Post Commander Rick Hinson confirmed Thursday there will be not be a team this season. Hinson pointed out the biggest factor was the lack of players to field a team. He admitted a Richmond Senior summer baseball team depleted the pool of players in the community.
“The biggest issue is with the high school doing their summer baseball league that the seniors get dropped, but most of the kids that are 16 and 17 are going to play for the high school,” Hinson said. “It’s an unspoken thing that if the high school baseball coach tells a kid that their holding tryouts for a summer team, he is really telling him, if he wants to play next season, than he better come out and play.
“This is a state wide problem and not just in Richmond County. The American Legion is not happy with the programs going on across the state with the summer high school programs.”
Hinson said economic reasons also played a factor in not putting together a team.
“For the past four years, American Legion baseball support in the community has gone down,” Hinson said. “We don’t draw enough crowds to offset the cost of things such as renting a facility, paying umpires and travel expenses.”
With posts in Scotland and Anson also not fielding teams, Hinson said Post 49 considered putting a mixed group of players together from those areas, but didn’t pursue the idea.
“The American Legion rules stated we could have done that,” Hinson said. “But we felt like if can’t get our own county to support us, then why go out and recruit. We didn’t want guys at positions that should be played by Richmond County boys.”
Hamlet American Legion with a joint venture with the City of Hamlet does have the Cal Ripken baseball youth league ongoing with five teams in the 9- and 10-year-old bracket and three teams in the 11- and 12-age division.
According to Hinson, Post 49 will attempt to form a senior team next season, but it could face the same dilemma as this year.
“We have a baseball committee that has five post members, and we’re going try to come up with a possible solution,” Hinson said. “The school system is going to do what is needed to build their program up. Hamlet is synonymous with American Legion baseball and hopefully, we will be back.”
Please advertise a try out period and have people that are eligible come try out. Don`t give up so easily, like the man said, this has been going on for 50 years, former coach-athletic director, Jerry Goodman played on these teams when he was a kid, go to him for help but don`t let this slip away from us, we`ve lost too much already.
These games are great entertainment and offer kids another chance to make the team, too improve, to show community pride.
I appeal to your inner being, "don`t be the one that destroys this tradition, resist, try something else.
Got my eye on you!!!!!!!!