Malibu Little League will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at Bluffs Park in Malibu on Saturday. Residents and former coaches recall the beginnings of the league in 1955.
By Kevin Connelly/Special to The Malibu Times and Laura Tate/Editor
Malibu Little League will be in its prime when residents celebrate its 50th anniversary Saturday at Bluffs Park in Malibu.
Nearly 500 local children will participate in games Saturday, the number Malibu resident and Little League Vice President Dave Lewis said are currently registered with the league-quite a growth from the original two-team league in 1955.
Malibu resident Mildred Sweet founded the Malibu Little League in 1955 with the Malibu Lions’ Club as founding sponsor, said Malibu resident Doug O’Brien, a Lions Club member. The first field the league played on was located at the site now known as the Chili Cook-Off area, behind the old Standard Station, now no longer there. The league moved its field to the Malibu Lagoon area in the 1960s and in 1972 built a second field there. After the state bumped the league off the lagoon land, it moved to its present location at Bluffs Park in 1982, where it may remain if a deal in the works enabling the city to buy 10 acres of the park land goes through.
Robert Zeider, a Malibu resident from 1955 to 2000, remembers meeting Sweet when he started the Minor League in 1958.
“She was very active, [and] a very sweet lady,” Zeider said. “She was the chief scorekeeper at the time. When she retired, she gave me the clicker that you keep count with on scores and hits.”
Memories of many of the original coaches and league presidents are hazy sometimes, and who did what and when conflicts in their recalling of the league’s early years.
Malibu resident of 37 years Mark Herron served as president of the league in 1973 and ’74 and said the first league president was Herbert Schechner. However, Don Macfadyen, who was league president in 1961, said he believes it was Art Cole who was the first league president. Macfadyen said he talked to Cole recently and that Cole confirmed this.
Herron said the first two Malibu Little League teams were the Colony A’s and the Mariners. When Zeider came on board in ’58, the league had grown to six teams-with the Lions Club, Malibu Inn, Optimist Club and Mayfair teams added. Zeider had taken 30 extra players from the league and split them into two teams, starting the minor division. Zeider listed from memory names of Malibu old-timers who were involved with the league such as Johnny Miller, head umpire and chief for the Lions team, who was also a original founder of the league; Reeves Templeman, founder of The Malibu Times newspaper and a league founder as well. Ed Dore and Macfadyen were co-managers of the A’s in ’58 and Realtor Pierce Sherman was another league coach. Macfadyen, who now lives in Solvang, Ca., will attend opening ceremonies on Saturday. Also, Judge Ed Rafeedie, who was league president 1975-76 and whose son played for the league, will make an appearance Saturday. Rafeedie’s grandson will play his first league game this season.
The league then, as now, was entirely operated by local parents and residents and sponsored by local businesses. In addition to the Lions Club, the Malibu Inn was a sponsor and then owner of Malibu Liquor, Bill Welch, helped out when a new location was needed for ball fields after the league was booted from the Chili Cook-Off area. Welch had a contact in Sacramento who flew over Malibu, and then green-lighted what is now the Malibu Lagoon for ball fields.
“Within 30 days, we built a field,” Zeider recalled.
“We brought sod … 20 to 25 Little League members put it in on a rainy day … [it was] pouring …we took turns [from] the Malibu Inn to the field in ‘ships,'” he said laughing.
Zeider also recalled the donation of a cabin by a woman who owned property in Tuna Canyon. “We brought this ‘shack’ down from Tuna Canyon,” Zeider said, “and the highway patrol stopped traffic so we could transport it.”
The “shack” served as a concession stand and as storage for equipment.
Many other residents served in various ways-“rainbirds” or sprinklers were installed by Bill Donahue, Bob Sherman (son of Pierce Sherman) and Bill Graham; George Wayne, Truman Davis and Ken Cavalleri graded the fields each year readying them for play and Bill Gregg kept the fields up by mowing and weeding.
The original field, Zeider said, at the end of the season was left to grow weeds and parents would come out in the spring to get it ready. However, gopher holes were always imminent. One season, a player, coached by Zeider, was playing right field when a fly ball was hit. The boy ran and his foot got stuck in a gopher hole. As he fell, his glove went up-and he caught the ball, Zeider recalled with laughter.
Another of Zeider’s players went on to big time-Byron Scott McLaughlin, played in the minors for the Montreal Expos and played Major League, 1977-83, for the Mariners and the California Angels. Zeider said many went on to illustrious high school and college baseball careers.
Another local, Gary Wilcox, youngest son of Wayne Wilcox who took photographs of the original league teams in ’55, remembers playing on the Mariners in the early ’60s. Vince Jafani was his coach who led the team to victory in ’63 as Pennant champs. Wilcox says the Pennant still hangs on the wall in his Malibu home.
One of Zeider’s best memories from his Malibu Little League days is when his team won the District Title for the first time in 1969.
And Malibu Little League continues to offer memories for current players, parents and volunteers-all through their hard work. “It’s almost a full-time job,” said Madonna Slattery, the league’s fundraising chair and Malibu’s Parks and Recreation Commissioner. “But I have no complaints at all. It is really worth it because it’s really just about the kids.”
Slattery also has children who play: Christian, 9, plays in the Middles Division, and Savannah, 6, plays in Malibu’s first-ever girls T-ball league for ages five through seven. Kevin Slattery, her husband, also coaches. “Kevin lives, eats and breathes baseball,” she joked.
Slattery said the Malibu Little League is able to survive through the help of people like Kevin and the financial support of groups such as the Hilton Foundation, which has donated money to the league, as well as local clubs like the founding Lions Club.
“When we get involved with the kids in Little League they get to spend time in a quality, nurturing environment,” Lewis said of the importance of the league. “They develop both emotionally and physically. I get to spend time with these kids as they grow, and I get to throw the ball around with them at the same time.” Lewis has a nine-year-old son, Michael, who plays in the league’s Middles Division on the A’s, a team his dad has coached for two years now. Lewis also has a son of 30 who played in the league some 20 years ago.
Speaking at the opening-day ceremony will be former Major League Baseball player Tommy Davis. One or two of the children in attendance may become the next Davis, but Lewis insists they will have other things on their minds when the former MLB star speaks. “They don’t care about who is up there talking,” he said. “We’re boring, old people to them. They just want to get out there and play some baseball.”
The 50th anniversary celebration begins at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast. The opening day ceremonies will begin at 10:30 a.m., with a raffle drawing to follow at 2 p.m. Games begin at 8 a.m. and last throughout the day.