

But three canceled checks supposedly used to pay the rent do not exactly match the receipts, nor is it clear from the photocopied checks how the money was used.

For example, Garcia’s April rent, according to the receipt provided by Glushon, was $645. March rent was $605, according to the receipt from Glushon. And a third receipt, for $201.70, says the money was pro-rated.

Yet of the three checks Glushon said he obtained from Sanders, one, dated June 2, is for $605; another, dated May 2, is for $565, and the third, dated Feb. 28, is for $217.

“These rent checks do not correspond with the rent receipts. The dollar amounts do not correspond,” Glushon said.

Juan Garcia, Junior’s father, could not be reached for comment despite repeated efforts.

Czabo said she was at a loss to explain the discrepancies.

“How [Juan Garcia] paid his rent, I don’t know,” she said. “Those are the receipts he provided from the apartment. . . . When we first started hearing that people were saying [Junior] didn’t live where he said he lived, I started keeping some documentation.

“I just wanted to stay on top of it and make sure this was legitimate.”

Glushon’s evidence against Garrett consists of an interview with his family’s purported former landlady, who allegedly told an Encino league member that the family never lived at the Sylvan Street address it claimed.

Michael Feig, the outfielder’s father, maintained Saturday that he and his son did indeed rent a guest house from the Woodland Hills woman from September 1993 through April 1995--entitling Garrett to become a Woodland Hills Sunrise member then and remain so now, under Little League rules.

“I provided them with sworn affidavits yesterday from the lady who I rented the house from,” the elder Feig said, referring to Little League officials in Williamsport. “The allegations are bogus. Garrett is a legal player.”

Whether Glushon’s evidence passes muster with those officials is a matter he and other league parents will be waiting anxiously today to be resolved. Feig, for one, said he is doubtful Woodland Hills will prevail.

“My feeling on the matter,” he said, “is these kids are getting railroaded.”