Host viewing parties of the 91st ALWS

American Legion Baseball is one of the Legion’s premier youth programs that teaches more than 70,000 athletes a year the importance of sportsmanship, good health and active citizenship. A testament to the program’s growth nationwide is the increase of viewership for the American Legion World Series (ALWS) over the past several years.

In 2016, the 90th year of the Legion World Series, the final six games of the 15-game tournament in Shelby, N.C., aired live on ESPNU. More than 300,000 people watched those broadcasts during the Series’ final three days, an increase of 28,000 viewers from the previous year.

Starting with the 2017 ALWS tournament, Aug. 10-15, games 7 through 15 – including the semifinals and championship game – will air live on ESPNU. And ESPN’s webcasting service ( www.ESPN3.com) will broadcast the first six games of pool play. View the ALWS schedule here.

The ESPNU expanded coverage comes on the heels of strong viewership numbers and continued growth in interest regarding American Legion Baseball and its title event.
So as we prepare for the 91st ALWS in Shelby, I encourage posts to host viewing parties – of both the webcast and televised games – for the community to gather at the post and watch eight regional teams compete for the national title. Hosting an ALWS viewership event is a great way to promote American Legion Baseball, and expose youth in the community to the program and its lasting history of turning players into professionals on and off the field.

There are 71 Hall of Famers who are Legion Baseball alumni and today’s Major League Baseball players, such as Madison Bumgarner and Justin Verlander, credit Legion Baseball with showing them the right way to compete and present themselves on and off the field.