Legion National Regional Tournament

Today I'm sitting in a hotel room in Midland, Michigan, waiting out the rain during the American Legion National Regional Tournament.  Day 1 was yesterday, and we defeated the Moline (IL) Legion team by a score of 4-1 with Andrew Wood on the mound to put us in the winner's bracket and assure that we play at least two more games.

Our M.O. yesterday was similar to what got us through the State Tournament last weekend undefeated.  Offensively, we again got key hits with runners on base.  As a matter of fact, after the Moline left handed pitcher threw a perfect first four innings, we erupted with all four of our runs and all six of our hits in the bottom of the fifth.  I don't know the specific statistics from our last couple of weeks, but it seems like most of our runs have been scored by getting hits with two outs and runners on base.  Credit goes to our hitters, who have obviously been thriving in those situations.

On the mound, Wood did what most of our pitchers have been doing lately.  He gave up only four hits, one of which was a home run.  Due to rainy weather, the tournament committee made adjustments yesterday and decided to use two fields and play 7-inning games rather than 9-inning games.  We ended up playing at Bullock Creek High School, where only the short porch in left field prevented our left fielder Marcell Grayer from having room to catch it.  As was the case last week, again our defense was great!

Andrew threw 84 pitches, which meant he averaged 12 pitches per inning, the exact average he had in game one of the State Tournament last week.  He threw his fastball and changeup for strikes, and only needed about a half dozen breaking balls to basically own the State Champions from Illinois, who came into the game with a 43-6 record.

As for today, I've got no problem with waiting out the weather.  I'm pretty certain that the weather is out of our control, so when the time comes, we can head out to the field and try to win our next game to advance further in the winner's bracket.  The Olympics are on television and I have my Kindle, Galaxy II cell phone, and laptop to chill with.

In the meantime, hopefully the players are relaxing and continuing to visualize being successful on the field.  They have played their best at the most important time of the season.  I can't ask for anything more from them!!!

American Legion Baseball Post-Season

After having to miss a weekend of Post 275 American Legion baseball I was more than happy to be able to be at the Zone Tournament the past couple days at River Valley High School in Three Oaks, MI.    Since we are hosting next week's State Tournament, we automatically qualify to compete in it, but as a team we want to earn our way there.  The top two teams in this Zone Tournament qualify.

We assured ourselves a spot by winning our first two games on Friday, thus forcing the other teams to battle for the right to play us and also qualify for the state tournament.  Due to the costs of lodging and feeding the team, the tournament committee decided on Friday night that once we were down to two teams, there would be no need to play the 'if necessary' game of the double elimination on Sunday.

I made sure to let the powers-that-be know that I disagreed with that decision.  They called it a 'meaningless' game.  We all have our own interpretation of the word meaningless.  To them, since the two teams had already been determined, there was no point in playing an extra championship game and spending extra money.  But to me, from a coaching perspective, there are numerous reasons to play that final championship game.

First of all, I think we are doing both teams a disservice by not playing, as an extra game of competition can only help both of the Zone's representatives prepare some more for the state tournament.  Players and teams improve by playing.  In addition, in looking at our team specifically, we have a pitcher who will be a 2014 high school graduate who hasn't pitched in two weeks.  He is also a potential college pitcher, and he is now denied an opportunity to pitch, potentially in front of a few college coaches.  And it isn't just the opportunity to see this one kid, but two entire teams of potential college players are denied the opportunity.

We will be playing next week, as will the Berrien Springs team, but both squads were denied an opportunity to not only prepare more for the state tournament, but also to improve in a big game situation.  The same scenario occurred last year in our Zone Tournament.

The American Legion Baseball Administrators have clung to some old-school values, which is a good thing.  But they have also created situations that has caused a drop in the number of teams and quality players who choose to play Legion Baseball in various regions and states across the country.  When I first became a college coach in the late 1980s, most of the top players in our state were playing Legion baseball.  Today, there are only a few geographic areas of the state that attract the best local players to Legion Baseball.

Personally, I think some input from 'baseball' people would do some good for the players and administrators of American Legion Baseball.