LETTERS : American Legion Records

Enough! Darryl Maxie’s articles (“Rules Violation Knocks Legion Team from Playoff,” July 20; “Legion Playoffs Start Amid Dispute,” July 24) give the connotation that first-year American Legion team Encino-South stole a playoff berth on a technicality. The quoted comments of Reseda-Cleveland coaches Jerry Holiday (“They can’t beat us on the field so this is what they did to us”) and Marty Siegel (“I’m destroyed. . . Eighteen kids busted their backsides”) further tends to paint this picture.

The facts are: 1) Encino-South’s Coach Sherwood had filed his protest when the two teams were split at one win each, not after last Saturday’s rubber match; and 2) Reseda-Cleveland was awarded two of its wins over Kennedy by forfeit without ever setting foot on the playing field, and a third win of an incomplete game in which division champs Newhall-Saugus had the bases loaded with no one out in the bottom of the ninth.

Eliminate these “give-me” wins and the Reseda-Cleveland record is one less win than Encino-South, whose wins have all been earned on the playing field. Encino-South Coach Craig Sherwood has done his proper job for his team--on the field and by the book, all with Crespi High undergraduates.

J.K. MURPHY

Northridge