Athletic Fields

By the time soccer practice begins, it is so dark in this corner of MacArthur Park that Brian Castillo squints his brown eyes to find the ball in the moon's shadows. He must listen for his teammates' voices to guide him to the goal. "Go, go, go!" they yell in unison. The 10-year-old dashes up the grassy slope that makes up half this makeshift field, darts around three tree trunks and aims for the goal: a well-placed backpack and trash can.

On a warm and clear night, at a suburban high school in the San Gabriel Valley, a legend named Glenn Davis was resurrected for a couple of hours Friday. He has been dead for 2 1/2 years, but those who remember where he came from, Bonita High in La Verne, still remember to remember. What they did, in essence, was to complete a field of dreams in the name of a football player who was once the dream of their field. He was 80 when he died on March 9, 2005, so his contemporaries are dwindling.

As the person ultimately responsible for making sure the Rose Bowl field is as close as possible to perfect, turf superintendent Will Schnell wants to bring Texas players to their knees. He'd like to see USC players kneeling too. Because the highest praise Schnell and his staff can receive is when the Rose Bowl participants need to check to see if the grass is real. This is the one place in Los Angeles where "It looks fake" is a compliment. "We shoot for the pool-table effect," Schnell said.

It is the day of the USC-Notre Dame game, and we are still struggling with the shame and confusion of Grassgate. The story ran in this paper Tuesday. It said that a Trojans football player had injured his knee in the USC-Notre Dame game last year at South Bend because the Irish had allowed the grass on the field to grow too long. They had done so, it said, because that was the only way they could slow the Trojans' speedy running backs.

Despite the objections of more than 100 Little League supporters, Fountain Valley School District trustees have voted unanimously to sell three surplus school sites, including one in Huntington Beach that had been used for youth baseball. "I sympathize with them as a parent whose kids played youth sports," trustee Pat Harney said. "But as a school board member, our priority is to provide the best education for the kids in our district."

Little Leaguers from Culver City and Los Angeles have cavorted on four ragtag fields on the edge of the Ballona Wetlands for 40 years, ever since Howard Hughes opened up a portion of his expansive property to the young players. Now, however, efforts to restore the wetlands -- one of the last remaining on the Southern California coast -- have put the Playa Vista Little League's future in jeopardy.

Despite protests from neighbors, the City Council voted to erect 12 light standards for the baseball field at Crown Valley Elementary School. A dozen homeowners spoke at the council meeting this week against the lighting of the baseball field. Most complained that the noise from Little League games and the glare of the lamps would be unpleasant and lower their property values. "My weekends were ruined when field improvements were made," said Todd Holliday, who lives near the elementary school.

Young athletes who were disappointed when Orange County's 1994 bankruptcy scuttled plans to light up playing fields at Anaheim Hills Elementary School may soon get their wish. Trustees with the Orange Unified School District will vote tonight on a new plan to install lights on the lower athletic field.

The Vigilantes will finish their 1998 season in Mission Viejo. After that, however, what will happen to the Western Baseball League franchise is anybody's guess. Negotiations over financing renovations to Saddleback College's baseball stadium, home of the Vigilantes, ended last week after the South Orange County Community College District's board of trustees rejected the latest proposal from the city of Mission Viejo. The lease agreement between the city and college ends Oct. 1.