Robust Glendale Juniors baseball tournament ends with cancelation
One of the most successful Babe Ruth and Little League joint tournaments ended with some controversy.
There will be no title game and no official champion as the Glendale Juniors baseball double-elimination tournament was called off Thursday morning with a few games remaining.
Babe Ruth President and Commissioner Ralph Tapia issued an email to league coaches informing them of his decision to call off the remaining games, including what was supposed to be Saturday’s championship at Stengel Field.
“This was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make as president,” Tapia said, “but I felt it was a necessary decision and one that had to be made. It was a very dark moment for this division.”
The robust 17-team, 30-plus-game tournament consisted of Little League District 16 teams from La Crescenta, Foothill, Jewel City, Vaquero and Burbank, along with squads from La Cañada and Glendale Babe Ruth. The age group of the players is from 13 to 15.
Maybe the biggest winner and loser of the tournament was the Crescenta Valley Little League squad known as the CV Elks, which finished 4-0 in the tournament postseason and was a victory away from earning a title.
The La Cañada Red Sox and Crescenta Valley MGM squads were also in the hunt, while the Burbank National team was disqualified a day prior.
The day Tapia called off the tournament, the Red Sox were supposed to face MGM in the final contest of the second-chance bracket. The winner of that game was slated to face the CV Elks at 3 p.m. at Stengel Field on Saturday.
An Elks’ win would have secured a championship, while a loss would have forced a winner-take-all contest between the final two teams.
All the scenarios and talk of a title began to distort on Wednesday evening when the Elks faced the Sox in the winner’s bracket finale that sent the victor into the championship game.
The Elks defeated the Red Sox, 11-6, in a game that offered a double whammy to La Cañada, which had a player ejected and suspended for allegedly cleating an Elks player on a play at first base.
While Tapia was aware of the incident, he could not confirm the severity. He did note, however, that “both umpires ruled it as a malicious act.”
The win sent the Elks into Saturday’s title game and dropped the Red Sox into the consolation finale on Thursday against the winner of Wednesday evening’s elimination contest pitting MGM and Burbank National.
The outcome of that contest took a twist as Burbank National mercy-ruled MGM, only to be informed the next day that it was disqualified for using an illegal player.
That result created even more problems as MGM had disbanded the previous evening.
According to Tapia, the team’s coaches did not believe they had enough players to turn around and face the Red Sox on Thursday evening in the consolation final, which set up the possibility of an easy or even forfeit victory for La Cañada.
Worse yet for Tapia, he was unsure the tensions had subsided since the Red Sox and Elks last met Wednesday. So, the veteran commissioner made a bold choice in canceling the rest of the tournament.
“I personally talked to all four teams and to all the leadership and when I made my decision I had spent three to four hours talking to everyone making sure everyone had understood why the decision was being made,” Tapia said. “Not everyone was happy about it, but everyone understood.
“Try to imagine the Red Sox playing against the CV Elks with that incident happening Wednesday night. I didn’t want to take that chance. I’ve been doing this too long and canceling this tournament with the shenanigans at the end was the prudent thing to do.”
When asked if the Crescenta Valley Elks were real champions then, Tapia wavered a bit.
“They are the … I consider them the champs,” he said. “I consider the CV Elks the champions. They were 4-0 in the double-elimination tournament that played 29 of 31 games. They were undefeated and I consider the CV Little League Elks the league champions.”
Despite the tournament’s outcome, Tapia was still very pleased with the participation and organization.
“These are ugly circumstances that soured a successful tournament,” Tapia said. “We had the largest group of teams ever in this division in the city of Glendale playing in a league. We had a 17-team double elimination bracket that needed to play 31, 32 games. No one has ever undertaken anything like that around here. There isn’t another division in Southern California that can boast this number. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been able to orchestrate and unify Little League and Babe Ruth in the city of Glendale.”
