THE CHALLENGES OF AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL PAST AND

THE CHALLENGES OF AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL PAST AND PRESENT

American Legion Baseball began in 1926, like any new idea it started slowly that first year. The first

challenge that the fledgling program had to overcome was that no one had ever tried to put together a

volunteer national baseball program before. That first year15 states organized, local teams were

organized and sponsored, schedules put together and tournaments were held.

In 1927 The American Legion held it’s convention in Paris, France. Obviously, it was very expensive and

there was no money for a Tournament to name a winner. The future of American Legion Baseball

looked grim. In 1928 Americanism Director Dan Sowers was determined to raise $50,000.00 to

support the tournament. This is when Major League Baseball began to support Legion Baseball, this

program still supplies Major League Baseball today with many quality ball players.

Although it was looking pretty good for American Legion Baseball there were still major hurdles to

overcome through the years. In 1933 the great depression created very tough financial times for the

program. MLB was forced to stop sponsoring American Legion Baseball and that left Mr. Sowers again

to “hit the road” to look for money to hold the tournament. He found it in a most unlikely group,

newspaper publishers across the country came to the rescue. Mr. Sower’s determination paid off and

is a testament to his dedication and American Legion Baseball’s success locally and nationally. There

were other challenges that presented themselves even a World War. American Legion Baseball

persevered through all these trials and continued to grow and prosper despite these roadblocks that

presented themselves. I imagine thatbaseball being the “national pastime “and the good that it has

done for many youths kept the program moving forward.

In research of this article I came across an article that was written in July of last year it was titled

“American Legion used to own summer Baseball It has lost a quarter of their teams in ten years” The

article showed a map of the United States which was color coded by state to show where those losses

were taking place. It stated that the source was the American Legion. The statement is probably true,

but the article goes on to explain why The American Legion Baseball is in such a decline. The article

states that ball players are joining Elite or Travel teams to gain better exposure to College and Major

League Baseball scouts. New Jersey was used as an example with the highest loss of American Legion

Baseball teams. The other reason is that the membership in The American Legion is way down.

These may be contributing factors, but this is a community-based program that has very little to do

with decline of National membership in The American Legion. Obviously, I disagree with this

assessment, it is not that simple, and I believe there are far more reasons for this decline than the two

that is stated in the article mentioned.

I have been in the Recreation field for 40 years I can tell you that today there are far more reasons why

there is a decline in all team sports across this country.

Let’s start with the amount of eligible players that are available today. School enrollments have been

predicted to have smaller and smaller enrollments for years now, as a matter of fact New Jersey school

enrollment numbers for the last ten years is 21.5 % lower today than it was ten years ago. In 2004 until

this past year the high school graduating class in my town of 10,000 have been cut to less than half of

what it once was in 2004.Maine’s school enrollment numbers show a similar decline at almost 19%.

This leads me to believe that there are a lot less players to fill those rosters than there once was. I

agree that Elite and Travel teams are competing to fill the same rosters as American Legion Baseball

but what about all those other recreational opportunities that are out there to compete with summer

baseball? Lacrosse, Soccer, basketball, football, tennis, golf, track etc. all have summer programs that

compete with, you guessed it summer baseball. What about all the club sports for those serious sports

participants that make a choice to play one sport year-round these are people that make a

commitment to one sport or the other. We can’t forget about electronic and technological

advancements with games or computers which even gives that young man even more choices for their

recreational time.

In today’s society the average teen needs to make money. Maybe to help with college, pay monthly

phone bills, cars, insurance well, you get the idea. This means a job and that puts even more

constraints on time that might make a young man think twice about that commitment to play ball four

games a week.

In conclusion the decline in American Legion Baseball is due to several reasons and these are many and

varied depending on the players priorities.First is teens that are available to play, there just aren’t as

many as there once was and next we have all of the constraints on time in this day and age.I will make

a statement that before American Legion Baseball becomes insolvent there will be a lot of other

leagues that will be extinct before them. It has provided more support to the MLB than any other

League and provided more development to the players and let’s not forget what it does for the

community and the Post.American Legion Baseball may not be as large as it once was, but I will bet

that it is functioning well into the future.American Legion Baseball will continue to furnish many Major

Leaguers as long as there is Legion Ball and continue to build character in those players for a very

longtime.

Don Allisot

Member, National Americanism Commission

The Sons of The American Legion