American tradition

In a time when the youth of America are often criticized for channel surfing, texting, Tweeting or status-updating, players for American Legion baseball teams fall far out of those categories.

Who's got time for electronics or gadgets when there's ball to be played? And lots of it.

A high school program wishing to get to the state championship game will by that time have played more than 30 games -- not counting early spring exhibitions and countless practices.

Once Legion season begins shortly after, it's more of the same. In most cases, much more.

Coon Rapids Post 334, which won the Legion state championship in 2001, has some summers played more than 60 games, coach Tom Yelle said.

"Kids that come into our program know what's expected of them," said Yelle, in his 30th season with Coon Rapids. "From our perspective -- and I certainly respect the other sports in our community -- but you have to play every day."

Coaches do have some leniency. There are scheduled trips to the lake, family reunions and college orientations to attend, after all.

Joel Gotfredson's Minneapolis Southwest Legion team carries up to 18 players to compensate for absences.

"But they gotta be willing," to make a strong commitment, Gotfredson said. "We play or practice five or six times a week, then have it all wrapped up before soccer or football [practice] starts in the fall."

Not a new tradition

American Legion baseball has been around since 1925, when a Legion Post from Milbank, S.D., first backed a team. Over time, it has developed into an American tradition. According to the Minnesota American Legion office, 52 percent of Major League ballplayers were on a Legion team as teenagers.

The teams are made up of mostly high school juniors and seniors, though college freshmen can make the team, too. There are more than 350 registered teams in Minnesota.

Gotfredson played in the late 1980s with VFW and Legion teams made up of players from Minneapolis Roosevelt High School.

He was on the Star Spangled Banner Post VFW team that won a state championship in 1987. Those memories are far from gone.

"When I'm pumping these guys up, I get out the old trophies and say, 'You guys, this is what we can do,'" Gotfredson said.

Southwest is a team that surely knows how to win. Its high school team went 12-0 in the Minneapolis City Conference this spring before bowing out to Richfield in the Class 3A, Section 6 tournament.

Many of those same players now make up the Legion team. They are joined by St. Thomas freshman pitcher John Licht, who went 6-2 this season for the Tommies' Division III national championship team.

St. Thomas played 54 games this season. He is splitting his summer between an amateur club made up of St. Thomas players and the Southwest Legion team.

In total, he figures he'll play nearly 70 games this summer.

"It's a haul," said Licht, who got two days off between the end of the St. Thomas season and the beginning of Southwest's Legion schedule. "But when it's something you love like baseball, it's easy to do. It's fun to hang out. Playing in the summer gives you the opportunity to make yourself better."

Not for everyone

Legion baseball coaches are not naïve. Dedicated as their players are, they know there are plenty of outside influences.

When he started coaching the Apple Valley 76ers in 1993, Bruce Young was a self-described "militant" leader.

As the years passed, his understanding of other summer activities -- and down-time activities -- has increased.

"The first thing is players have to be dedicated," Young said. "But in this day and age where there's so many options, one of the things I talk to kids about is focus. They have to have the kind of focus they have when they're playing the video games -- when they're so into moving their thumbs and fingers that they don't hear Dad yelling it's time for supper."

When players are away from their Legions teams, it's often for an acceptable reason. With team dues rising at an alarming rate due to the downturn of Legion Posts, there is a sense of getting your money's worth.

Yet that doesn't keep players from spending a weekend away with their families or at a multi-day conditioning camp for other sports.

It's something that rarely -- if ever -- happens during the school year.

"During hockey season, what if we held a baseball clinic?" Young said. "We'd have zero attendance."

Because fall sports programs are starting earlier, and a collegiate player cannot participate on an amateur team at the same time as a college team, the American Legion season is actually a week shorter than it used to be.

Still, it's quite the grind. That's part of the fun, and the strategy.

"It's like Gardy [Twins manager Ron Gardenhire] will do," Yelle said. "If we have one bad game, taking a little bit to get going, we get to go right on to the next day. In our season, it's six maybe even seven games in a four-day period."