Why is this?

Braves, you posted this insight on a different thread..."Except for a few areas...Legion baseball is dying."


Braves, why is this? What can be done to bring it back to prominence?

 

It's not going to come back to prominence, though it will be around and sucessful for years to come.

Legion flourished in an era when their wasn't any competition. The environment around legion ball has changed and legion isn't positioned to adapt to those changes.

Here is what I mean...
Situation 1: You are a college coach.

You have a choice. There is a showcase tournament over at College "B". There will be 6 teams there, all with regarded players inside the state. Your other option that weekend is to travel to a small town and catch a legion game. At the "showcase tournament", you have possibly 10-15 true college d1 prospects. At the legion game, you have possibly 2-3 true college d1 prospects. What do you do?

Situation 2: You are a player who wants to play in college.

Your legion coach has good contacts and can call in some of the local D2 colleges to see you, but you really dream about playing at a D1 school. What do you do? If you can arrange it, playing for a showcase team will give you a better chance of being seen by the college coaches. Yes, there will be a lot of coaches at the state tournament, but YOUR legion team has to make it there, so your chances of being seen is controlled by your teammates and coaches, not you.

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The showcase teams are here to stay. Gripe if you want, but that won't change anything. The top level showcase teams in the state (Dirtbags, On Deck, Cubs) have 10-12 players commit to a college every year. If you are good enough, the percentages are in your favor playing for them.

Legion can help itself some by changing the way it plays weekends. If you had a neutral venue and brought in 4-6 teams every weekend for round-robin play (splitting the revenue from concessions and tickets) then that would be attractive to the college coaches. I can also think of a couple reasons why that isn't going to happen just off the top of my head. It will take someone like TJ21 to make that work. I still don't think it return legion to it's former position.

 

TBA - this was posted in a different forum. We have discussed this ad nauseum in this forum. If you would like to read back those threads, look in your upper right hand corner where it says Search forum. Type in 'American legion baseball" and you will find many, many threads about this.

I love American Legion Baseball...but I believe, except in a few areas, it has been minimalized due to all the competing Summer baseball leagues. You still can't beat going to one in Kannapolis, Cherryville, Caldwell, Shelby and others where the community embraces the team. To play on those teams is something I wish every HS kid had an opportunity to do...but in most places it is not like that and in some places it is no longer supported.

Nothing else really to say that hasn't been mentioned 100's of times

 

Evolution of Baseball in NC - my theory

Year 1980 - Rec baseball
Year 1990 - AAU baseball
Year 2000 - Legion baseball
Year 2005 - Showcase baseball

The upper echelon players will always find a niche where they and/or mom and dad "perceive" they will get the biggest bang for their buck.

My question is.. when junior can't make the Dirtbags, Cubs, etc. and big daddy deep pockets start forming their own Showcase teams...thus watering down that faction of baseball, what will be the next level that the best of the best go play?

In other words, who will be the Andy Partin/Impact Baseball of the year 2010?

 

TBR....

 

Heck, why wait, let's start today.

The ALL-TBR Team 2010.

Submit your player nomination to Braves.

Seriuosly though, one could make a point that Impact could be just a passing fad, and when showcase baseball gets watered down (which it will in a few years) someone will need to begin a new level.

Agreed anyone?

 

History has proved you correct. I do see one more step in the evolution

 

We discussed the evolution a couple years back.

My personal take is that MLB scout teams will form, playing under the direction of a recognized scout, sponsored (in part) by the teams, playing solely with woodbats. These teams (probably no more than 2/state) will travel up/down the east coast, playing major tournaments at college venues.

It's like a glorified WWBA where you will consistently see the best talent play against the best talent ... best hitters versus best pitchers ... and all with wood.

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But, this will only satisfy the exposure needs of the top 10-20% of the players in our state who end up in college. The rest will be served by the showcase teams, showcasing, attending college camps and playing legion (or whatever) ball.

 

Braves.....I'm hurt, you left out Pineville.

 

For Legion to get back to the prominence it once held it is going to take some rules changes on their part. They need to allow kids to attend showcases during their season to get recruited. When they come to this realization, and become a little more flexible then I can see it making a comeback because it can be great baseball. If this ever occurs then the number of Jr Legion teams across the state will explode as the Sr Legion teams won't have to be stocking themselves with freshman and sophmores.