'I just love the game'
American Legion Past National Commander Jake Comer rarely is emptyhanded at an American Legion World Series game. Find him in the stands or in the Lowes Center at Keeter Stadium and you’ll see the Massachusetts Legionnaire with a scoresheet in hand.
He tracks every at-bat in every inning. He looks up batting averages of players coming to the plate. He checks pitchers’ earned-run average. And at the end of every game, when his scoresheet is full, he promptly throws it away.
“People ask, ‘What do you with your (scoresheets)?’ I say, ‘I throw them away,” said Comer, who served as national commander from 1987-1988. “I just love keeping (a scoresheet) each game because I like to get into the game. I know who’s coming up next, did they get a hit last time, rather than just sitting there watching the game.”
Comer first came to the Legion World Series in 1975 when he was Department of Massachusetts commander. A team from West Quincy, Mass., made the series that year, and Comer organized the flights for 55 families going to Rapid City, S.D., to watch the team.
“(The team) lost two and went home,” Comer said. “Trying to get them all home was a real problem."
He also attended one in Iowa and is a fixture within the Department of Massachusetts’ baseball program. He serves as a district chairman for the department’s Athletic Committee and attends all 15 state tournament games every year.
“I guess it goes back to my love of the Boston Braves, which then became the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves,” he said. “When the Red Sox and the Braves were two teams in Massachusetts I was a Braves fan. I just love the game.”
Comer hasn’t missed a tournament since the series moved to Shelby, N.C., in 2011. In fact, Comer and former Department of North Carolina National Executive Committeeman Jerry Hedrick were instrumental in bring the series to Shelby on a permanent basis.
Before moving the Series to Shelby, Comer said he remembered games being played in front of 200 fans. But at the first World Series game he attended in Shelby “they had 9,000 people in the stands,” he said. “To have 117,000 last year … and when the average would be maybe 20,000-25,000 for another World Series (site), it tells us we were right in naming a permanent site.”
The way the people have embraced the World Series means a great deal to Comer.
“You drive into the town and there’s a ‘Welcome to Shelby’ sign,” he said. “Right underneath it – ‘Home of American Legion Baseball.’ You go on the main street downtown, wow, to see those signs.
“My lady friend … was going to get her hair done last Friday, and she said, ‘While I get mine done, why don’t you get your hair cut.’ I said, I’m not getting my hair cut (in Massachusetts). I get my hair cut in Shelby, N.C., every year.’ I go to the same barber. He’s a member of the Legion. He’s part of this program, and when I walked into his barber shop he said ‘hi Jake.’ He introduces me to the man in the chair. That, to me, is why we have to support Shelby as they support us. It’s just great for our program.”