Legion Eligibility Questions

Have been asked and have read on other sites where folks have certain questions about American Legion player eligibility,,, and quite honestly if there's any questions whatsoever, I sure hope a coach would check things out before risking a disqualification due to an illegal player.

Maybe there's some specific questions that others are often asked, but the main 2 questions that I often hear are this:

1) Age limit- If any player turns 20 before Jan.1, 2007, he is too old.

2) This question is asked over and over for some odd reason. But most people claim that they understand the "permanent residence rule", but for some reason folks think if their son leaves town to attend college in another city, they ask "can their son play legion ball in the city where he attends college"? The answer is a resounding "NO",,, refer back to what is the player's "permanent" residence. And if the player gets a "release", he is actually supposed to be released "only" to the team which is next closest to his permanent residence.

Nobody should have illegal players period, but since official rosters are due soon, just thought I'd share these,,, especially since these questions are still being asked this time of the year. Maybe some of you have heard other questions,,,, feel free to share.

 

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

This is a link to the national rules for deciding which Legion team a kid should play for. The controversy that eliminated Rowan last summer opened everyone's eyes about the importance of playing for the correct Legion post. The link above is to the national rules for determining this.

The rules are very clear: a kid must play for the Legion team connected to the 'base school' that is closest to that player's home. Each Legion Post decides which school is their 'base school'.

To determine the nearest base school for each potential player, the Athletic Directors are supposed to calculate the closest base school to a kid's home based on the driving distance as calculated by DeLorme, Street Atlas USA 2006 computer program.

Mapquest or any other computer program are not acceptable. Only DeLorme, Steet Alas USA 2006. It only takes about 20 minutes to check 20 kids.

 

UK7Dook3,,,,, thanks & thats great info, and also don't you think the most confusing rule is the issue of players getting a release from one team to another. Even though releases aren't commonplace, I think the issue of releases simply raises more questions than any other rule.

 

Would this mean that a kid that has lived and played baseball in one county his whole life but when you put the Delorme atlas to it and he lives closer to a high school in another county across the line by maybe two miles, then he is supposed to play in that other county with a team and teammmates he has never played with? I know this came up last year with a player in Rowan or Davie, not sure, but what is the rule? Shouldn't you play in the county you have lived and played your whole life? Most kids wouldn't want to do otherwise. Just curious because counties are never mentioned in this ruling especially with most teams having one team in a county.

 

Airman, you are right, the county of your residence doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the mileage from your permanent residence to the base school of your legion team.

 

How about teams only playing in a low number of games. Is there a requirement to get into the playoffs?

 

I'm assuming you are referring to Area 1 in the east which has some teams who hasn't played more than a half dozen games. None of us in the west know the reason for this low number of games, maybe they've had bad weather, who knows. But to answer your question, those teams can still qualify for the playoffs if their record is good enough, and ultimately if the Area 1 commissioner says they can.

 

Box & TJ, I'm speculating, but I suspect that the low # of games is probably because Area 1 starts their season later than the rest of us. If I recall last year correctly, I think only 4 teams make the playoffs there. If so, they still have through next week to play, which would add another 10 games or so to their totals.

 

I do know they took a week off for the State Games.

 

Area 1 commisner has ruled that teams must make up their games or forfeit..Some say a few teams will have to make up 12 games in four day....go figure...Alot left off...if youget a chance you can read it on NCPrepes.com...I'll try to update later