Legion champs honored at World Series

Legion champs honored at World Series

Midland, Mich., Berryhill Post 165’s Legion Baseball team, which won in August the 2009 American Legion Baseball World Series in Fargo, N.D., will be honored prior to tonight’s opening game of the Major League Baseball World Series in New York City.

A crowd of more than 50,000 will attend Game 1 between the Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies and be on hand to cheer for Berryhill at 7:45 p.m. It is the 84th time the Legion World Series champs have been honored during the MLB World Series.

Berryhill will attend games 1 and 2, courtesy of The American Legion. The Berryhill players also will get a chance to meet with some of the Yankees and Phillies before Game 1.

“These young men, we think, are the best of the best, the cream of the crop,” said Jim Quinlan, American Legion Baseball’s coordinator. “(American Legion baseball) is above-average baseball, so the rewards are above average.”

Yankees Alex Rodriguez, C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Johnny Damon, Jorge Posada, Jose Molina and A.J. Burnett all played American Legion baseball, as did Phillies’ Chase Utley, Brad Lidge, Jamie Moyer and Drew Carpenter. Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi and Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel also played Legion ball.

Berryhill will eat lunch at Mickey Mantle’s today and take the subway to the game. On Thursday, Legion Post 1291 in Chinatown will give Berryhill a tour of Battery Park, Ground Zero and Chinatown. The team will eat a meal in Chinatown and travel on the Staten Island Ferry to view the Statue of Liberty.