Unhappy Saberhagen Resigns

After only one season as baseball coach at Calabasas, two-time Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen has resigned over frustration with bureaucratic issues involving the school’s new baseball field.

Saberhagen, who played 18 years in the major leagues, raised and donated more than $450,000 to renovate the junior-varsity field for varsity use. But he has faced constant disputes with the Las Virgenes Unified School District and local homeowners.

Last week, one day after the regular season ended, Saberhagen said district officials told him the field was unsafe for use until six safety concerns were addressed. He resigned on Thursday.

“We’ve spent hours upon hours fixing the field, making it right,” he said. “If it’s unsafe, how did we play an entire season of baseball on it?”

Donald Zimring, the district’s interim superintendent, said temporary fixes had been made to allow use of the field during the season, but inspectors wanted the issues addressed immediately.

“He has every right to be proud,” Zimring said. “It’s a magnificent facility, and we just want it built to code.”

Saberhagen, whose team finished 4-21, was an assistant coach last season while his son, Drew, played for the Coyotes. He said he wanted to coach for six years so he could be with his youngest son, Dalton, a seventh-grader expected to play in high school.

Now Saberhagen plans to seek other coaching opportunities, possibly helping out his former Kansas City Royal teammate, Mark Gubicza, the coach at West Hills Chaminade.

Eric Sondheimer

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Because of protracted renovations of the outdoor athletic facilities at Downey Warren, the Bears board a bus to practice on an undersized field at a local middle school and play their “home” games at a rival high school.

The situation has been trying, but for the 12th consecutive season, Warren qualified for the Southern Section playoffs, which begin this week. The Bears will play at Garden Grove Pacifica in a Division III first-round game on Friday.

“It’s like every year,” Coach Steve Fullerton said. “They don’t want to be the team that breaks the string.”

Warren, 16-10 overall, has victories this season over Division I power Anaheim Esperanza and Pacific View League champion Oxnard, a Division II school. It began its current seven-game winning streak by beating San Gabriel Valley League champion Cerritos Gahr, 4-3, on April 22.

Junior center fielder Kyle Saul is one of only three returning starters from last season’s team that finished 20-8. He is hitting close to .450 as the leadoff batter.

“He’s our leader,” Fullerton said. “If he goes, we go; if he doesn’t, we struggle.”

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Manhattan Beach Mira Costa won its first league title in 23 years by defeating Redondo, 4-1, Thursday in a Bay League game.

It was a blowout win by Mira Costa’s standards. The Mustangs have played in nine one-run games this season, winning seven, and have won five games in their final at-bat.

Mira Costa (20-7) put itself in position to win the league title by defeating co-leader South Torrance, 3-2, in 14 innings on May 6. The Mustangs scored a run in the bottom of the seventh last Tuesday to defeat Redondo, 8-7.

Coach Mike Neily said he has three pitchers he can summon in any situation.

Aaron Medina is 7-1, losing his only game to Arcadia on a bloop single in the first week of the season. Ryan Burke is 3-1 with a 1.21 earned-run average, and Ryan Olivares is 5-3 with a 1.99 ERA and leads the South Bay area with 82 strikeouts.

“We have three solid senior pitchers,” Neily said. “Our team’s ERA is right about 2.20.”

-- Dan Arritt

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

THE TIMES’ RANKINGS

DAN ARRITT’S FINAL REGULAR-SEASON BASEBALL RANKINGS

*--* Rk Team Rec Div LW 1. RIVERSIDE POLY 22-3 Div. I 1 2. SAUGUS 23-3 Div. I 3 3. NORCO 21-4-1 Div. I 4 4. CAPISTRANO VALLEY 21-4-1 Div. I 5 5. CHATSWORTH 26-3 City 2 6. EL CAMINO REAL 24-6 City 5 7. ROYAL 23-3 Div. I 10 8. MATER DEI 19-8 Div. I 8 9. MARINA 18-8 Div. I 17 10. LOS ALAMITOS 19-8 Div. I 12 11. ESPERANZA 18-8 Div. I 7 12. CORONA SANTIAGO 20-6 Div. I 13 13. ANAHEIM CANYON 21-5 Div. I 14 14. AGOURA 19-6 Div. I 9 15. SANTA MARGARITA 16-10 Div. I 15 16. BISHOP AMAT 16-8 Div. I 11 17. CHINO 20-6 Div. I 16 18. VILLA PARK 17-8-1 Div. I 18 19. ALISO NIGUEL 19-5 Div. II 19 20. LOYOLA 22-5 Div. II 20 21. CYPRESS 20-7 Div. II 21 22. WSTM. LA QUINTA 24-4 Div. III 22 23. CRESCENTA VALLEY 22-3 Div. I NR 24. PALM DESERT 22-3 Div. IV NR 25. CLEVELAND 22-8 City NR

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