Strip Club's $1,200 Donation Keeps Little League Batting

Ay Batter, Batter, Swing Batter.

In little league, a certain amount of street cred is derived from a team's sponsor--kids cross their fingers for Godfather's Pizza (free slices!), but undoubtedly end up on RE/Max (free comparative market analysis!). Players on Lennox Little League's more than 40 teams might have a little more swagger this season though, thanks to the sponsorship of a local gentleman's club.

Lennox Little League received $1,200 donation from The Jet Strip, the Daily Breeze reports. The donation was one of several ($600 from the Lennox Coordinating Council; $1,000 donation from the little league in nearby Westchester) received by the embattled league, which has been locking horns with the local school district over new fees and regulations.

In December the Lennox School District, which owns all baseball diamonds in the one square mile community near LAX, doubled the daily use fee for its fields from $25 to $50. The district says the new fees offset the cost of hiring a security guard to monitor the fields.

The last several months have seen a series of disputes between the league and the school district. In December, the district changed the locks on the fields to prevent the league from practicing outside of scheduled times; the school board recently demanded access to the league's financial records as well.

The fee increase comes on the heels of a new rule that forbids the sale of hot dogs and hamburgers at games, effectively cutting off the league's main source of funding.

Superintendent of administrative services Brian Johnson says that grilling at games poses a threat to public health, and could leave the district open to lawsuits. "We can't control the heat level they are cooking things at," he told the Daily Breeze back in January. "The bottom line is it makes the district liable if they serve food that has been prepared by them ... and somebody gets sick."

As a result of the budget woes, the league, which serves more than 300 children, opened its season on Saturday three weeks later than it has in years past and with none of the typical festivities, like live music and bounce houses. No word on whether or not there were lap dances.