Traditional American Legion programs among summer baseball options

The Boys of Summer series explores three popular options for summer baseball in Southeast Missouri -- the American Legion, Babe Ruth and traveling prospect teams. Today we take a look at American Legion baseball. See Thursday's print edition of the Southeast Missourian for a closer look at Babe Ruth baseball and Friday's print edition for a closer look at traveling prospect teams.

For Bryan Austin, building a baseball program in Jackson extends far beyond the high school season.

Austin graduated from and now coaches at Jackson High School, while also serving as an assistant coach for the Jackson Post 158 Senior American Legion team.

A tradition of Legion baseball has been one of Austin's greatest assets in building a sustainable baseball program in the community.

"It's a huge benefit for us at Jackson," said Austin, who also served as the Junior Legion coach during his seven years with the city's program. "Our kids start young in a travel program. They work their way up through high school, and then in the summertime, they just feed in through our Legion system.

Cape Ford and Sons Post 63 Senior Legion's Cramer Mcgarr laughs with teammates in the second inning against Sikeston Post 114 Senior Legion Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at Capaha Field. (Glenn Landberg)

"Those kids are staying together, for the most part, for their entire career. That deals a lot with their team bonding and their camaraderie and just getting used to playing together all the time."

Austin believes strongly in the format of the Legion program. Players begin playing at a young age and compete in a postseason format that resembles the high school state tournament.

"They're going to get a ton of games in, and at the end of the season, there's a district title for each of them," Austin said. "They're competing for a district championship and a chance to move on to the zone or to the state tournament."

Jackson has a Senior Legion team, a Junior Legion team, a Freshman Legion team and an eighth-grade Legion team that plays as a freshman team in competition, according to Austin.

"This is our third year of a travel-league system in Jackson where these kids are starting at the age of 7, and it goes all the way up to the age of 14," Austin said. "We're trying to start them younger and younger, and then move them into the Legion program in the summer."

Jackson Legion Post 158's Tyler Howard readies to bat in the fifth inning of the first game of a double-header against the Charleston Fighting Squirrels, Monday, June 15, 2015, in Jackson. (Laura Simon)

The emergence of more summer baseball options have stymied the growth of Legion baseball, but Austin believes the level of competition hasn't diminished. The Jackson Junior Legion team competed in a wood bat tournament earlier this month in Blue Springs, Missouri, and Austin said the 25 participating teams offered a wide range of talent from across the area.

"I feel it's very similar to some of the [Class 5] tournament play, especially for us at Jackson. Some of the scheduling we do at the junior and senior level, we're going to some high-quality Legion tournaments," Austin said. "... It's a very competitive environment for us."

More summer baseball choices have also created more hurdles in maintaining interest with the Legion system.

Justin Lieser is in his third year coaching the Cape Girardeau Ford and Sons Post 63 Senior American Legion team and has been involved with the Cape Girardeau Legion program since 2009. He said it's been a struggle to lure players away from the likes of prospect and Babe Ruth baseball, which both continue to grow in popularity.

"It's always competitive, but without a doubt, the Senior Babe, for whatever reason, is really popular down here in Southeast Missouri," Lieser said. "I know towards the St. Louis area, you have a handful of Legion teams with districts that are fairly solid, but up there, you have even more of the travel ball and prospect ball in different organizations for kids to play. So that means there are going to be more teams."

Proper college exposure is one of the main selling points for prospect baseball, but Lieser believes the best players will be sought out regardless.

"Parents want to know that their kids are getting seen by college coaches. I'm kind of from the school of thought that if you're good enough, they're going to come find you," Lieser said. "... The fact that we do have our own league and our own district kind of lends itself to familiarity, as far as where college coaches who might have a night off know where to find a game. With us, we play at Capaha [Field], and every college coach knows that Capaha is where [Southeast Missouri State] plays in the spring."

Austin also believes playing in a competitive environment allows players to get the exposure they need in order to be seen by college coaches. Jackson had five players from the 2015 class sign to play college baseball, according to Austin.

"I think playing in a competitive environment where there is a culture for you to become highly developed, that's a positive with anything," Austin said. "Once you start getting into some of the bigger games and bigger tournaments, the exposure happens, and then in today's society with the internet and YouTube and all of these things, exposure is a lot easier now. All you need is a video camera, a radar gun and access to YouTube, and you can email out links of your kids all day long."

Cape Girardeau Senior Legion assistant coach Bill Bohnert believes prospect teams and Legion teams are both able to draw college attention.

"They are being promised so many things by going to these showcase ball games, and they're promised to the degree, from what I understand, that they're going to be able to get scholarships and all these sorts of things. The thing is that 99 percent of the time, we can do the same exact thing," Bohnert said. "We've got coaches calling us every year if we've got players that can fill their positions for them."

Tatum Kitchen played in the Cape Girardeau Legion program in high school and now coaches the Central baseball team. He believes playing together in the summer creates cohesion during the high school season.

"I think it always helps translate over, just that common bond of playing together all the time, getting used to each other and cheering each other on. It just kind of rolls into it," said Kitchen, who coached the Cape Girardeau Junior Legion team last year. "Another thing is players get better in the summer. In high school, we maybe played 30 games, but in the summer, we played about 62 games for Cape Junior Legion. The next year we were like 40-14 for the Senior Legion team. You just play so many games."

And then there's money.

Legion baseball is easily considered the most cost-effective option. The annual price tag is $250 in Jackson, which Austin believes is attributed to a great deal of sacrifice from the program's coaches.

"We have a ton of volunteer coaches that have put in their time to help these kids be able to play at a cost-effective rate and still be able to get in 40-50 games," Austin said. "... A lot of that goes to our coaches and the program that have spent a lot of their time in the summer to help on a volunteer basis."

The American Legion emphasizes service to veterans, servicemembers and communities and currently has about 2.4 million members in 14,000 posts worldwide.

Legion baseball has also been closely tied with community involvement. Lieser said he's taken players to visit local veteran's homes and has also hosted fundraisers, including a game this year in which all money raised was given to Operation Comfort Warriors, a program dedicated to meeting the needs of wounded, injured or ill military personnel by providing them with comfort items not usually supplied by the government.

"It's an unselfish brand of baseball, and I think that comes with the Legion message," Lieser said. "When you talk to a veteran, you get humbled. It's not all about you, which some kids in this generation kind of have some trouble with. ... We really stress a team-first attitude, and if you're not with that attitude, then you're not with us. That's just kind of how we run it."

The Legion program also breeds a competitive nature that starts at a young age, which Austin believes is a benefit for his players.

"The total team environment is how I feel our program is ran," Austin said. "Guys have different types of roles, but they know that each game is important. We're always playing for the district title, for the zone title, for the state tournament. That competitive nature in Legion baseball is a big part of it."

Some just can't escape the tradition of legion baseball, which has produced major-league talent for decades.

"Legion baseball has been around for many, many years. ... I've always believed that American Legion baseball is the better ball of the three," Bohnert said. "I've always figured you're going to have good, if not better, competition, and you're going to have knowledgeable people running the programs who can show your guys what's going on."

Lieser believes in the importance of having more options for summer baseball.

"Different kids and different parents are going to believe what they want, and it's nice that there are choices," Lieser said. "There's not just one thing out there. Choices are a good thing because if there was a monopoly of one league, then it would kind of make it tough. ... It's good that there are three different options."