American Legion 2004 Area 3 Teams

How do you rank the best teams this summer in Area 3?

1. E Randolph
2. South Rowan
3. Rowan County
4. Mocksville
5. Concord
6. Kernnersville
7. Mont. County
8. Kannapolis
9. Mooresville
10. Stanly County

What do you think guys?

 

Hard (in fact impossible) to say. You don't know which players are going to be returning. Having college players return to a legion team after their freshman season, I believe, is going to hurt legion in the long run. They will squeeze out the HS underclassmen and seniors. This will drive those players to seek other venues and never develop any allegiance to the local "legion" team.

If I was a HS Sophomore or Junior, I wouldn't play legion. I would seek the best showcase team I could find. For these kids, it's about exposure.

The decision to invite back college freshman on the part of legion ball is a frank admission on their part that they believe legion ball is dying nation-wide.

 

I agree with NCBBallFan. My son is a HS Freshman and plays on a travel team. I have yet to hear a single player even mention legion ball. The only ones that talk about it are the dads who talk about their playing days. Most of these kids, at least the ones that want an oportunity to play past HS, want exposure and the best way to do that is to go where the scouts are. Unfortunately that really isn't Legion now days. From discussions with a couple of local scouts, they tell me they scout very few Legion games any more because of the tournaments that they can attend and see multiple teams and players. One scout even said that it would be a help if Legion would start playing multiple games, involving multiple teams in a round robin format on a single night or weekend but that Legion is just not making any changes. Therefore they go where the majority of the boys are and that is the tournaments. Legion appears to be in a kind of a Catch 22. This takes younger boys out of Legion and Legion is struggling to replenish its players. However, replenishing the way Legion is trying to is pushing it's future in another direction.

That is a shame but maybe it is just life.

 

The American Legion BB Program is alive and well! It seems to me that all the so called conversation about the doom of AL Baseball are amoung the parents of the players that could not make any AL BB Team.

Those pro BB scouts that you referred to are put into the catagory of "lazy and nonmotavated scouts". They would love to have a tournament every weekend whereby they sat on their rear ends and watched 5 games (provided they did not fall asleep during the games).

Visit a AL BB game this season @ Rowan County and then reply to me and let me kn ow if AL BB is dieing "nationwidw". I am shocked @ this and you could not be more wrong.

 

strikezone, before I say anything I want you to know that NOBODY has loved American Legion baseball more than me. I have been a fan since my HS years ('66-'70) and my son will play for his fourth year in Rowan County this year.
I'm not going to try to tell you how good a player my son is but there are many that will tell you that he is one of the best at his position in the state. What I can tell you is that he DID NOT gain that distinction by playing AL baseball. It came from playing in showcase events and showcase ball in the fall. The college that he will be attending actually first saw him playing in the Blue/Gray Classic at Coastal Carolina and persueded him into the fall.

I hate it as much as you do but the facts are exactly like NC and MVaughn describd them. Yes, Rowan County is still a hot bed of AL baseball in NC, along with Cherryville and Wilmington and a few others, but statewide AND nationwide there are fewer AL teams each year. And yes, a kid can still be seen by college coaches and pro scouts but they are few and far between. Go to a showcase event or a showcase tournament and you will see for yourself the difference.

As I said, my son has played AL baseball since his freshman year and has loved it. As a parent I'm thankful that I learned about showcases and travel teams( I learned on this board, btw) in time for him to participate. It was the smartest think that I ever did concerning his future.

 

May I add two more examples to rbccfan's comments.

Only two starters from Ashbrook's state championship team ever played a full season of legion baseball. Of those two, one chose to play with a team in showcase tournaments last summer and fall. He signed his NLI in November. When we met at a legion game one night this past summer, the player had a college freshman brother playing, I asked the player what he noticed that was unusual about the game. His response, "there are no scouts here."

The other Ashbrook player, who did play legion ball last summer, but joined the same showcase team in the fall, will sign his NLI in the April signing period. His parents said, "we made a mistake not doing this (playing showcase tournamnets) earlier."

Another note. It's not about scouts, and I'm talking about colleges here, being "lazy" when they would rather attend a multi-team tournament, it's pure economics. They go where they can see the most talented players at the least possible cost to their budgets. Plain and simple. This is especially true for the smaller DI schools on down. Stretch that recruiting budget as far as you can!

 

Anyone have any idea about how the Pineville legion team will be this year, losing all those guys.