Play ball! Next Sunday

Deirdre Newman

Tim Sandefer was fed up with adult leagues playing baseball on the

field at Estancia High School next to his house.

He complained to the city that the games involved an extremely

loud level of crowd noise, that players and spectators urinated on

his fence and that the players conducted batting practice with the

piercing sound of aluminum bats along his fence.

Last week, the Parks and Recreation Commission heeded his concerns

and voted to shut down use of the school’s varsity baseball field

every other Sunday. The change is for a trial period of six months,

Sandefer said.

Sandefer was half successful in getting what he wanted. He said he

would have liked the fields to be vacant every Sunday.

“It would have been nice if they had not used it on Sundays at

all,” Sandefer said. “If anyone else had a neighbor that was having a

block party all weekend, they’d have the cops there in nothing flat.”

Members of the Golden City Baseball League, whose play will be

restricted, were not available for comment.

Sandefer said he was aware when he bought his house that he would

be next to a school. But before an joint-use agreement between the

city and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District went into effect in

July 2002, use of the varsity field was limited to weekdays only.

The school’s varsity baseball coach, Jon Green, working with city

staff, approved of opening the field to weekends.

The American Wood Bat League got a permit for Saturdays and the

Eagles team of the Golden City Baseball League received a permit for

Sundays. Eleven out of 14 Eagles players are Costa Mesa residents.

After weekend use of the field began, Sandefer sent the city a

letter expressing his concerns. He said verbal agreements had been

made between school district staff and himself to restrict the field

use to high school baseball only.

“I don’t care how much the kids use it during the week and even on

the weekends,” Sandefer said. “That’s what it’s for and I know that.”

In April, the city’s recreation division decided to end the use of

the varsity baseball field on Sundays starting in May. But City

Councilman Mike Scheafer intervened on behalf of the Eagles team and

asked the Parks and Recreation Commission to look into the debate.

“Most of these young kids work and Saturday and Sundays are the

only day of the week they can play ball,” Scheafer said. “It seemed

like we pulled the permit for not such a good thing.”

On July 23, the commission voted 4 to 1, with Wendy Leece

dissenting, to allow the field to be used only every other Sunday.

Leece said the decision did not go far enough to provide a high

quality of life.

“The issue isn’t always, ‘How are we going to vote on this?’”

Leece said. “Those people buy or rent their property, they have a

right to enjoy peace of mind ... . It’s really an issue of the

application of the joint-use agreement, which I voted for. But it’s

still young and it’s an application that needs to be worked out.”