With Jackie Robinson Stadium, its home baseball field, locked up under order of a federal judge because of an ongoing legal dispute over land for veterans housing, UCLA coach John Savage has his team on a traveling caravan.
On Thursday and Friday, they will be practicing at Birmingham High School. On Sunday, it will be Harvard-Westlake’s O’Malley Field.
Next week, it could be L.A. Valley College or Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School.
Federal Judge David O. Carter, a UCLA grad, isn’t allowing access to the baseball stadium until the school produces a plan that meets his satisfaction to ensure that service to veterans is the predominant focus of the 10-acre facility leased from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Savage is leaving it up to the lawyers to do the team’s talking. All he can do is keep lining up practice sites to make sure the Bruins are preparing for the spring season ahead. They will hold a scrimmage against themselves at 5 p.m. Friday and practice at O’Malley Field on Sunday morning.
In 2007, when Jackie Robinson Stadium was undergoing upgrades, UCLA also used Birmingham to practice.
Since several of UCLA’s players are from the San Fernando Valley, they might be able to offer history lessons or tours of the surrounding neighborhoods.
