Legion Releases: Facts & Myths

no doubt these teams are good but look at the drawing power these teams have compared to the teams they compete against. There needs to be more of a level playing field. Also how many releases have these teams obtained from other teams to make them better ??

 

09 state tourny

Well said shop 24. Mr.Waters and company lets get the playing field level.

 

How would you like to level the playing field? You have to play for the team that you live closest too. They can't help that some of the best players live in the same areas. As for players being released, most time it so that a player can play for the team that is in the county that they live in. This is soppose to be for the kids so they sould be allowed to play with the people they grew up playing with and those they go to high school with.

 

Even if a kid gets a release they still have to keep the enrollment under a certain number so many times the kid getting released wouldn't have been able to play anywhere else. Plus a team doesn't have to release a player if they don't wish to.

 

The only thing that Roy Waters needs to do and all the other commisioners is to learn the rule book this year and not screw up stuff like they have so many times in years past. Ok now you talk about leveling the playing field, so are teams that are traditionally good supposed to dispose their players out to other teams even if they are playing for who they are supposed to play with? These teams that are always good are good because the areas from which they draw are baseball hotbeds like it or not. There are a few instances where players are getting releases to play for other teams, but they just want to play with their buddies and the people they know that are in the same county as they are. I would say about 95% of the players that play for these traditionally good teams are living closest to the high school from which the legion program draws. There has been several instances, but for the most part, most of the players are not playing with releases. Tradition breeds success!

 

You play where you are suppose to play , You try out for the team you are close to, for example a couple of years ago caldwell county had a kid that went to school in wilkesboro and needed releases from 4 teams to be able to play for caldwell county is this fair or is this stacking teams? if you could get a copy af all rosters of teams in the state tournament last year i bet they had players with releases or players that were out of there drawing pool.

 

Now getting four releases to play for a team you don't really live near is not right. I was talking about getting a release from one team. I would hope this is not a common place thing for that team.

 

Shop, if you got all the rosters, you might actually be surprised. Kids getting releases is greatly exaggerated, and most of the time, folks just don't know what they're talking about. I'm not saying your wrong about some kid getting 4 releases, but I can tell you that many criticisms about legion or the release rule simply comes from folk who don't have all the facts.

I can tell you personally that our team since 2002 (if I'm not mistaken) has only been involved in maybe 3-4 releases TOTAL, since 2002. And those releases were a matter: 1) 1 kids family moved here from Greensboro(he got released to be with us), 2) 1 kid transferred to another HS so we released him to allow him play on that HS's legion team, 3) another had grown up all his life playing ball with the same friends, only to find out acc to legion rules he lived too close to Mooresville, so they released him to play with us, 4) we had mom/dad to separate and both moved (should a kid during a divorce not be allowed to continue playing where he has played all his life?

My point is,,,,,,, maybe some have abused the release system over the years, but I'm pretty certain in this area (Area III) the majority of any releases we ever hear about are for legit reasons, and the fact of the matter is you can't just get a release and go anywhere you want to play, you are only released to the next closest team. Also, I may be wrong, but I have always understood the ruling on releases is one time and one time only, once you get one release, it is final until the end of your legion eligibility (maybe I'm wrong about that, but don't think so).

I have simply found that for the most part, anytime anyone uses releases as a criticism of legion ball, they generaly don't know what they're talking about. Obviously, when teams are discovered blatantly trying to cheat, they should be punished, and as far as I know, they are.

 

tj,

not sure if this is what youre talking about, but a player has to get a release every year he wants to play for another team. For instance, you remember the whole disqualification fiasco that Rowan had to go through a couple years back. Zeb Link had to get another release that following year along with Wade Moore from Mocksville (just because they lived like maybe a half a mile closer to Davie County HS than Salisbury HS). Not sure if this is what youre speaking of but I do know that they can't just get one permanent release. I wish it was that way because players have to go through that every year and every year and it's like pulling teeth.

 

Westboy, I am very familiar with the Link and Moore situations, but you and I also know that sometimes area commissioners will make the wrong ruling too.

http://www.baseball.legion.org/forms/alb_rules2009.pdf

refer to rule 4.D.2 (page 10)

..."all transfers shall be final and binding through the remainder of a player's eligibility".


One other issue about releases that many forget about, is if a legion team DOES take a kid from another legion team,,,,, your legion team must now include the enrollment for the new kid's HS also, and you can't go over your numbers on enrollment either. So theres more than one issue here involved.