It’s been a few days since the American Legion’s national office made the decision to cancel the 2020 season. Since that time, there have been heavy discussions in South Dakota to proceed with a baseball season – it just wouldn’t be sanctioned or affiliated with the American Legion in any way.
Of the Class A American Legion teams, roughly eleven to fourteen of them have shown serious interest in playing organized independent baseball this summer. The question most people are asking is, if the teams are committed ‘how soon can they start playing?’ This is actually a loaded question, because community status and local government guidelines will play a significant role.
For instance, the city of Sioux Falls hasn’t given the green light for organized sports to resume yet.
“The main hurdle we have left is the city needs to approve organized team sports and we know that that decision will be announced on May 29th. We have been advised to plan for that to happen, because if you don’t plan that way and you’re wrong, you don’t have time to get everything ready,” explained Chad Barman, Sioux Empire Baseball Association Executive Director. “So we’re moving forward with the assumption, and the hope, that things are approved here on May 29th in Sioux Falls.”
It’s speculated that if the city of Sioux Falls gives clearance in late May, the season could start as early as mid-June for teams of the east river metro area.
“The common date that gets thrown around that we're hopeful for is, is a June 1st ‘okay’ to start team activities. Technically we can go out and have groups of five, six, seven, eight. They'll work out and just do stuff like that,” said Lance Garbers, Director of Operations for Renner Post 307. “But yeah, it's June 1st. And then 14 days later, June 15th, somewhere in there is, that's our hope, that's our goal so to speak - that's when [games] can happen.”
Again, Sioux Falls is unique in this situation due to the large amount of positive COVID cases in the area.
“We're at the mercy of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County. If the end of May comes and [the city or county] extend some of the requirements, restrictions, protocols, whatever you want to call them to say, "Hey, we're not going to allow any team activities for another two to three weeks." Well, now we get into mid to late June before we can start organized team activities.”
If Sioux Falls were to extend its restrictions, then the season start date likely gets pushed back to early July for those teams.
In Rapid City, organized team activities are taking place currently, but city restrictions aren’t allowing all kids to practice at once.
“We’re practicing in small groups. The city has given us direction on the group size and things of that nature. We’ve been practicing for about a week. We’re anticipating a season this summer,” stated Kelvin Torve, Rapid City Post-22 Hardhats team manager. “Obviously not an American Legion season, but we want to have baseball, our community wants to have baseball, all of which is dependent upon the virus and the government guidelines regarding group size and whether you can have a crowd.”
With 60 kids in the Post-22 program, coaches can only practice with ten kids at a time, twenty kids if they use both their indoor and outdoor facility. This has created some long hours for both the coaches of Post-22 and Post 320. Both Rapid City Post 22 and Post 320 are hoping to start playing games around the window of June 8-10.
No matter who you talk to, it’s pretty clear that whatever schedule is developed for all of the teams, it will be under the ‘subject to change’ format.
“Everything is kind of fluctuating, said BJ George, President of Rapid City Post 320. “So you have to be real flexible with your schedule. We are planning on having a season, for lack of a better word, like a travel ball or independent league.”
For some of the smaller communities, in what would be considered the ‘B’ Legion teams, there are also heavy discussions about playing baseball this season.
“I’m hoping for twenty [games],” said Beresford Post 72 Team Manager Nathan Iverson. “My first game is scheduled for June 8th and my last one is July 20th with gaps in between there.”
Post-season in both classes has at the very least been semi-discussed between both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams, but ‘A’ teams seem more advanced in their current conversations for having a make-shift state tournament, if you will.
“I think with any sport, you want to have some sort of finality. Kids want to play for something, have a meaning to play something. You get older in your age like myself, I just like to play baseball because I like to play baseball. When you're that age, they want to have a goal and a finality to the season,” explained Post 320’s BJ Goerge. “If we can provide that to them with some sort of state tournament, however that looks, I think that would be good for our kids in the state.”
Coach Iverson of Beresford did mention that the last weekend of July would be a potential ‘end of the year tournament’ date for the ‘B’ teams, but at this point, he’s just hoping for some games to be played. He also stated that he’s exploring options to have a waiver signed before kids would be allowed to play.
“I’m talking to our Beresford Baseball Softball Association about getting a COVID-19 specific liability form for parents to sign,” said coach Iverson.
Iverson isn’t the only coach looking at this option. This will likely be required by most teams this season, and it’s a way for parents to show that they understand what risks their child may or may not encounter during the current pandemic.
“We’re getting 100% participation in practice, so parents are comfortable sending their kids to practice right now,” said Post-22’s Torve. “A survey has also been sent out to the parents as well, but the club is still waiting on those results until the end of the week.”
Most coaches agree, player safety is the No. 1 priority. And that goes back to this potential baseball season having an overall flexible schedule. At any point, city restrictions could be put in place, but in South Dakota, this isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ affect.
“If Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County is forced to shut down, that doesn’t mean the teams from Mitchell, Pierre, and Rapid City can’t play, and vice versa,” said SEBA President Chad Barman.
At this point, there’s significant interest in having a baseball season, despite what the American Legion National Headquarters announced this past Sunday. But what that season will look like, or how many teams will play, is yet to be seen. The next two weeks should paint a much clearer picture of what a high school level of baseball will look like in the Mt. Rushmore State for the summer of 2020.
