American Legion Changes in Charlotte

I have to agree with Gman's13. If it were about the kids, the new post 533 would not be jumping through hoops to put more kids on the field to play legion ball this year, while another post was allowed to move their base school after 40 plus years to block them. Politics at its best.....

 

What color is that Donkey?

Thanks for that one Braves! I wrote that down for future use.

Some of the guys from Watauga are talking about playing Legion this coming summer. Not sure what it is all about but looking forward to watching. From what I have over heard they are still not sure what team to tryout for. They were talking Caldwell but I think Wilkesboro is now in the picture. I don’t care where they play as long as we get a little longer to watch. This season has not really started yet and I can already tell it’s going to go by way too fast!!

 

great quote...

" No matter how you paint that donkey....it's still an "ass."[/quote]

Braves thats just funny....

Gman is right in as far as opportunity... More College Coaches are at the Showcase events and from my son experience he's a '09 that is a pretty good catcher and waited a little too long to start the showcase ball.. start early and get your name out there if you want to play in college... otherwise your opportunites are limited..

good luck everyone on your high school seasons.. Go Raiders......

 

I think these changes are a step in the right direction. IMHO, you have to take demographics into consideration if you want to make Legion ball accessable for all and keep the program going. (For instance, Mecklenburg County has more than 20 high schools compared to some counties that have less than half that number.)

We had this debate last summer. My son played on an AL team for the first time last summer and had a wonderful experience. Hopefully he'll get to do it again this year. While he didn't go to the "base" school, we lived within the area that was acceptable for him to play for Huntersville.

Unfortunately, because of Legion rules, two of his high school teammates were denied the opportunity to play Legion ball--one because he lived in a "dead zone" and the other because his home address was in another Legion area. And since the other Legion area was one that had no team, he was told his only option to play Legion ball was to drive to Providence/Pineville, about three times as far as Huntersville, even though he attended Hopewell (in the Huntersville zone) for four years.

With all the talk I heard about teams folding because they couldn't find enough players, it made no sense to deny guys a chance to play like this. They weren't trying to stack a team, they just wanted to play baseball without having to drive an hour and a half for each practice and game. They didn't even get a chance to try out for the team that was closest to their home.

Hopefully these changes will make Legion ball more accessable to more players and keep this wonderful tradition alive.

 

The rest of NC played under these rules that the Charlotte area is adopting.

I hope it works out, I am staying out of the debate, want no part of it. Just tired of the bashing from both sides of the fence.

 

or we could just copy & paste from the last 7 years.

 

Yea, go ahead and save all these peoples time and frustration

 

That's a wonderful situation for kids in one community. I don't know where "TJ" is from and, respectfully don't care. He's not doing a damn thing for the other 99 counties in North Carolina where the rest of the kids play ball. He, or others, that are passionate about legion ball have done very little to help any kids from where I, and many others, live. These "hotbed" communities are the ones that are the most likely to investigate other teams players to be sure they're "legal". These are the ones who will do anything possible to strip another team of a trophy and a championship like it was a life or death situation instead of what it really is... kids playing ball. They are the ones that I watched, in amazement, literally get in a fist fight at the Bosh at UNC during a early season legion tournament. This wasn't players, these were so called "adults" who were involved with the two teams.

If the "passionate" people remaining in legion ball would focus their efforts beyond their communities and on the welfare of the legion program state wide, then maybe it would begin to thrive again. Maybe more kids would get to play some ball in the summer. Maybe it would avoid the day when one of these "hotbed" communities goes to the ball park, or turns on the radio. or rides in a fancy bus, and... there's no other team there to play. I can see the "passionate" people then jumping up and down shouting "We are the Champs!" Meanwhile, the kids will be looking at each other and saying "Why can't we just play ball?"

 

Let's make it easy...

New "Rules" for Legion Baseball...

Rule #1 25 man roster max (can be from anywhere!)

Rule #2 No players who have graduated high school, or have turned 19 yrs old

Rule #3 No high school coaches can coach a senior legion team (they can coach their own school based summer league team to develop the younger guys in their programs. This will replace jr. legion)

Rule #4 Play ball and have fun!

 

looking out the window...

But that leaves all the "new" folks out of the loop!

And isn't this more fun than trying to figure out how long it's going to take for this damn snow to go away?