Bronx Win Is ‘Total Bummer’ for Oceanside

The day after their team was eliminated from the Little League World Series by an umpire’s controversial call, boosters here were struggling to cope with the famous dictum that baseball is a game designed to break your heart.

It wasn’t easy.

“The other team didn’t beat us, the umpire beat us,” said Spanky’s Pizza employee Michele Lisi-Merzi.

“It was absolutely brutal, man, treacherous, unbelievable,” said Vaughn Murphy, water-meter repair specialist. “To come so far and get so close and then have it end like that is a total bummer.”

Gloominess hung thick in the noontime haze as residents hashed over the play that ended the Oceanside all-stars’ quest for glory: an umpire apparently failing to see that a Bronx player had not touched second base.

“Everybody in the country could see it on ESPN,” said Bill Whelton, a carpenter. “The only man who couldn’t see it was the umpire. It’s painful, very painful.”

The umpire, a volunteer, rejected the Oceanside team’s appeal to call the runner out, which would have ended the inning.

A moment later a dribbling hit scored the runner from third, giving the Bronx a 1-0 lead that proved sufficient.

“It’s disappointing. Very, very disappointing . . . ,” said a crestfallen Glen Mills, president of the Oceanside American Little League, one of five leagues in this city of 162,000.

After the game, second-base umpire Bill Stains said of his call, “I felt, in my judgment, he got the base.”

The Bronx All-Stars team advances to today’s U.S. finals amid a gusher of media coverage about the team’s seemingly unhittable superstar pitcher. When the Bronx plays the Apopka, Fla., team, many of the Oceanside players and their parents will be on their way home.

City Hall had hoped an Oceanside victory would bring a bonanza of good publicity for the city and its recent attempts to erase its image as a honky-tonk for hard-drinking, loud-living Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. After Thursday’s loss, officials struggled to remain upbeat.

“These kids have been so outstanding, so stand-up, everybody is still very positive,” said media relations director Don Williamson, in a voice that suggested otherwise.

As an industrial and military community, Oceanside has often felt like a poor relation of its civic neighbors along the northern coast of San Diego County: the affluent communities of La Jolla, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas and Carlsbad.

Headlines about raucous local politics, a troubled police department and turf battles among street gangs have overshadowed Oceanside’s progress in redeveloping downtown, attracting new business and expanding recreational opportunities for youth.

The long march to the World Series began on a city field just east of Interstate 5, adjacent to a row of nondescript apartment buildings and a busy stretch of strip malls. A sign proclaims the field the home of the Oceanside American League.

Next Saturday, the city plans the suburban equivalent of a ticker tape parade: a motorcade through downtown. The Chargers football team and Padres baseball franchise also plan to honor the Oceanside players, who won 18 straight games for the right to represent the West in the annual tournament.

Condolences on the loss were forwarded by Padres President Larry Lucchino, who said that he had watched the Oceanside game instead of the Padres-Braves game.

“I’m afraid umpire imperfection is part of the game,” Lucchino said. “It’s hard to accept sometimes, but these kids have so much to be proud of, it would be a mistake to dwell on the bad call.”

Indeed, initial indications were that the Oceanside players were not as miffed as the fans back home.

Players resisted entreaties from ESPN reporters to blast the umpire. The Little League credo preaches sportsmanship--even to errant umpires.

“Some of the parents are pretty upset, but the players are kids; they’re able to handle it,” said Steve Scholfield, sports columnist for the Oceanside-based North County Times, who accompanied the team to the tournament at Williamsport, Pa.

The players may have taken their cue from mild-mannered manager Daryl Wasano, a fishing-tackle salesman and longtime volunteer in youth sports.

Wasano said that he had not seen the runner miss second, although numerous Oceanside players and fans had. When a reporter suggested that he will probably get upset when he sees the ESPN replay, Wasano replied quietly, “No, I won’t.”

An uncle of one of the Oceanside players had spotted the base-skipping while watching the game on television in Chicago.

He called the boy’s father in the stands on his cellular phone and soon Oceanside parents were shouting for their pitcher to throw the ball to an infielder standing on second.

But when he did so, the umpire gave a quick and emphatic sign of denial. Under Little League rules, there could be no appeal.

While Wasano declined to criticize the umpire, others didn’t hesitate.

“It was an outrage, a total outrage,” said Glen Stiles, a teenage surfer headed for a day of waves off the Oceanside Pier. “That’s what’s good about surfing: It’s just you and your attitude. No adult umpire to make a bad call and ruin a kid’s dreams.”

The call was immediately seized upon by San Diego media. “We Wuz Robbed,” said a full-screen headline on one television station.

“Off-Base Outcome,” blared a sports section headline in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Alleged Bad Call at 2nd Mars Semifinal Game,” said the North County Times front page.

Still, there were some people who found something redeeming about the loss and the umpire’s misbegotten decision.

Tony Perez, an ex-Marine getting a high-and-tight haircut at the Deluxe Barber Shop, said the Oceanside players may learn a tough but important lesson.

“These kids have to learn that sports is just like life,” Perez said. “Sometimes it is very unfair.”