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American Legion Cancels National Baseball Tournaments

Another sport has taken a hit from the coronavirus.

American Legion baseball has cancelled all national tournaments in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision made on Tuesday includes cancelling all eight regional tournaments across the country as well as the American Legion World Series scheduled to be held in Shelby, N.C. in August.

“The decision to cancel was extremely difficult but deemed necessary, first and foremost in the interest of health and safety, and in the face of uncertainty,” said Americanism Commission’s Richard Anderson. “These times are unparalleled, and while it is distressing to think of all those youth across the nation who are disappointed to learn of the cancellation of American Legion programs this year, it would be a much, much greater tragedy if even just one of those youth were to fall ill during a program.”

That means teams in Ohio, like the Napoleon River Bandits, will not have an opportunity to participate in what would have been the 94th American Legion World Series.

“It’s absolutely the right decision,” explained Bandits’ general manager Randy Bachman, who has been part of five teams that have reached the regionals on the national level, with two advancing to the World Series since he started up the program in 1998. “It’s unfortunate the kids don’t get a chance to play, but health and safety must come first. Baseball has got to take a back seat.”

Still to be determined is whether teams have a regular season and if the state tournament, held annually in mid-July in Lancaster, goes on as scheduled.

“I talked to the state commissioner (Marv Shamhart) after I got word and he doesn’t want to cancel the regular season,” noted Al Beavers, founder of Beavers Field where the state tournament in Ohio is held. “In my opinion, even if we delay the start of the season until mid-June we could play (state) in mid-August.”.

But with the beginning of the season - which typically takes place at the end of May - an uncertainty, making a decision on what happens at the end of the campaign becomes complicated.

“Unless the governor says otherwise, the state baseball commission would still like to have a regular season,” emphasized Beavers, who is in his 48th year working in the sport. “I told him if we lose it this year, we will lose it. Travel ball will play this summer so legion players will find a place to play. What happens with them next year?”

Beavers has already lost 36 games scheduled on the field in Lancaster, including college and high-school level play.

“I understand the nationals, every other sport nationally is cancelling,” Beavers said. “With all the planning that goes in, you can’t wait until the last minute. You don’t start those up over night.”

But the views on what to do with the regular season and the state tournament are mixed.

“I don’t know why everybody is jumping the gun,” said Frosty Brown, the head coach of Troy Legion. “I think it would be a shame.”

Brown, who is in his 50th year coaching baseball - including three in college, 36 in high school and 47 with legion - is planning to play the regular season when allowed.

“We have to monitor the virus, and high school could impact our season,” pointed out Brown. “It’s hard for us to make too many plans, but I’m keeping the field ready and I’ll stay in contact with the players.”

In contrast, the Bandits have decided to cancel the 2020 season completely.

“We prepared ourselves for this three weeks ago,” Bachman said. “We were already trying to determine to move back the first part of the season. Once they cancelled the World Series and the regionals, we took the bull by the horns. We’ve contacted all the teams we were scheduled to play and it sounds like they’re also going to pull the plug.”

With the high-school spring season in doubt, no legion ball would bring more heartache to players.

“Eighty percent of these guys go on to play in college, so if they don’t get to play high school this year and then don’t play in the summer they’ll be behind those in college,” Beavers said. “If they don’t play for a year they’ll get pretty rusty.”

More importantly, Beavers feels the loss of American Legion baseball would be a major blow.

“It is an honor to play legion ball,” Beavers said. “It is something structured that helps get them ready for baseball and life.”