San Diego Prep Review / Chris Ello : Disputed Game Offers CIF Some Lessons for Future

SAN DIEGO —  After a confusing series of events that left coaches exasperated and school officials frustrated, the San Diego Section 3-A baseball playoffs finished up without much incident Saturday afternoon at the University of San Diego.

Santana High School beat Mount Carmel, 7-2, to win its second 3-A title in the last three years. The road to that championship game, however, was not smooth, to say the least.

The problems started last Tuesday when John Marlow, the Valhalla coach, made a protest during his team’s 4-2 loss to Bonita Vista. The protest was upheld by San Diego Section Commissioner Kendall Webb. But Webb ruled that the result of the game would stand because the umpire’s mistake had not influenced the outcome.

Marlow appealed that decision. On Friday at 2 p.m., the Section coordinating council ruled in favor of Marlow and ordered the game be replayed from the point of protest.

This decision brought about protest from several of the coaches whose teams were involved in the playoffs.

Bonita Vista Coach John Gibbs, Mount Carmel Coach Sam Blalock and Marlow were miffed at the way the CIF handled the situation.

Gibbs was obviously upset because his team was forced to replay a game it thought it had won. Blalock, whose Mount Carmel team was scheduled to play Bonita Vista on Thursday, was upset because his team had to wait an extra day to find out who it was going to play.

Marlow was upset because, through all of his protesting, he was made out to be the bad guy.

Actually, nobody was at fault. The problem stemmed from the fact that the CIF, although it had a rule dictating how coaches could appeal a decision by the commissioner, it had no rule dictating how long a coach had to make his appeal.

“Looking back on the whole thing, that was the big mistake,” Webb said. “When John (Marlow) told me he was going to appeal my decision, I told him how he could do it but I failed to tell him that he should hurry up. The time frame was such that we didn’t have enough time to take care of the problem correctly.”

Marlow, who needed the signature of his school principal on his appeal, did not turn in his appeal to the coordinating council until noon Thursday, just three hours before Bonita Vista was scheduled to play Mount Carmel.

By the time the council agreed to uphold his decision, it was too late to straighten out the situation. What resulted was a meeting between Marlow, Gibbs and Blalock 15 minutes before the semifinal was scheduled to start. By the time Gibbs said he wanted the protested game to be completed at his home field, it was too late for any game to be played.

Mount Carmel had to return home and wait until Friday to play its semifinal.

“You can bet we’ll put a rule in about the time frame,” Webb said. “It always takes something to happen for the first time to put a rule in.”

Two years ago, the Grossmont League pulled Helix out of the section 3-A semifinals because the school had played with an ineligible player in the first round. As a result, Santana moved into the final with a bye.

“After that, we put in a rule that says if a team pulls out of the playoffs for any reason, the team it beat will advance,” Webb said.

Webb, the section commissioner for 10 years, said he had never had to rule on a protested playoff game like Tuesday’s until this season. He is called upon to make decisions concerning on-field protests only during the playoffs.

“I do a lot of rulings on off-field protests, such as eligibility and transfer players,” he said.

Bonita Vista finally won the protested game Friday afternoon, 3-2. It had to then travel immediately to USD to play its semifinal game against Mount Carmel. Bonita Vista lost, 4-1.

Before that game, Webb told both coaches that they would have the option of moving the championship game from Saturday to this Tuesday because the protest and delay were not the fault of Bonita Vista or Mount Carmel.

This decision caused problems for Jim Saska’s Santana team.

“We were told by the CIF that there was a 95% chance the championship game would be moved back,” Saska said. “Our principal even made an announcement to the student body Friday to that effect.”

After Mount Carmel won, however, Blalock decided to play the game as scheduled.

“I just didn’t want any more delays,” he said.

Saska heard of the news Friday evening and had to go to the Hotel Del Coronado, where Santana High held its senior prom, to inform his players that there would be a game Saturday.

“I’m very disappointed in how the whole thing was handled,” Saska said. “I just can’t believe some of the things that were coming out of the commissioner’s office this week. All of the changes kept everybody riding on an emotional roller coaster.”

Webb agreed that there were a lot of problems but said that, under the current rules, there was no better way to handle the situation. Next time, he said, with a time limit on appeals, problems of this sort should be handled more easily.

More about the prom: Mike Hook, Jeff Gay, Dale Henson and the rest of the Santana High baseball players were told by Saska to have a good time, but not too good of a time at the school’s prom. After all, there was a championship game to be played the next day.

“We had a lot of fun and we got in pretty early,” Hook said.

What time?

“Well, pretty early,” Hook answered.

Finally, 49 years later . . . : Charles Huff of La Jolla High School broke a long-standing school record Thursday when he won the long jump in the San Diego Section finals with a leap of 23-feet 3 3/4-inches. The previous record was 23-0 set by Jim Tripp in 1937.

Running into a decision: Darcy Arreola of Grossmont and Laura Chapel of University City, the top-ranked 800-meter runners in California, may drop out of the race at this coming weekend’s state championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk. Both had this exact same quote at different times of the day during Thursday’s section finals:

“I’d rather win one than finish second in two races at the state meet.”

What the two runners were referring to is that they both may choose to run in the 1,600 meters instead of the 800.

Both have to decide by today if they will run in both races.