Youth Baseball begins its 56th season overall
The Los Alamitos Youth Baseball league will toss the first pitch of its 2012 season with a slate of games at “the base” fields this Saturday that will supposedly celebrate the league’s 50th season at the base.
The games actually mark the start of local youth baseball’s 56th season overall and youth baseball’s 52nd season at the fields on the Navy Base/AFRC/JFTB, although it will be the younger age groups’ 50th season at the base,
It gets confusing because in the old days the olders (Pony, Colt) and youngers (Bronco and below) were two separate operations with different boards, etc.
The youngers first began play in 1957 as the Rossmoor Little League at a diamond where the Rossmoor Townhomes now stand. The fields were constructed by Rossmoor builder Ross Cortese and their All-American wholesomeness were duly reported in Cortese’s press releases all designed to attract more buyers to Rossmoor. It didn’t hurt that in its very first year, the league featured the play of Andy Messersmith who would go on to be a top major league baseball pitcher.
After two years of playing at the Bradbury-Montecito diamond, the league had to move to make room for the construction of the new townhomes. Parents found available space at what would become Rossmoor Park — but was then the vacant Wilson School site.
At the same time, with the graduation of so many local youths from Little League and the addition of so many new kids to Rossmoor, the parents of the older kids formed the Los Alamitos Pony-Colt League and talked the commander of the Navy Air station to allow them to build a field on that site. Pony-Colt built the first fields at the base in (Al Camillo Field) and then the Navy agreed to allow a total of four diamonds to be constructed there.
This April 1961 article in the News-Enterprise mentions the Pony Colt League will play at the new base field while the Little League will play at their Rossmoor fields (which other articles say were located at Baskerville & Kerth)
The Little League, by now called the Rossmoor-Los Alamitos Little League, couldnt get their new diamonds constructed and played one more year at the two fields at the Wilson School site, and on one additional field, called the Los Alamitos Lions Field located on Cerritos west Los Al Boulevard, near A.J. Supply.
But by 1963 all the leagues were located at the base fields. The Little league, now 300 players strong on twenty teams, celebrated their May 14 opening day with the dedication of their new Frank Vessels Field, named for the Race Track founder and owner who had been a big supporter of youth programs in the community.
With the departure of the Little League, the girls began playing softball at the Wilson site and all the boys played at the base (until St. Hedwig started their Little League). In the mid 70s, the youngers League changed its affiliation from Little League to Pony baseball. And then in the mid 1990s the younger and older leagues, at the urging/insistence of the base commander, merged all their operations into one league called Los Alamitos Youth Baseball.
A more complete history of the league ran in the article, reprinted below, which originally ran in the February 12, 1999 issue of Local Sports.
LAYB begins 42nd season
February 12, 1999
by LARRY STRAWTHER/Local Sports Youth Baseball Correspondent
With over 900 kids in tow, Los Alamitos Youth Baseball will begin its 42nd season later this month with a full slate of games at the four fields at the Armed Forces Reserve Center.
That’s a far cry from the league’s first opening day – back in the summer of 1958 – when the Los Alamitos-Rossmoor Little League held its grand opening with ceremonies and two exciting games between the league’s four teams. In the league’s very first game, the Rossmoor Knights defeated the Walker & Lee Squires 2-0, behind Andy Messersmith’s 14 strikeouts.
“We played at the corner of Bradbury and Montecito, where the Rossmoor Townhouses are now ” said Terry Messersmith, who was the league’s first secretary,” and Ross Cortese (the developer of Rossmoor) put up the money for our team’s uniforms and he built the fences around the field.”
League President Lee Mulligan, (“the one who really got the whole thing going,” said Messersmith) introduced the volunteers, thanked the sponsors and read a letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Hey, Presidents had more time then, not being distracted by things like impeachments, etc.)
From those four teams of 60 kids the league has grown, matured, evolved, split and reunited so this year’s version will have over 900 kids.
Among those youths will be Terry Messersmith’s great grandson, Jeff Mauler.
Without a doubt, the Los Al program is one of the most successful and respected in Southern California. Over the years, parents from as far away as Bellflower, Anaheim, and Fountain Valley have been bringing their kids “to the base” to play ball.
But one cannot blame them, considering the success of the league, and the percentage of major league baseball players that have come from this area, especially considering its size. Former and present Major Leaguers like Messersmith (Dodgers, Angels) , Dennis Lamp (Cubs), and Robb Nen (Marlins, Giants), Craig Chamberlain (Royals), Mike Kelly, Glen Pirkl, Greg Harris, and others developed their skills in the Los Al league. However, J.T. Snow (Angels, Yankees, Giants), played most of his Little League ball down in Seal Beach.
“At one point a few years ago,” noted Los Al Youth baseball Player Agent Ron Lung (who has been associated with the league since he began coaching his youngest son’s team in 1969), “we almost had seven players from the Los Al-Seal Beach area in the Major Leagues. That would have been almost 1% of the major league total coming from an area with a population of about 60,000 – absolutely amazing.”
That very first season culminated in grand style with Andy Messersmith throwing a no-hitter over the second place Tigers to cap a 17-0-1 season for the Knights. The league’s first All-Star team then won their first match, with Messersmith getting a 3-2 win over a Lakewood team, but the season ended with Los Al losing its next two games.
The Rossmoor Knights - Champions of the Rossmoor LL's very first season in 1958
After a couple years at the Bradbury and Montecito location the league moved to Rossmoor Park for a few seasons. Some old-timers are quick to point out that the word “park” was a stretch as the field was mainly all dirt with very few trees.
It was in 1963 that the league — now 16 teams strong in a majors and minors leagues—moved to its present location on “the base”—the then U.S. Naval Air Station, Los Alamitos. The Little League was soon sharing its fields with the Los Alamitos Pony League for older youths.
In the winter of 1973, the Little league also decided to switch its affiliation from Little League to PONY Baseball, one of the reasons being, according to Ron Lung, that “Little League allowed 12-year olds to pitch to 9-year olds” while PONY (which stands for Protect Our Nation’s Youth) groups youths in two-year divisions.
Well-known Los Al orthodontist Dr. Ray Sugiyama brought his two sons over from Long Beach in the late 1970s. “I found the leagues here were more orderly. Both the parents and coaches seemed to be more concerned with the enjoyment of the sport, and teaching good sportsmanship.”
That switch led to probably the most significant event in the history of the league, the world championship won by the 1983 Bronco National All-Star team, which won 20 games and lost only 2 in a run that carried them through Dana Point, San Diego, Vernal, Utah and St. Joseph, Missouri.
Ironically, that team’s toughest competition arguably came from the Los Alamitos Bronco American All-Stars which beat the Los Al team in the second round of a double-elimination tournament at Dana Point. But the Nationals came back to win three straight, including two straight wins in the finals to capture the regional title.
“Amazingly enough,” added Lung, “the year before, the National team advanced to the zone finals in San Francisco, but was just edged out in the finals, otherwise Los Al would have had two straight teams advance to the PONY world championship.
Three years later, a Los Al Pony All-Star team traveled to Japan, and won four of six games. The team, included Ken Gajewski who played a few years later for NCAA champion Oklahoma, and Anthony Napolitano and Darren Sugiyama who made all-conference at Loyola Marymount. The team played one game in Tokyo Stadium, home of the Tokyo Giants.
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