American Legion Baseball: Beyond the game

American Legion baseball has been around since 1925.

The American Legion for war veterans has been around since 1919.

In Idaho, American Legion baseball can be traced back as far as the 1940’s.

There were some periods in the Gem states history where there was no legion baseball, but since it has returned, it has been strong for decades, especially in eastern Idaho.

The bat meeting the ball is a familiar sound that rings across baseball diamonds in the spring and deep into the summer.

When the school year ends in Idaho, American Legion ball begins, giving players another opportunity to play the game they love and a chance to learn off the field lessons.

“Participation in the baseball program I think offers great life skills just like any sport would you get an opportunity to play with players who you wouldn’t necessarily get a chance to play with.” says Michael Whyte, the President of Post 56 baseball Inc., “You get players who have competed against each other since they were very young and all of a sudden they’re 15,16,17 years old and now they’re on the same team, they have to learn how to be teammates as opposed to competitors.”

The baseball side of American Legion has a goal to help the high school athletes get noticed by colleges and helping them earn scholarships.

“What we do is for example is we’re taking over half a dozen players to Washington to one of the largest, most successful player evaluations camps there is in the north west. ” says Cliff Brady, the Vice President of Post 56 Baseball Inc. “When we travel, when we go to Colorado to play in a tournament we email every college within a radius of that, tell them about that, tell them about our program, tell them about our past, all the guys we’ve had played Division 1 or professional baseball and invite them to watch our team when we’re close.”

American Legion Post 56 in Idaho Falls gives their Double A team the Bandits a chance to do something most teams wouldn’t get an opportunity to do, play a professional minor league baseball team.

“That’s an exhibition game that we play every year and of course the reality is we sell this field out every single year when we do that, it’s at absolute capacity crowd and I gotta tell ya, nothing captures baseball freshly signed professional players, some just came out of college, some of these guys signing for big money, and high school kids, on the same field playing against each other.” says Brady.

When it comes to Legion baseball and club baseball, you might think there are some differences, and there are, but there are not many that stand out.

“They’re obviously super talented academy teams that hand pick their talent, they’re paying for the benefit for being able to showcase the talent, so there are some benefits to club,” says Ryan Alexander, the head coach for the Bonneville Bees and Idaho Falls Bandits, “from the American Legion standpoint I think if you’re proactive and get out to do those same things in some cases play in the same tournaments and showcase the kids in the eyes of the recruiting coordinators of different colleges, but it’s done within the team constraints of the team atmosphere.”

The program works very closely with the verterans at Post 56.

The Post will provide a color guard presenting the colors to kick off the season.

One year, a single A team honored the veterans with a trophy.

American Legion baseball is going away in some states, but in eastern Idaho, those involved with the program don’t see it going away.

“I don’t see that happening in the near future in Idaho,” says Whyte, “number 1 in the Idaho Falls area we’ve been very successful, we’ve built a culture, we want all the players in the B program and the A program to strive to make that AA program, we want that as a goal. If they want that as a goal, then they will stay with the program and see the benefit of the program”

American Legion baseball has helped about 80 boys college scholarships, and even has helped get some players drafted.

The most recent draft pick from eastern Idaho was Porter Clayton in 2015 in the 19th round by the Tampa Bay Rays.

If you would like to learn how to help American Legion baseball you can head over to their website: https://www.post56baseball.com/