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As I sat in my lawn chair watching a pair of Dixon Legion Post 12 baseball games this summer, a constant thought ran through my mind.
“This is great Dixon has a team again, but how sad is it that legion baseball is dying a slow death in Northwest Illinois?” I thought.
As an alum of Illinois Legion Baseball, it’s a tough realization to admit. Teams downstate and in the Chicagoland area are maintaining and even thriving, but the northwest corner of Illinois has seen a few teams dissolve over the last 5 years.
When I played in the summers of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 for Orangeville, we competed against legion teams from Dixon, Fulton, Freeport, Hanover, Lena and Monroe, Wis. Those four summers were some of the best of my life, sharing the same uniform with guys I had competed against in high school.
My brother also played 4 years for Orangeville, competing against most of the teams I played against, as well as Sterling. I remain friends with several of my former teammates, and wish on occasion that I could go back to those simpler times.
Wayne Hoy and his fellow Dixon Legion Post 12 members were very accommodating when I attended two games at Veterans Memorial Field this summer, but they were the only Sauk Valley-area program. Sterling and Rock Falls each had high school teams. Lena didn’t have enough players throughout the summer to compete on a consistent basis. Fulton’s team dissolved since I last played, and Freeport’s program has been in flux for the last decade.
Teams are registered in all 50 states and Canada, and boys ages 13 to 19 can participate. In 2016, the number of legion baseball programs across the country was 3,768. This year, there were 3,450 teams.
Two obvious factors have caused the national decline: competition with travel baseball teams and other sports like football and basketball limiting players’ time on the diamond.
Parents across the U.S. spend millions of dollars annually to fund travel baseball, hoping high-level competition and exposure to college coaches will result in a full-ride scholarship to a Division I program. There are a lucky few players who will go on to play DI ball, and even fewer who are drafted by major league organizations.
But in the end, is it really worth it for a majority of parents to spend thousands of dollars every year traveling to far-away tournaments only to result in their child earning a Division III roster spot?
The laidback atmosphere of legion baseball is unparalleled, as opposed to the travel scene where players feel the constant pressure of gaining colleges coaches’ attention.
In an area like the Sauk Valley where there are more three-sport athletes than those who specialize in one sport, football camps and summer league basketball conflict with afternoon legion baseball games. High school coaches might say they like well-rounded athletes, but deep down, they’d certainly prefer a player come to their practice or workout over another sport’s.
Dave Winfield made time for legion baseball despite playing two other sports in high school, and he turned out alright – that’s if you consider being drafted by an MLB, NBA, ABA and NFL team and going on to become a 12-time All-Star and Baseball Hall of Famer as “alright.”
Overall, the status of Illinois Legion Baseball is stable. The Land of Lincoln has 146 total teams (79 senior teams and 67 junior teams). That is the sixth-most in the country, trailing only Minnesota (351), Nebraska (278), Pennsylvania (264), Wisconsin (220) and Connecticut (147).
Mount Prospect was controversially awarded the 2018 American Legion Illinois State Championship on Tuesday, while Danville beat Alton 8-7 in 10 innings in a game that went through two weather delays and lasted 5 1/2 hours to claim the second spot in the Great Lakes Regional in Napolean, Ohio.
Illinois Legion Baseball has a few famous alumni.
Four-time World Series champion Joe Girardi played for his hometown program in Peoria, and recent Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Jim Thome suited up for Bartonville Limestone.
Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore was a part of the Moline team that finished as state runners-up in 1984, and Cleveland Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis played for his hometown team from Northbrook.
American Legion Baseball can trace its roots back to 1925, when the idea for a national baseball program was first proposed at South Dakota’s state convention. The first American Legion Baseball World Series was played the following year.
The 92nd American Legion Baseball World Series will take place Aug. 16-21 in Shelby, North Carolina.
In total, 68 former legion baseball players are inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. You might have heard of a few of them: Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Frank Robinson, Ron Santo, Roger Maris, Brooks Robinson, Warren Spahn, Stan Musial, Carl Yastrzemski, Johnny Bench, George Brett, Rollie Fingers, Carlton Fisk, Steve Carlton, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Alan Trammell, Greg Maddux, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Chipper Jones. Oh, and some guy named Babe Ruth was the program’s director of operations in the final years of his life.
Current Cubs’ Kris Bryant and Brian Duensing, as well as Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha are legion baseball alumni. Fellow MLB players Albert Pujols, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Craig Kimbrel, Madison Bumgarner, Corey Seager, Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom and Brian Dozier all played legion ball.
Four current major league managers are American Legion Baseball alumni: Cubs skipper Joe Maddon, Minnesota’s Paul Molitor, Miami’s Don Mattingly and Oakland’s Bob Melvin. Former skippers George “Sparky” Anderson, Jim Leyland, and Dusty Baker are fellow alumni, as is current Cardinals GM John Mozeliak.
Former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler played on a team in Indiana that lost the state final to a team led by 12-year MLB veteran Adam Lind. Former NFL signal-callers Steve Young and Bob Griese are also legion baseball alumni.
Even famous journalist Tom Brokaw and former Vice President Dick Cheney spent their summers in high school on the diamond playing for their local legion post.
If I had a solution to the declining number of legion baseball teams, I would have already called the national office. However, I do have some advice.
To legion post members: Get out in the community and encourage youth baseball players to play. I commend Dixon’s members for doing a nice job this year, and hope other posts within the Sauk Valley do the same.
To players: American Legion Baseball is not an all-star team that takes thousands of dollars to fund. Whether you want to enjoy a laidback atmosphere or improve your game, legion ball is a great option, no matter how good you are.