After seeing a dip in participation in recent years, American Legion baseball is looking to build some positive momentum as it turns 100 years old.
Since 1925, the national veterans organization has been offering an amateur baseball league that has been a staple in the development of young players across the country.
And while participation had lagged in recent years with the rise of travel baseball and other factors like the decline in American Legion post membership, Legion ball is looking to start its second century with some wind in its sails.
According to the national American Legion website, the number of registered teams across the country grew by 117 to 3,049 total between the 2023 and 2024 season. That stands in stark and encouraging contrast to several years prior, when Legion teams saw a pronounced decline in Maine and nationally.
Legion baseball has both Senior and Junior divisions, with the Junior level for players ages 13-16 and Senior level for those 17-19.
Maine’s Senior Legion tournament wrapped up last week with the Farmington Flyers taking home their first ever state title, and the Junior Legion tournament is currently underway at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
Maine fielded 13 Senior League teams and nine Junior League teams this season. That is an increase of one team in each age group compared to a year ago.
While there were more teams playing Legion baseball 20 years ago and it has “kind of tapered down” from its peak in participation, Maine American Legion Baseball chairman Scott Bishop acknowledged, work is underway to reverse that trend.
“And then we’ve kind of been trying to rebuild, and we’re coming back up,” he said after the Senior League state tournament. “So we’re on the upswing and I plan to keep going.”
Bishop noted the Legion’s emphasis on “citizenship through sportsmanship,” which aims to make players responsible members of their community through life lessons learned on the field.
“I know that it had started because veterans came back from World War I and they saw what they thought to be young men that were lazy, doing nothing,” Bishop said about Legion baseball’s inception. “So they said, what can we do? And they created American Legion baseball to get them out, get them doing something, get them active.”
He said that same goal applies today.
“We want kids out, active, being athletic, doing something,” Bishop said. “I think the mission then is still the same as the mission now.”
Bishop stressed that Legion ball is a “community-bsed option” for summer baseball here in Maine that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars.
“I think it’s a big deal, and I don’t think a lot of people know that we have high quality baseball at a low cost in Maine,” he said.
