I hate American Legion baseball

I've written 24 stories this month for my paper. Seventeen of them were Legion games or features.

 

"Sports."

"Yeah, I have an American legion score to report."

"Who played, and what was the final score?"

"We faced St. Vincent high school, but for the summer they're called the Huntington Beach Kiwanis, because that's their sponsor. And we are Orange County Regulators . . .yeah, the plauers like that name and it's summer, so . . . "

"Cool. Final score?"

"Oh, it was . . . .um . . . 12-10, we won."

"OK. Who was the visiting team and what is their scoring by innings?"

"UH . . . I didn't really get their scoring by innings . . . my stat girls are new . . .(nervous chuckle)."

"OK . . .what is your scoring by innings?"

"Uh . . . . . 1-3-5-7 . . . "

"Coach, not th totals. The scoring by innings."

"Oh . . . .UH . . .geez, those stat girls did it wrong. . .hold on . . . . . uh, 1-2-2-2 . . . .total of seven runs . . . uh . . ."

"How many hits, coach?"

"Uh . . . . . . . I don't have that."

"OK . . . what was the visiting team's battery?"

"Oh, they didn't give it to us . . . . . they're a league rival, let me see if I can remember . . uh, one was . . .Jones . . . . . .uh . . .no, I'm sorry."

"Your battery, coach?"

"Oh, it was Jason Jones pitching, he had thre strikeouts and only one walk. Ramiro Gonzalez was the catcher, he was one for four with a run. Also, we had a center field, . . is that where we played him today? . . .uh . . . . .um, . . . .infielder, yeah, just go with infielder, Ralph Bottoms, was 2-4 with two RBI and a stolen base. A couple other guys really played well defensively . . .want their names?"

"No thanks, coach. Thanks for calling it in."

American Legion is a Lesion (thanks, I'll be here all week) on the sports section. We are supposed to have summer off from prep phone calls, but this - and the coaches who presume to try to call in local passing league stats - deprives us of that.

Ugh.

 

When I first got here, American Legion was the big game and Babe Ruth was either a big town's second team or the only team in a tiny town.

The Legion team was covered by my predecessor the same way he covered the high school, so that's the way I did it. I didn't mind too much, because it was the only thing going on so it killed a few hours a couple of times a week.

But then summer basketball and seven-on-seven football became more important than basketball. The Legion program changed coaches a couple of times. Eventually it died out. The Babe Ruth program died when the guy who had been running it decided he was tired of it and no one wanted to take over. There were attempts to revive it but they didn't take. There were a few summers with no baseball above 15-year-olds here.

Now there's a team but I don't know what sanction it plays under. And I don't know who coaches it, who plays for it or when they play because the people associated with it don't send me anything. And nobody cares.

Heck, there were some Babe Ruth age divisions out here this year where the district tournament had only three teams.

Pittsburg, Kan., was supposed to host a Hap Dumont World Series this year (18-year-olds, I think). It got cancelled because only one team entered it.

 

We had a decent Legion team four, five years ago. For unexplained reasons, it went down hill quick. Covered them in tournament last year and they were blown out by 20 runs. We ran that in the paper and got chewed out by the parents for "rubbing it in the players' faces." They have 30 put on them twice to start the year this season, so we bail on them for a few weeks until the schedule lightens up and we have a note from the coach wondering why they haven't been covered.

This time of year, it's just Legion and a college summer league that we have going.

 

Dumbass question from Canuckistan: what the hell is American Legion baseball?

How old are the kids?

 

It's mostly high school-age kids and some returning college kids. The rule is that a player cannot turn 20 in the calendar year.

 

Thanks.

And dumb question #2: I assume no drafted players?

 

That's the same in our neck of the woods. No one goes to the games, but we staff them - and put them on the front page of the paper- cause their ain't shit else to cover.
I can't wait for football season to start!

 

I have never lived anywhere that had Legion ball, at least not since I got old enough to be aware of it. I'd like to thing someone would have mentioned it to me at one of the several papers I've worked at if there had been a local team.

Of course, AAU basketball and 7-on-7 football have more than made up for it. I think I'd rather cover the pudgy, middle-aged beer drinkers golf tournaments during the summer.

 

I'd bet a house payment some team mom sent a photo in and demanded a story on the "World Champions."

 

I think as long as they haven't signed, they can play.

 

At my first job, they always did radio for the post season. And not just for the varsity AAA kids. They did radio for the AA (JV) kids as well.

I still can't believe how serious that place took its legion baseball. Parents had coaches fired because of playing time. One year, the AA coach and the head high school football coach nearly got into a fist fight over legion baseball vs. summer football workouts.

I had a great time covering it, but I never understood how summer baseball was that big a deal.