Costa Mesa American on de-fence

Bryce Alderton

Instead of toting those lawn chairs and coolers, searching for the

“perfect” spot on the grass, spectators taking in a Costa Mesa

American Little League game at Davis Elementary School in the

season’s final days might need to lug sections of temporary fencing

to protect them from a whizzing foul ball.

After an apparent misunderstanding between the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District and CMALL, the Minor B (7-9-year-olds) field

at Davis, located behind Costa Mesa High off Arlington Road, has a

little more open space.

On Tuesday, Newport-Mesa Unified School District employees

stripped 6-foot-high protective chain-link fencing, which ran from

both sides of the field’s permanent backstop into right and left

field, and also removed a batting cage from the property.

The district said the protective barriers infringed on students’

ability to find open areas to play during school hours and the side

fencing wasn’t specified in any letters Little League officials

submitted during the approval process.

“I thought, when I made the request, that the outfield meant the

whole way around,” said Amy Stephens, the league’s commissioner.

“What I thought I said was different from what they thought I said.”

The removal, though, caused a stir among parents, some of whom

spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars -- one doled out

$45,000 -- to overhaul what had been a pasture filled with weeds.

Mike Gilbert is one of those parents.

He has connected hoses together to water the infield at 1 a.m. and

said the surface resembles a “putting green.”

“It’s utterly disappointing,” said Gilbert, who has a son in Minor

B. “I’ve spent thousands of dollars of my own money, not to mention,

hundreds of hours away from my family and business to create nice,

usable fields that would be appealing to the kids.

“The city maintains soccer fields, but they won’t maintain

baseball fields.”

The city and school district share a joint-use agreement for the

field at Davis.

The city allocates field use, but the district has the final say

on what is done on its property.

“I would liken it to building whatever I wanted on your property

with or without permission,” said Ruth Raheb, the city’s recreation

supervisor. “[CMALL] had a request to put up a center-field fence,

which was approved, but they added to the project without permission

from the school district.

“They can upkeep the infield, it is beautiful, and the kids can

still play on it.”

The upkeep, though, could have gone too far, said Tim Marsh,

director of maintenance and operations for the school district.

“They brought in dirt over the outfield and changed the grade more

than they told us they were going to do,” Marsh said. “We turned

[sprinkler heads] on and three or four inches of dirt would cover

them. The heads popped up, dislodged a lot of dirt and there would be

a lot of water seeping out of the ground.”

The league also didn’t submit a request for the batting cage it

constructed, which needed design approval by the state department of

architecture, Marsh said.

“It just started to appear,” he said.

Marsh said the district notified the city around the first of the

month that some of the alterations made hadn’t been authorized.

The city then sent a letter to the league stating it had to remove

the fencing by May 10 and lengthened the extension by another week

before removing the fences.

Larry Dawson, who has assisted Gilbert with the field’s

maintenance, remained skeptical about staging games with no side

fencing to protect fans from foul balls.

“When you put up a baseball field, you have to have side fencing,”

said Dawson, who has two children in the league. “You can’t have

parents sitting out there like that.”

“I agree, but they need to also understand that it is an

elementary school playground and kids can get hurt,” Marsh said.

“[Students] need an open-grass playground to run around on.”

Gilbert, who has also spent $15,000 on improving football fields

in the city for the players’ safety, began working on the Davis field

three months ago.

The Davis field is one of five diamonds CMALL uses -- two border

Costa Mesa High and the other two sit on campus.

Stephens said the remaining seven games scheduled for Davis won’t

switch sites and has begun discussions with Marsh on a plan for next

season.

“We want to give spectators a place to watch so they won’t worry

about a line drive taking their head off,” Gilbert said. “I will

check out temporary fencing to put up when the games are going on and

take it off when there are no games. I don’t think the city would

object to that.”