American Legion baseball in Maine has confronted quite a few challenges for the reason that glory days of the early 2000s, when as many as 48 groups from across the state supplemented the highschool season and one — Nova Seafood of Portland — captured a nationwide championship in 2004.
Now, different baseball alternatives comparable to out-of-state journey groups and wooden-bat leagues have flourished in some areas, whereas lacrosse has emerged as a robust spring various to highschool baseball and thinned the pool of athletes collaborating in what has been often known as America’s pastime.
The time calls for on teenage baseball gamers from their different sports activities and actions even have elevated exponentially, as has the necessity for a lot of to work throughout the summer season to earn cash for school.
There’s additionally the old school notion of making an attempt to squeeze in a household trip throughout the 5 weeks accessible for the American Legion common season, which this yr started Tuesday and can conclude July 20 in an effort to present time to carry a state event to ship a consultant to the Northeast Regional event that begins Aug. 3 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
However the newest obstacles for the shrinking variety of American Legion groups within the state embody newer financial elements comparable to inflation and record-high gasoline costs. One Senior Legion workforce had deliberate a visit to Connecticut this summer season, solely to cancel due to the associated fee.
“The amount of cash it was going to value was outrageous,” Bangor Excessive College and Senior Legion coach Dave Morris mentioned.
This follows COVID-19, which precipitated the cancellation of the 2020 season for a lot of sports activities, and from which many younger athletes haven’t but returned to competitors.
“Legion is simply such a brief season now,” mentioned Morris, a part of a coaches’ council that’s organizing this summer season’s Legion schedule. “It used to enter these early weeks of August the place some youngsters can be late for preseason soccer, however now the way in which they’ve crunched it, it makes it a little bit more difficult, however we’re optimistic and hopefully issues will go nicely.”
This summer season’s American Legion baseball program has 16 Senior Legion groups for gamers ages 17 to 19 and 12 Junior Legion groups for gamers 13 to 16.
The quantity is barely down from the final two years Legion baseball was performed. Eighteen Senior Legion groups and 17 Junior Legion groups returned from the pandemic to play final summer season, whereas 16 Senior Legion golf equipment and 21 Junior Legion groups competed in 2019.
“That COVID yr clearly didn’t assist,” Morris mentioned. “We misplaced not just some curiosity, however that momentum you may need out of your highschool season.”
This yr’s Senior and Junior Legion groups are divided into North and South divisions, down from as many as 5 zones that represented the state greater than a decade in the past.
The Senior Legion North Division will include defending state champion Quirk Motor Metropolis of Bangor, Bangor Comrades, Central Maine of Fairfield, Hermon Hawks, Queen Metropolis Athletic Riverdogs of Hampden, Sebasticook of the Newport-Pittsfield space, Tidewater Oil of Belfast and the Trenton Acadians.
The South Division has Augusta-Capital Space, Bessey Motors of South Paris, Erskine (Charlie’s Household of Dealerships) of South China, Franklin County Flyers of Farmington, Skowhegan, Topsham, Ware-Butler Eagles of Messalonskee (Oakland) and Ware-Butler of Mt. Abram (Salem).
The Junior Legion North Division is made up of the Bangor Cadets, Downeast Storm of Calais, Hampden Riverhawks, Machias Put up 9, Motor Metropolis/Brewer and the Trenton Acadians.
The South Division could have Augusta, Fairfield, Franklin County, Messalonskee of Oakland, Tidewater Oil of Belfast and Topsham.
The regular-season schedules even have been condensed. Senior Legion groups have begun a five-week, 14-game schedule of single seven-inning video games to be performed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, resulting in an eight-team, double-elimination event on July 24-28 at Husson College in Bangor.
Junior Legion video games will probably be performed on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, additionally resulting in a state event at a yet-to-be decided location.
The condensed schedules are designed to permit gamers extra time for different sports activities, actions and jobs whereas additionally leaving extra time for baseball gamers involved in journey workforce alternatives on the weekend or for the Legion groups to schedule extra video games.
“Some groups are touring and a few groups are staying residence and taking part in different video games,” Morris mentioned.
Even scheduling video games on the weekends towards in-state foes isn’t as simple as simply calling one other coach.
Bangor, for example, has video games scheduled for the subsequent two weekends, however past that he’s nonetheless trying to find opponents.
“Proper now we’re having a tough time getting groups to commit with the excessive gasoline costs,” he mentioned. “You simply attempt to schedule as many video games as you may, so we’ve got the three throughout the week after which we and different groups are going to attempt to schedule video games on the weekend with southern groups and native groups, too. I believe we’ve bought an honest schedule. We’ll see the way it goes.”
