State Legion Made Right Decision to Hand Ridgefield a Forfeit Victory

As the American Legion baseball state chairman, Craig Zimmerman ultimately was the person responsible for awarding the Ridgefield junior team a forfeit win after its scheduled game with Bridgeport was not played Tuesday.
 
He made a common sense decision and, in the end, should be applauded for it. However, I have a big problem with how that decision was reached.
 
With its state tournament hopes hanging in the balance, the Ridgefield team was left waiting for almost 10 minutes  following its 12-4 victory over Trumbull in the first of what could have been two games on Tuesday before learning of the forfeit. That seems flat-out wrong.
 
Zimmerman and zone four chairman Mike Curley should have been much more proactive and anticipated in advance this scenario playing out.
 
Ridgefield coach Anthony Forcelli even talked about a possible forfeit on Monday when he discussed how his team was going to get in its final two games of the season.
 
Put two and two together. Bridgeport was 4-22 with nothing to play for and Tuesday was the last day of the regular season. Logic dictates there was a strong chance Bridgeport never would play this game, and that should have been recognized by Legion officials.
 
Now, one might think that Bridgeport would have wanted to play to have a chance at being a spoiler, but that is not going to be a priority for kids likely more worried about their summer jobs. Forcelli was told that Bridgeport couldn't get enough players together to form a team.
 
Zimmerman and Curley should have been more decisive. They should have made a decision about a possible forfeiture Monday evening—or Tuesday morning—and let the Ridgefield team know before the start of Tuesday's first game against Trumbull so that it wasn't left hanging.
 
With everything on the line, the Ridgefield players would have walked to Bridgeport to play the game if they had to. The onus wasn't going to be on them, the onus was going to be on Bridgeport.
 
One hopes that Curley went to bat for one of his zone teams, but I can't be sure because he won't speak with Patch.
 
According to Legion by-laws, any game not played during a season is declared a double forfeit, essentially a non-contest. Until learning of the forfeit, Forcelli feared that was going to happen to his team, which would have left it one win shy of the state tournament.
 
Again, the right decision was made, but not without a lot of miscommunication, which frankly seems to be a big problem in zone four.

Earlier in the season, teams—and umpires—were not showing up for games. In addition, the standings and schedule on the zone four website were updated in a haphazard manner all year.
 
Such lack of cooperation makes if difficult to cover Legion baseball in Fairfield County and is something Curley should be addressing, or maybe it's time for a new zone chairman.