Hawthorne Strikes Out Little League

There was no joy in Mudville when Mighty Casey struck out.

The atmosphere in Hawthorne City Hall was not much better Tuesday when a group of Little League coaches and parents failed to persuade the City Council to reconsider eliminating a baseball diamond at Holly Park and replacing it with smaller softball fields.

The project that began in October is converting a regulation-size baseball diamond and two smaller softball fields--which are crowded together at Holly Park on West 120th Street--with two upgraded softball fields.

The changeover has forced about 75 teen-agers on five teams in the Holly Park Little League to travel a little more than three miles to another field. There, crowded schedules mean games may end after 11 p.m., prompting some youngsters to drop out, parents say.

Sterling Jones, a Little League official, said 13- to 15-year-old players in the junior and senior divisions use a regulation diamond that is 90 feet from home plate to first base. The new softball diamonds will be 60 feet from home to first. (Little Leaguers under 13 years old can play on the 60-foot fields.)

Jones suggested that the city convert one of the softball diamonds to the size required for older Little Leaguers. He also said that moveable bases and a pitching mound can be used to accommodate both softball and baseball.

“We are not asking that you kill softball,” he told the council Tuesday. “We just want you to accommodate the kids.”

But, like a foul ball that goes over the back stop, the suggestions attracted little response.

The council members said they sympathize with the plight of the Little League, but they said the city does not have the money to redesign the park to include a 90-foot baseball diamond.

“I’m sorry we can’t accommodate everybody and every sport,” said Councilman David M. York.

The two softball diamonds are being installed because there are a growing number of adult softball leagues, including a league from Northrop Corp. The giant aerospace corporation has entered into a three-year agreement with the city to allow at least 60 Northrop teams to use one of the diamonds at Holly Park in exchange for a $90,000 donation, which was used to help build the park, according to Robert Klein, director of parks and recreation.

Klein said the renovation project is expected to be completed by July and will cost about $850,000--practically all of which will come from state and federal grants.

The renovation project will include landscaping, additional tennis courts and new lights for the basketball court and the softball diamonds.

During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the coaches and parents complained that they must drive their teen-agers to Jim Thorpe Memorial Park, at 14100 S. Prairie Avenue.

Kathy Dahlum, an elementary teacher whose 9- and 15-year-old sons play in the Holly Park League, told the council that her sons sometimes get home after 11 p.m. because the Holly Park league games begin after the Jim Thorpe Little League games are completed.

In an interview Wednesday, Dahlum, who also helps coach, said many of the older players have dropped out of Little League because parents objected to their children getting home so late.

She said that without baseball many youngsters “are going to be on the streets. They will have nothing to do.”

During the meeting, Klein said that the Holly Park Little League teams can use the baseball diamonds at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, about 3 1/2 miles away.

But coaches and parents rejected the idea, saying the school is too far away. They also complained that the Little League games would have to be played after the Leuzinger team’s games are completed.