Legion Baseball Still Vital to Ballwin's Landscape

The impact of American Legion baseball cannot be understated. Roughly half of the current crop of Major League Baseball players participated in Legion baseball at some point in their careers, and thousands of youths have earned college scholarships thanks to the exposure that comes with playing Legion ball.

Missouri’s chapter of Legion baseball has a strong pedigree of its own, as players like Albert Pujols, Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola once suited up for local teams. Gary Stone, the chairman of the Missouri Legion baseball commission, coached Pujols in 1997 and 1998.

“I had the Hi-Boy/Post 340 team out in Independence,” Stone said. “He (Pujols) was a great kid, still is. At least once a year I probably talk to him. He’s still the same kid to me that he was when he played.”

This year, 169 teams are registered for Missouri Legion baseball. Stone estimated that 30 to 40 percent of these teams come from the St. Louis area. That figure is down from the 183 squads that played last year.

Among these squads are the Ballwin Legion Senior and Junior teams.

SUCCESS MEASURED BY MORE THAN BASEBALL

Stone has been involved in Legion baseball for nearly 30 years. He said that the organization helps to keep youths accountable by asking them to abide by certain ethics rules. If a player breaks one of these rules, he is no longer allowed to be a part of the program.

Additionally, Stone said that Legion baseball gives young men the opportunity to showcase their abilities in front of college coaches and pro scouts.

“A lot of these kids think they’re going to sign major league contracts. It’s very rare,” Stone said. “But a lot of them do get help with their educational funding. That’s my main thing. Give them that opportunity to help with the cost of college.

“We stress to them that you might get a scholarship and go to college, but you need to understand that you have to keep your grades up or you can’t play in college. We try to emphasize that the baseball is important, but you need to keep your scholastic achievements up, too, or it doesn’t matter how good you are.”

Recently, the league has fostered competitive rivalries between teams such as Ballwin’s American Legion Post 611 and Manchester Post 208 in the league’s junior division.

In , Ballwin beat out Manchester 10 ­– 8, with strong comeback after falling behind early in a game that illustrated a trademark of the league’s sometimes-frenetic scoring.

“Once you get down to it, it’s Manchester and Ballwin and kids were playing hard,” Manchester manager Mike Siemers said after his team’s loss. “Plus, it’s summer, and sometimes it’s tough to get their minds away from what their friends are doing and things of that nature.

“But once they settled down, it was good baseball.”

LEGION BASEBALL FACING NEW CHALLENGES

Missouri Legion baseball has to compete against organizations like the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association (SLABA), the American Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC) and the National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF) to hold onto its teams and players.

“There used to be more (Legion teams),” Stone said. “There’s several different reasons why it’s dropping. One of the biggest things is financial support. Number two is we’re finding it difficult to find people who want to coach the teams because it does take a lot of time. It’s all volunteer.”

Another major reason why players are bolting Missouri Legion baseball for other organizations is the promise of scholarships.

“A lot of these travel teams—not SLABA, I don’t think they do—charge kids $3,000 a summer to play with making certain guarantees, that ‘we’ll get you a DI scholarship’ and that kind of thing,” Stone said. “I’ve never seen any statistics shown that they’ve always honored that commitment.

“We don’t make those promises. All we do is say, ‘here’s an opportunity to play against quality competition and in a national organization. You will be seen. If you’re good, I don’t care if you play for the worst team in your own league, they will find you.’”

Still , there isn’t a shortage of talent, especially among the league’s senior teams, where players such as Josh James represents Ballwin’s senior squad.

“Every summer I have a blast,” after leading Ballwin earlier this summer with 111 at-bats and is among the team leaders with a .341 batting average and 24 runs batted in. “I love the coaches and I love the players. It’s always a fun time. There’s no pressure and I’m not worried about playing in college.”

Despite the trend of players joining travel teams, Stone remains confident that Missouri Legion baseball will continue being a strong organization in future years.

“It’s going to grow,” Stone said. “For example, in my district, we never had more than two AA or junior teams. We’ve got six this year. I see that one growing big time because the Missouri State High School Activities Association puts some restrictions on how many days (high school coaches) can have contact with these kids.

“If they get somebody who would run a team for them, this can only make high school programs stronger if they lend their support to it. So I see it growing, at least that’s what we hope.”

Chase Castle and Ron Clements contributed to this report.