Truly a sad day

RaleighDevil, thats exactly right, there are "some" legion programs that have strong support from the local posts (Rowan County has very good support here),,, but any individual or group can start a team if they will simply take the initiative. Theres forms and a fee, and you can have a team.

 

A difficulty with starting a team along the lines of Kerr Lake is that parents come and go. Kerr Lake seems to be able to keep it going even though the teams are not that good and you could anticipate a drop off in interest to the point where people don't want to do what it takes to keep the program going.

 

RaleighDevil just summed up in a nutshell why most legion teams have problems, that is if they have problems staying afloat from year to year. And that is because just a few get involved and do all the work, and then they are gone when their kid ages out.

The better programs who have stability also have the same folks who work every year with no kid playing, but they do it because they just want to have a legion team. Admittedly those type volunteers are hard to find.

 

Assign each high school to a legion team. The issue I referenced is that some kids from same high school were allowed to play legion baseball and some were not because of their address, not where they went to school. Assign each high school to a legion post, and if that post's team folds, then reaassign the schools.

We keep hearing from across the state that the problem is not too many players but too few. If the current plan continues to exculde players like it did this year, that will probably continue to happen. Yeah, everybody likes to win, but these guys were not trying to stack a team or be unfair or do anything illegal or unethical and they don't want to go to some team across town....they just want to be able to play legion ball on the same team as their high school teammates. IMHO that's something worth taking a look at.

 

Why do you feel the need to bash Garner and their coach. Garner took the best two players from Garner, the best two players from Middle Creek, took several good players from Fuquay, but not the two everyone talked about, and still had enough enrollment left to take four players from Lee County who do not even have a legion team within 40 miles of their school. Who else was Garner supposed to pull from? Apex takes Middle Creek, Apex, Panther Creek, and Northwood. Cary takes Cary, Wake Christian, Green Hope, and Athens Drive. Clayton took Southeast Raleigh, East Wake, Clayton, SSS, and Princeton. Benson took North Johnston, Triton, South Johnston, and West Johnston. Maybe you should be a consultant when it comes down to putting these legion teams together. You know where everyone lives, where everyone goes to school, the enrollment of where everyone goes, yet, you just graduated. Congratulations and I apologize for all of your troubles that baseball has offered. I am sorry you were in the shadows of other players. I am sorry they didn't take the little kid in AAU. I am sorry you had to get six waivers to play legion, but at least you had a place to play. I am sorry some coach's son started over you. Lesson #1 from "MR. RIGHT": If you have a problem with someone, don't use a public domain to air your dirty laundry.Lesson #2: Grow up...I've read post after post and all you do is complain, whine, and put others down. You are the classic player on every team that 1) puts others down to make themselves look good or 2) hopes someone makes a mistake so you can say I told you he wasn't that good or write some post about him.Lesson #3: Worry about things you can control, and forget about those you can't. I believe you are a very knowledgeable person and I believe somewhere down the line you haven't gotten the credit you think you deserved. I believe you come to this website to write a lot of intriguing things and somehow feel good when someone responds.I hope this makes you feel good DATABOY. You need to watch what you say because you've burned a lot of bridges with these posts. You might think it is funny right now, but in the end you'll see that sometimes its just best to bite your tongue and move on.I wish you the best with where ever you're going next year. Learn to see the positives in people and in baseball in general. You keep harping on all the bad stuff in american legion baseball. Know what American Legion stands for. Know what the creed stands for and live by it off the field. How can you repeat those words before every game and then come and say the things you say on these posts.I believe this is the creed you live by:I will keep the rules. (most of the time)I will keep faith with my teammates. (unless they get a division I scholarship, a state games nomination, or all conference)I will keep my temper (except when things don't go my way)I will keep myself fit (unless I'm too busy bashing people on TBR)I will keep a stout heart in defeat (or I'll just get back at them someway or make excuses why they beat me)I will keep my pride under in victory (this would be hard for you because you feel as if everyone owes you something)I will keep a sound soul (that is if you have one)I will keep a clean mind (if its not too busy worrying about things it can't control)and I will keep a healthy body (this shouldn't be hard considering you are the only person you care about)I'm done, if you feel the need to bash GARNER and their coach, do it in person. I don't live too far from you.

 

legion v. hs summer league

give me legion ball any day. that high school summer league is a joke. it has to be some of the absolute worst baseball i have ever seen. the even larger joke is the jv crap before the varsity games. if you can't play on the varsity, go to the frickin rec league. sure you get some romps in legion ball but at least for the most part they can throw strikes, and break 80.

 

What will it take to get those HS league players back to Legion baseball?

 

RD... it will take cooperation from the HS coaches. These kids don't "choose" HS Summer ball over Legion ball.

 

I'm confused. I recall a very passionate thread discussing the problems facing the Raleigh players and a lack of summer teams to play for. If this is the case, did I read correctly that some Legion teams in the Raleigh area are folding?

It would appear to me that the Raleigh area should be steep in quality and quantity of Legion teams.

 

I'm confused too. I don't know anything about the Raleigh area or this HS summer league in Raleigh,,, but I'm just wondering, so maybe I'll just ask the question (if I'm wrong I'll accept that) but is it possible that some HS coaches in the Raleigh area are discouraging or (worse yet) preventing their HS players from playing legion ball, simply for selfish reasons so they can use this summer league as an offseason to their upcoming spring?

I agree Raleigh is so big that they shouldn't have problems fielding legion teams.

And DancingintheStands,,, I accept your response, I wish it was as easy as simply assigning each HS to a legion post; however, again it gets back to population (numbers). You know that some high schools have 700 students and some high schools have 2000. The player's address is utilized so that hopefully a geographic boundary will keep each legion program equal in terms of households. Obviously this means many students who attend the same high school may in fact be on separate teams during legion ball because they are separated by 2 different legion programs, this actually happens frequently, the only students who can get around this rule is students who attend the BASE school. Each legion program must identify one base school, and the legion team's mileage, or area (or zone, if you will) encompasses that area immediately surrounding that base school.

Good discussion guys. I don't believe nobody is against modifying a rule, if there is a solution, you just don't want to modify a rule and then have a loophole that certain folks can use periodically to build and stack their legion teams from year to year according to what local school has the best talent.