Little League Baseball

Little League Baseball has come to an end, and I'm not sure who's sadder about that, my baseball-crazed 10-year-old son, Nathaniel, or me, who just a few months ago thought "around the horn" referred to a trip along the northeast edge of Africa. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's me. Nathaniel had himself a good cry after his team, the Red Sox, was bumped off in June by the Indians, 17-10, in what had been a close game until the last inning.

An icon of Little League fields across America is taking its bat manufacturing business to China, cutting 250 jobs in Van Nuys in the process. Van Nuys-based Easton-Bell Sports Inc., which produced 2 million aluminum bats a year at its 130,000-square-foot plant, is outsourcing its manufacturing operations to "stay one step ahead," Ken Waltrip, Easton's vice president of manufacturing, said in a statement Friday. "We are sad to see this day come."

The fight, by some accounts, started when one kid intentionally threw a baseball at another player's head. Then came allegations of retaliation. And from that followed charges of election fraud, financial improprieties, even suggestions that off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies strong-armed a parent, according to court papers. Now, with the first games in the Ladera Heights Little League season set for Sunday, the parents are still fighting over a children's game.

Amad Andrews wanted his Little League baseball players to don more than a uniform when they took the field at Robinson Park in Pasadena this season. The coach wanted the 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds to wear a piece of history. So, rather than opting for the Dodgers, Angels or another common nickname, Andrews turned back the clock and chose the Kansas City Monarchs.

The Snow Canyon Little League team of Santa Clara, Utah, took a stand in support of its religious beliefs Sunday night at the Western Regional tournament in San Bernardino. Little League officials responded with a stance of their own. Snow Canyon, whose players are primarily Mormon, voted against playing its scheduled pool-play game against a team from Las Vegas. Western Regional officials then met Monday morning and ruled that Snow Canyon must forfeit the game.

It was time to play ball at a Beverly Hills park Tuesday afternoon, but it wasn't your usual Little League game. CNN's Larry King was the announcer. Hall of Fame member Dave Winfield and former star Fred Lynn coached the teams: the Culver City Little League Nationals versus the home team, the Beverly Hills Cardinals. Actor Luke Perry threw out a first pitch. And Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Barry Brucker was on hand to make sure everyone played fair.

Tim Lewis has a bedtime routine. He flips on a small portable television, reclines the front passenger seat of his 1993 Toyota Camry and leans back till his trim, 6-foot-2 frame is nearly horizontal. Often he drifts off to sleep with the TV on. "I've gotten used to it," Lewis, 52, says of living out of his car. "Sometimes it's tough, but I'm a tough guy."

The six Little League diamonds in Huntington Beach are about as nice as they come, thanks in part to a $200,000 donation five years ago from Major League Baseball and a children's foundation operated by retired slugger Mark McGwire, whose son played at the fields. There's the electronic scoreboard, the new bleachers, the resurfaced infields and the enclosed, brick dugouts. But now, baseball boosters are fighting to save the fields from bulldozers.

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.