Uniforms Stolen, So Kids Out

More than 100 children’s baseball uniforms were stolen in southwest Los Angeles, forcing the cancellation Saturday of about a dozen opening-day games and possibly affecting games the rest of the week at Rancho Cienega Park.

The new uniforms, for children ages 5 to 12, were stolen from a small storage building at the park late Friday or early Saturday, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Tony O’Brien.

“The [thieves] broke a window, reached through, unlocked the door and got in,” O’Brien said. “They prevented opening day from occurring.”

Police have no suspects.

This would have been the first time four teams played in replicas of Negro League uniforms, said senior recreational director Ed Dabbs. He personally paid $1,800 for about four dozen uniforms honoring Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and other legendary Negro League players, he said.

Negro leagues sprung up in the 1920s and faded after the unwritten major league ban on black players ended in 1947.

“Coaches were telling the kids to get educated, to go to the library and do research on these teams and the players who were on these teams,” Dabbs said. “I thought it was important for the kids to know what the Negro League was about.”

Games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday might be canceled as league directors scramble to buy uniforms, Dabbs said.

“The kids were pretty sad. They were asking, ‘Why would anybody steal uniforms? What are they going to do with them?’” he said.

Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call police at (213) 485-6571.