Protest ends season for Scott County

The American Legion District 14 baseball tournament played this week at Jackson's Legion Field was not void of controversy.

Far from it.

Wednesday night's 19-4 win by Scott County Post 369 over Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 in an elimination game was at the center of the turmoil.

Cape played the game under protest because it believed three Scott County players -- Trenton Moses, Shae Simmons and Kody Campbell -- were ineligible to play in the contest because they didn't register properly with American Legion while also playing on other summer baseball teams.

The protest was upheld by American Legion officials, making Cape the official winner of Wednesday's contest by forfeit and replacing Scott County with Post 63 in Thursday's loser's bracket final against Jackson.

It turned out that Cape could not get enough players together for the scheduled 5 p.m. start and wound up having to forfeit, which sent Jackson into Thursday night's championship round against Dunklin County.

Cape coach Dave Meyr said he did not receive word until about "1:30 or 2 p.m." Thursday that Post 63's protest had been upheld. He said he and his staff simply couldn't round up the minimum 12 players required to be in uniform under Legion guidelines.

Meanwhile, Scott County manager Tom Dirnberger and coach Denver Stuckey expressed extreme displeasure with the way the entire situation was handled regarding their squad.

Dirnberger emphasized that he takes full responsibility for not filling out the proper paperwork required by Legion baseball prior to the season.

But Dirnberger maintains that it is unfair to penalize the players and the team.

"I may not be right with the way I handled this and that I did not fill out the paperwork correctly," Dirnberger said. "But the kids were not wrong, and that's the main thing."

The Legion rule in question reads as follows:

"During the regular season, American Legion baseball players or teams may participate in other amateur baseball programs. However, the team manager and the player must obtain written approval from the department baseball chairman prior to participating in the event or tournament."

Rule misinterpreted

Dirnberger said he took that to mean Legion players could not participate in other organized leagues, like Senior Babe Ruth, for instance.

Scott County's three players in question play for a select team out of the Southeast Missouri Baseball Academy, an instructional facility owned by former minor league pitcher Talley Haines. The squad doesn't participate in a league, but takes part in "showcase" type events designed to attract college coaches and professional scouts.

Dirnberger did not believe that type of play necessitated having the dual participation sheet filed at the beginning of the year with American Legion.

"This was actually brought up at our district meeting before the season," Dirnberger said. "I knew some of our kids would be playing with Talley. We were told they would be allowed to do it."

Meyr, the current District 14 commissioner, and last year's District 14 commissioner Gerald Adams both said there almost certainly would have been no problem with the dual participation had the proper paperwork been filed prior to the season.

"It's strictly legal. It wouldn't have been a problem," Meyr said.

Dirnberger handles all of Post 369's paperwork, while Stuckey runs the team on the field. They both said the three players had their blessing to try and better themselves with Haines' squad.

Moses, Simmons and Campbell all saw limited action with Scott County during the regular season, although Stuckey said Simmons and Campbell participated in most of the District 14 games.

"We had kids doing the same thing last year. It was never brought up. You think somebody would have said something last year," Dirnberger said. "It's not like you're cheating. It's good for the kids. And we're not the only team that has done this."

Said Stuckey: "What aggravates me, it looks like we were trying to pull a fast one. They were on our roster all season. Nobody said anything until now. They had my blessing to play [for the select team] and try to better themselves. What's wrong with that?"

Dirnberger said he was notified "24 hours" before Scott County's District 14 tournament opener Tuesday against Jackson that there might be a problem with some of the players' eligibility.

"I was notified by phone by some guy I never heard of that these kids might not be eligible. I never got anything in writing, which is strange, because you're supposed to have everything in writing for them," Dirnberger said.

Dirnberger said he never could get a straight answer about whether the players would be eligible, so they were held out of the opening-round contest, which Jackson won 19-6.

Dirnberger said he still wasn't getting much satisfaction about the situation Wednesday during several telephone calls with Legion officials.

In fact, Dirnberger said he was getting more confused all the time as different Legion officials kept going back and forth over which players could participate and which ones couldn't. There was also some other Scott County players' eligibility in question.

"The first night we didn't really know what was going on so we started out not playing them," Dirnberger said. "Then I was getting different stories from different people on who was eligible and who wasn't. We decided if they don't even know what's going on, we're just going to go ahead and play them.

"The way the Legion was going back and forth on who could and could not play, it showed to me the rule meant nothing, it was more about not wanting my top players to play."

Bad situation

Meyr said he hated to have been put in the middle of the situation. He said he was not even aware of the dual-participation situation until officials with two teams from the St. Louis area notified the state office.

"Nobody really knew what they were doing. We weren't the ones that brought it up. It was two St. Louis teams, so now somebody has got to do something," Meyr said. "If we don't do it, it would have been Jackson the next game or Dunklin County the next game.

"If somebody doesn't do it down here, it's going to happen at the zone tournament. No way it's going to go unnoticed. They [the officials from the St. Louis squads] called the state commissioner and he started inquiring down here.

"It's a bad situation for me to get involved in. Granted, we didn't have to do anything, but it would have been somebody else protesting. If they get out of district, if they go to zone, they'll get nailed."

Added Dirnberger: "I take total blame. It has nothing to do with Denver or [assistant coach] Lance [Amick]. I'm the manager. I fill out the paperwork.

"But what aggravates you, this is all about kids. It shouldn't be about signing a piece of paper."