National Commander LaCoursiere reflects on American Legion Baseball’s 100 years of citizenship through sportsmanship.
When CC Sabathia and the late Dick Allen are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27, they will join 87 other American Legion Baseball alumni who have earned the game’s ultimate honor.
No one should be surprised. As another Legion Baseball alumnus, Justin Verlander, once said, “If you expect greatness, greatness shouldn’t surprise you.”
For 100 years now, American Legion Baseball hasn’t just produced great players – it has produced great citizens. Introduced at the South Dakota American Legion Convention on July 17, 1925, it had more than 52,000 players less than a year later. By 1947, Babe Ruth would serve as a national spokesman, and the number of players soon topped 1 million.
Legion Baseball produced legends like Yogi Berra, who served on D-Day while in the Navy. It produced heroes like Ted Willliams, who twice interrupted his phenomenal baseball career to serve as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea. It produced minor league pitchers like Donny Tidwell, who after winning a championship with the Ogden Dodgers volunteered for Vietnam, where he was killed in action.
The overwhelming majority of American Legion Baseball players will never play the game at a professional level. But they adhere to a code of sportsmanship that enhances not just their own life skills but those around them. Each player pledges to keep the rules; keep faith with teammates; keep (my) temper; keep fit; keep a stout heart in defeat; keep (my) pride under in victory; and finally, to keep a sound soul, a clean mind and a healthy body.
More than 10 million young people have played American Legion Baseball during its first century. More than 3,000 teams compete today in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and parts of Canada. The American Legion World Series has a permanent home in Shelby, N.C., and its games are televised on ESPN.
Charlie Manuel, who managed the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 2008, spoke for many Legion Baseball alumni recently when he said, “I think everybody should play American Legion Baseball.”
Judging by its history and its numbers, millions would agree.
- Baseball