CARLSBAD: Senior softball league facing stiff fee increase

Unusual group bends game's rules to allow people with medical problems to play

By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 12, 2008 4:03 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- The pitcher couldn't bend over much because he'd had surgery on both his knees, and a batter needed a backup runner after he gasped for breath while jogging to first base.

Then, one team turned out to be short a few players, so it had to borrow an outfielder from the opposing team on Thursday morning. Welcome to wonderful, wacky world of the North County Senior Softball league.

There's one more unusual aspect of this two-decade-old group of senior citizens. It's the only league in the city of Carlsbad that pays $5 a game to use the fields at Calavera Hills Community Park, city staff members say.

That status may soon come to an end, however.

Technically, the league should be paying the city's nonresident field rental rate of $15 an hour --- a fee that's slated to increase to $25 an hour come July 1, said Mick Calarco, city recreation services manager.

If the league wants to qualify for the city's free rate given to Carlsbad residents, at least 70 percent of its members must live within the city limits, he added.

But the softball league can't meet that standard.

It has 120 to 150 members ---- depending on players' health issues at any given time ---- and only about 40 percent of them come from Carlsbad, its leaders say.

Though the group doesn't qualify for the free rate, it has been paying the reduced rate of $5 a game for more than a decade according to city records, Calarco said. The arrangement dates back to 1994 when the league's leaders and the City Council apparently reached a verbal payment agreement. But there's nothing in writing about this deal, so "they haven't actually been grandfathered in and that's the challenge," Calarco said.

City staff members have informed the group that since it doesn't meet the residential requirements, it should start paying the higher fee. The group is now appealing its case to the City Council.

"If we were to play on the swings, if we were to play tennis, they wouldn't charge us," 74-year-old Carlsbad player Rudy Valle told the council Tuesday night.

He added that the group deserves its special status because it doesn't require anything from the city and because its senior players are on fixed incomes. They play on weekday mornings when no one else really wants the fields and they provide their own umpires, he said. Members even rake the fields and pick up trash before they start the games, he added.

Council members said Tuesday that they would look into the issue as they consider the city's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The council's scheduled to vote on the budget June 24.

If a deal can't be reached, the group will move its Carlsbad games elsewhere, perhaps even playing more games in Oceanside, league members said Thursday.

Carlsbad player Chuck Anthony, 80, said that would be unfortunate because gas prices are so expensive. But, he said, he's willing to make the drive if it means he can keep playing.

"It beats being a couch potato," said Anthony, who jokingly calls himself the "Bionic man."

"I've had two clogged arteries, three major heart surgeries and prostate cancer and here I am," he said.

Oceanside's sports and athletic supervisor, Judy Barz, said her city is happy to host the senior players. The league is allowed to use three city fields for free because its paperwork indicates that about 60 percent of the players at the games are Oceanside residents, she said.

"Nobody is using (the fields at) that time anyway," she added.

Plus, she said, the group provides everything ---- even its own bases ---- "so there's no cost to have staff going out there."

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