-THANKS
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It depends on the quality of the play. In some parts of the country Legion is the way to go. In other areas it's in decline getting beaten up by travel ball. If it's the best ball in your area it's the place to be.
What it really comes down to is if you're a quality player you're going to showcase. At showcases you will display talent scouts like or don't like regardless of where you played.
What it really comes down to is if you're a quality player you're going to showcase. At showcases you will display talent scouts like or don't like regardless of where you played.
Mark Texiera played American Legion ball.
Honestly, scouts dont care if you played legion or not. They care about your tools.
On a side note, I hope legion makes a comeback....but I wont hold my breath
On a side note, I hope legion makes a comeback....but I wont hold my breath
Not until they drop the 19U. For our area it has become a program for college freshman who did not get place to play. College freshman playing vs Jr's in HS.
Legion would have been very smart to make a division for the 19 & 20 year olds and left the program the way it was.
Legion would have been very smart to make a division for the 19 & 20 year olds and left the program the way it was.
I know of a Legion coach with a great philosophy. If you're a college player you need to be playing against college players. If you're not a college player it's time to move on with your life and give others a shot. He might have won back to back national titles had his stud players returned freshman year.
Our local Legion team had three starters not playing college ball. They had a D1 pitcher who dominated. Go figure! He should have been playing in a college league. His dad would gloat over all the K's (double digits) every game. They also had three D3 starters. So seven roster spots went to college kids. Four more positions went to kids of the coaching staff.
Then the coach wonders why the sixteen year olds drift off to travel and many don't return to Legion. In our area more and more college prospects are turning to the top travel teams and blowing off Legion. My son and a couple of friends beat the rush. They blew off Junior Legion for USSSA travel.
Our local Legion team had three starters not playing college ball. They had a D1 pitcher who dominated. Go figure! He should have been playing in a college league. His dad would gloat over all the K's (double digits) every game. They also had three D3 starters. So seven roster spots went to college kids. Four more positions went to kids of the coaching staff.
Then the coach wonders why the sixteen year olds drift off to travel and many don't return to Legion. In our area more and more college prospects are turning to the top travel teams and blowing off Legion. My son and a couple of friends beat the rush. They blew off Junior Legion for USSSA travel.
while it is a luxury to play travel ball,and not everyone has the money to do it. you don't get the chance to represent your community like legion ball. scouts want you to play ball.are you also thinking college coaches?
there may not be as many scouts at a legion game until states or all stars. but if your a player the word gets around.
play hard,work hard where ever you play and good things will happen.
there may not be as many scouts at a legion game until states or all stars. but if your a player the word gets around.
play hard,work hard where ever you play and good things will happen.
I have mostly good things to say about legion baseball as my son played two seasons for them. The only negative I have seen and already mentioned in this thread is maybe for older players who still play legion ball. The negative part (if it even is) being they may be facing lesser competition i.e., younger players. For the young players however, the experience is a great one.
The first team my son played on was a 17u team. He was a 15 year old (turn 16 in July) during the summer heading into his junior year. Our big trip of the year was heading to Athens Ohio. Legion put on a big tournament at Ohio University and surrounding high schools. We played a superior team to us from Morgantown, Wva. They hit many long homeruns and struck most of our guys out and run-ruled us. My son had two nice hits and after the game we found out that a half dozen of their starters were from U WVa. I was thrilled when I found that out as I felt my son had competed nicely against them. He played well across that tournament against other teams who also had college players competing. I guess what I am saying is legion provides nice opportunities for younger players to play up.
Over that winter, he got offers to play for other travel teams and was tempted to take them. I knew the legion coach wanted him back. When my son asked my advice I first told him I would support any decision he made but... I told him there is something about loyalty or whatever you want to call it. I told him he was thrilled when he got to play up the year before with some older guys and now the coach needed him to fill the same role - leadership. I think he understood me on some level and chose to comeback another year to the legion team but I think deep down he wondered if he was passing up better opportunities.
Th following spring he played in the Ohio high school state championship for big schools. He put everything he had into winning that game and they came up short 6-2. That was on a Friday in early June and legion baseball started their season the very next day on Saturday. He was in no mood to begin playing so soon but I kind of hard-coaxed him into it. For the first month of that legion season, my son played like a zombie and you could tell his heart was not in it. He fielded poorly and did not hit. I had to eventually call him out but he couldn't get over the feeling we were playing down. I told him maybe the reason the team was playing down was because he was playing down! I think that message got though to him but it still took something else to turn things around that summer.
We headed back to Athens for the annual legion tournament and the first few games my son did not play well. We had the conversation I spoke of above and we found out we were playing the #1 ranked legion team in Ohio that night from Marysville. They had several OU college students on their team and when we arrived at the ballpark you could tell they were way bigger than us and clearly did not respect us. For the first time that summer, I noticed my son had an extra bounce in his step.
Our coach employed an age old trick in that game and he pitched our youngest and softest-thrower on the team in hopes that would mess up their timing. He gave up a few long homeruns but our defense started to play well for him and we found ourselves down 9-6 late in the game. We then got the bases loaded and my son came to the plate and they brought in their closer from OU. He hit a double and cleared the bases. I knew his summer of funk was over at that point and he played outstanding the rest of the year. We ended up losing that game but the coach from the other team said we turned their heads.
The following is not legion but ends the story.
Later that summer, the high school coach recalled all his players from the surrounding travel and legion teams that had disbursed over the summer and we entered the CABA hig school World Series tournament that is held annually in this area. During one of the games against a team from Chicago (gotwood4sale's son played on the team) a coach happened to stop on his way back from Chicago heading toward his home in Myrtle Beach. He just happened to watch my son's game and my son just happened to have a good game so there is luck involved. He approached my son's high school coach after the game and made inquiries. He basically said he liked my son's game but felt he might be a little too small to play Division 1. He was 5-9 and 147 lbs at the time. My son ended up being the starting ss at that college since half way though his freshman year and now heading into his junior year.
Later that year, as the only returning starter on his high school team, he led them back to the state championship tournament and came up one game shy of the championship. All the hurt and the heartache from the year before had been completely erased and he was now headed off to college in a dream location. Do I think legion ball was good? From a younger player's perspective, it was great. He learned how to compete against older and stronger players and he learned something about leadership. Looking back, I believe neither him nor I would change a thing.
The first team my son played on was a 17u team. He was a 15 year old (turn 16 in July) during the summer heading into his junior year. Our big trip of the year was heading to Athens Ohio. Legion put on a big tournament at Ohio University and surrounding high schools. We played a superior team to us from Morgantown, Wva. They hit many long homeruns and struck most of our guys out and run-ruled us. My son had two nice hits and after the game we found out that a half dozen of their starters were from U WVa. I was thrilled when I found that out as I felt my son had competed nicely against them. He played well across that tournament against other teams who also had college players competing. I guess what I am saying is legion provides nice opportunities for younger players to play up.
Over that winter, he got offers to play for other travel teams and was tempted to take them. I knew the legion coach wanted him back. When my son asked my advice I first told him I would support any decision he made but... I told him there is something about loyalty or whatever you want to call it. I told him he was thrilled when he got to play up the year before with some older guys and now the coach needed him to fill the same role - leadership. I think he understood me on some level and chose to comeback another year to the legion team but I think deep down he wondered if he was passing up better opportunities.
Th following spring he played in the Ohio high school state championship for big schools. He put everything he had into winning that game and they came up short 6-2. That was on a Friday in early June and legion baseball started their season the very next day on Saturday. He was in no mood to begin playing so soon but I kind of hard-coaxed him into it. For the first month of that legion season, my son played like a zombie and you could tell his heart was not in it. He fielded poorly and did not hit. I had to eventually call him out but he couldn't get over the feeling we were playing down. I told him maybe the reason the team was playing down was because he was playing down! I think that message got though to him but it still took something else to turn things around that summer.
We headed back to Athens for the annual legion tournament and the first few games my son did not play well. We had the conversation I spoke of above and we found out we were playing the #1 ranked legion team in Ohio that night from Marysville. They had several OU college students on their team and when we arrived at the ballpark you could tell they were way bigger than us and clearly did not respect us. For the first time that summer, I noticed my son had an extra bounce in his step.
Our coach employed an age old trick in that game and he pitched our youngest and softest-thrower on the team in hopes that would mess up their timing. He gave up a few long homeruns but our defense started to play well for him and we found ourselves down 9-6 late in the game. We then got the bases loaded and my son came to the plate and they brought in their closer from OU. He hit a double and cleared the bases. I knew his summer of funk was over at that point and he played outstanding the rest of the year. We ended up losing that game but the coach from the other team said we turned their heads.
The following is not legion but ends the story.
Later that summer, the high school coach recalled all his players from the surrounding travel and legion teams that had disbursed over the summer and we entered the CABA hig school World Series tournament that is held annually in this area. During one of the games against a team from Chicago (gotwood4sale's son played on the team) a coach happened to stop on his way back from Chicago heading toward his home in Myrtle Beach. He just happened to watch my son's game and my son just happened to have a good game so there is luck involved. He approached my son's high school coach after the game and made inquiries. He basically said he liked my son's game but felt he might be a little too small to play Division 1. He was 5-9 and 147 lbs at the time. My son ended up being the starting ss at that college since half way though his freshman year and now heading into his junior year.
Later that year, as the only returning starter on his high school team, he led them back to the state championship tournament and came up one game shy of the championship. All the hurt and the heartache from the year before had been completely erased and he was now headed off to college in a dream location. Do I think legion ball was good? From a younger player's perspective, it was great. He learned how to compete against older and stronger players and he learned something about leadership. Looking back, I believe neither him nor I would change a thing.
Just saw this story and is about a player signed at my son's school. It sounds like legion baseball has been good for him as well.
Legion player headed to the beach
Legion player headed to the beach
There was a player who did not play high school ball but played legion and then went on to Stanford!
It does depend on the area, legion in our area is relatively weak and travel ball has taken the top players leaving mostly teams which were able to keep the players in the area playing on the team being the stronger team, but not any match for even the marginal travel teams.
It does depend on the area, legion in our area is relatively weak and travel ball has taken the top players leaving mostly teams which were able to keep the players in the area playing on the team being the stronger team, but not any match for even the marginal travel teams.
I agree that Legion baseball has different standing in different geographic areas. In western PA, it is not as high profile as it used to be. There are still some very good teams though. My son has played for the Legion program despite also playing for another summer team (which is a violation of Legion rules). We saw occasional scouts and college coaches coming to look at a player or two from time to time. I think the coaches go where the talent is.
The Legion program needs to take a look at its competition in areas where it is down and adjust its rules. For instance, if a kid wants to play for his local team and also plays for another team and each are OK with that, why should the Legion care? Also, the playing rules are also at issue. They need to allow a DH and EH and have a re-entry rule. This makes it easier for the younger kids on the team to get some playing time. The Legion does have some great traditions, like the reciting of the oath at the beginning of games
The Legion program needs to take a look at its competition in areas where it is down and adjust its rules. For instance, if a kid wants to play for his local team and also plays for another team and each are OK with that, why should the Legion care? Also, the playing rules are also at issue. They need to allow a DH and EH and have a re-entry rule. This makes it easier for the younger kids on the team to get some playing time. The Legion does have some great traditions, like the reciting of the oath at the beginning of games
In terms of development, the 3 years my son played legion was the best thing he could have done...even playing this past summer after the freshman year in college. He got to hone his skills against decent competition (legion is pretty solid in our part of VA). His first year he was a rising HS senior playing with players a couple years older. His coach had a lot to do with it...but he learned how to play the game right and how to respect the game. I guess it all depends on the situation.