Support Anne Arundel County American Legion Baseball

I would love to see this league get resurrected. IMO, the league lost momentum when Bernie Walter and Jim McCandless stopped coaching their respective teams.

My summer team routinely played Severna Park three times per year from 1995-2000, while we were one of the dominant programs in the Baltimore Metro 17-18 division. Without a doubt, those Severna Park teams (with players like the Neuberger boys, Mike Floyd, Mark Texiera, Josh Banks, etc...) were as strong if not stronger than any of the teams in the Metro league.

Wayne Feuerherd (North County coach) played summer baseball for me, and was very familiar with those tremendous AACounty legion teams. I hope this league can get back to the prominence it once enjoyed in the state of MD.

I wonder why Legion ball has died out in many parts of MD. While legion thrives in other areas - VA and PA - it has certainly not been on the main stage in MD. In Howard County we have Laurel Legion which is a solid team and Doc Drewyer works hard and donates a lot of time, it is not what I would call a top tier program.

LT - what has happened to the U16 Reds? It used to be a premier team that has faded a bit. Is it due to lack of talent? interest? I am just curious. Mr. Lopez built the Reds - You, Paul, Jimmy Mowder took it to the next level - it is one organization I would like to see prosper.

By the way - Paul Donovan has done a fantastic job with the older Reds - no doubt about that at all.

Legion is still very strong in pockets around MD. The four county area (Montgomery, Frederick, Carroll - sans Howard) have some good leagues. Gaithersburg and Mount Airy are the better known programs to me. Frederick and Funkstown are traditionally very good as well. I would love to see a resurgence of legion baseball. IMO, it is the purest form of summer baseball going. I generally find the better legion programs to be coached by some of the best coaches around. These guys can't cherry pick their teams from all over the metro area...they get a set population to draw from and that is it. It is real baseball IMO. None of this showcase (only playing on weekends) nonsense (just kidding - but I don't like it).

For a number of years, our 15-16 team was a strong feeder. (Did you know the Columbia Reds started as a 14 year old team?) Those teams were coached by tremendous coaches (Merson, Maxey, Martin, O'Brien, O'Connor, etc...) who put their all into building winners. Sean and Tim made a formidable team. But Tim's added duties for USA Baseball and Sean's taking on the varsity position at Dematha has created a vacuum for the summer program. With Tim pretty much gone most of the summer, and Sean wanting to see his high school players develop during the summer, the Columbia Reds 15-16 team was becoming a team of kids from everywhere but Columbia/Howard County.

John Lopez gave me and Jimmie a tremendous opportunity in 1989. We were coaching together at Oakland Mills and his son Brian was on our team. He asked if we'd be interested in starting a summer team for 17-18 year olds and play in the BML. Paul joined us on the coaching staff and we were off and running. Boy, those first few years were tough. We went 8-27 and 10-29 our first two years in the BML, and that was with some of the better players in HoCo on our squad. Those teams weren't lacking talent...they were lacking good coaching. We learned from our mistakes and got a little better as the years went on.

Back to the 15-16 team, I guess with BML going to single age groups, the team evolved into a 16 year old team. I never liked it, but it was what it was. We also had the problem of some local folks taking our name at the younger age groups. Trust me, as treasurer and the person who files the tax returns, we only incorporated Columbia Reds Inc. for two squads (15-16 and 17-18). I doubt we will build back up. To do so would require me and Jimmie to get more involved. My dad died suddenly in the fall of '03, so I quit coaching all together to help my mom with her place in E.C. I went from 1989-2003 without ever missing a practice or game (my wife was/is a saint!). I figured after dad died I couldn't put that same commitment on the table, so I decided to walk away from my onfield duties. As for Jimmie, he started getting into college coaching and his kids got older and started playing other sports more. I've known Jimmie since 1972 and knew he needed to be around for his family more. Without the two of us, it is simply too much for Paul to oversee. And to tell the truth, I think Paul is really liking this 20U thing he has going the past two seasons. His team last summer was one poorly played ball to rightfield away from walking into the AAABA World Series championship game.

It has also been very difficult for us when we really don't have much of a home to speak of. Back in our heyday, we had AHS' baseball field as the showplace in HoCo. The county stepped in back in the late 90's, early 2000's and threatened to pull our permit if we didn't stop "taking care of the field". Our tractor was vandalized (by workers who said we didn't have any business mowing the grass), the water was turned off on us, our clay pile for fixing batters box and pitchers mound was shoved into the woods by a large bulldozer, etc... All that stuff eventually wears you down.

Probably the only thing that really bothers me to this day is the fact that we asked for assistance from some of the other "local" organizations, and we got very little help. This after feeding many of their 17-18 programs with coaches, when they couldn't fill the spots...or when we would set up games for them with out of state opponents who would come to play us...or if we had a college coach in town to watch out team, we would ask the coach to stick around an extra day to watch those "local" teams. I know this sounds childish from an adult, but it does bother me. We never acted like we were the only game in town. We would frequently point players to these other programs if we couldn't fit them on our roster.

Sorry for the rambling...

quote:

Originally posted by hocobaseballfan:
By the way - Paul Donovan has done a fantastic job with the older Reds - no doubt about that at all.

Agreed! Paul is such a smart guy. He is a true student of the game. And a great evaluator of talent. All my years of scouting for the Astros, he would frequently go along to see a player or team. When an Astros official was in town, he generally came away very impressed from Paul's insight. I introduced a fledgling agent to Paul about 10 years ago. This guy was a lawyer, but didn't know baseball all that much. With Paul being a lawyer, they formed a bond. Paul went on several occasions with this gentleman to see players perform, players this person wanted to recruit as clients. Paul's insight was very much appreciated and is still tapped upon 10 years later by this agent (who has several major leaguers as clients).

You wouldn't believe the cast of former players who come back during winter break from college ball to workout with him. He knows his stuff. If my son or daughter were to be coached by someone other than me, I'd prefer any of the following five (in no particular order):

Jim McCandless
Randy Kail
Paul Donovan
George Richardson
Jimmie Mowder

Although we all know these "showcase" teams are taking a dominant role in the local baseball scene, I think they will eventually dillute the talent pool all together.

Larry is correct, there are some really strong pockets of Legion Ball left in MD. Montgomery has been very strong and the Frederick area has grown as well.

The Frederick area has Francis Scott Key, Funkstown, Urbana and Mt Airy now...Gaithersburg won the state championship last year...In AA county we are working hard to expand our presence. In the last few years there was almost a complete collapse for the league. We have added two new teams in Dewey and Calvert and we should be adding at least one more next year.

We, the Saints, who have been the AA County champs for the last 6 years are working hard to facilitate games from Legion teams throughout the state as well as in neighboring areas.

One of the best opportunities for Legion ball throughout the state will be the recognition by High School coaches that it is a great place for thier graduating seniors to play summer ball as well as a really good place for those college freshman making the transition to summer ball.

The loyalty is still there, it needs to be nurtured...We had a half a dozen former players come see our games last week....Feuerherd from North County and Bollinger (who played for the Saints) as well as coaches like McCandless, Sider, etc...can really help out by offering Legion ball as an alternative....

One of the other areas we need to focus on is working with the private school coaches to develop solid relationships as well...

Recent years have seen the likes of Alex Buchholz and Zach Moore play Legion ball for the Saints and get drafted. This year one of our players is getting private workouts with MLB team's before the draft...

Its a great league, full of tradition and hopefully ready to grow once again.

Any help that you can suggest to us would be truly appreciatted.

I think the perceived reduced legion schedule helps out as well. Many players no longer want the daily and weekly grind that adds up to 55 or 60 games. Alex B. was a prime example. He played for our team in Columbia. Once he knew where he was going to college, he was less inclined to make the commitment we asked of him...understandable, and we respected his decision.

So the minimum schedule in our county league is 16 games, our team the Saints, are playing close to 50 this year, maybe a couple more..Is that perceived as a good thing or a bad thing ? That includes two travel tournaments at the regional level.

My experience the last 4 or 5 years of coaching (1999-2003) 17-18 baseball is that about 2/3 of the team liked the 50-60 game schedule. The other 1/3 hated the grind.

Personally, I like the heavy schedule. It allows pitchers to throw more frequently and the hitters to get into a nightly rhythm. My fear is that the winds of commitment are changing year after year. Don't get me wrong, plenty of kids are committed...but not as many as used to be with respect to playing summer baseball.

Good luck to you and your team. I'll address your PM in a little while.

Agreed.

Video games, text messanging, cell phones, and work pressures are really taking kids off the field...In many sports, not just baseball....Its sad, but it is becoming reality....