Long Live Legion

I've been very fortunate to have the support of several high school coaches in the area, allowing us to once again put a junior legion team on the field this year. I've also been very fortunate to have had players over the past few years that have been great recruiters of other players and faces of the program in the community. I believe things are looking up for legion in this area- there are several guys coaching legion in this area who are committed to making legion what it once was.
We're working on a "Bull City Invitational" that will be a day (or 2) for teams in the area to come and workout in front of scouts and coaches in the morning, and play non-conference games in the afternoon.

 

Sounds alot like the Area III showcase, then we end the day with an allstar game between the Northern Div and the Southern Div.

 

Sounds cool G. let me know if there's anyway I can help. I'm taking the summer off from coaching this year because I'm gettin hitched in May.

 

Congratulations, Jere

 

I absolutely agree with this statement! My son has played two summers with Wilson Post 13, & two falls with the Wilson Bulldogs. Legion has been a good experience. There are some good legion teams! Good competition! He'll play a third season with Post 13 before starting college next summer.

 

There's not much better than heading down to Wilson to play a Legion game in Fleming.

 

Very interesting thread. My son is a freshman so I am new to the high school baseball scene. I've learned there is Legion, showcase, and for some, a high school league. Just wondering, if showcase is only on Sat/Sun (not every weekend), is there ever an opportunity for a young man to play Legion or high school league during the week and showcase on some weekends? Seems like that would be best of both worlds. Legion for development, camaraderie, and community spirit and showcase for exposure.

 

I was going to bring up this point - but it's not a popular one on this forum. It's a problem with Legion in that they don't allow players to play outside Legion (after a certain point during the summer). Of course most of Legion games are on the weekend - so it's a direct conflict with showcase. The high school league tries not to play weekends - so there is no conflict with showcase - and it's allowed.

It would be nice if Legion permitted some outside play - maybe just 1 outside event allowed per player or something. I remember 3 years ago when a star player on the Cary JR Legion team got to go to the USA Baseball tryouts (either because USA BB was associated with Legion or it was before the cutoff). This worked out fine, he missed a weekend of Legion ball, but almost made the USA BB JR squad and got all kinds of looks from scouts at the tryout. He came back and the team went to the State finals. Last year in Cary SR Legion, another star player played for the Carolina Cubs in a major showcase event, got the same exposure, but was NOT allowed to come back to Legion and the team fell one seris short of the State tournament.

Seems to me that allowing 1 outside event wouldn't hurt Legion, and would "be the best of both worlds" for the top players.

 

i'm not a big fan of the dual participation rule either that doesn't allow guys to play for someone else after the cut off date (playoff rosters).

 

Here is the dual participation rule in layman's terms...

Bottomline, you can play legion baseball AND do showcase during the legion regular season; however, at a certain date towards the end of the legion regular season, players must commit fully to their legion team. Once legion playoffs begin, players may NOT dual participate.

Now fellas, this one rule probably catches more criticism than any other rule,,,, but look at it in reality. So Lil Johnny plays legion AND showcase during the legion regular season,,, legion playoffs begin so Lil Johnny stops showcase temporarily,,, after 1st week of legion playoffs exactly ONE HALF OF ALL legion playoff teams will be eliminated, so if Lil Johnny plays on one of those legion teams, since his legion season is now over he can showcase as long as he wants. After 2nd round, another half of all legion teams will be done and another bunch of Lil Johnnys can now do showcase til Santa comes to town.

See what I mean,,, actually the rule prohibiting dual participation is only for a brief period while your legion team is wrapping up its regular season and involved in the playoffs. Its really not deserving of all the criticism it gets, in my opinion.

Btw, if you'd like more info, you can also google the national legion baseball website. Hope I've helped.