American Legion state championships comes to Oakland County

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

CLARKSTON — Fred Bowen remembers the glory days when American Legion baseball teams were all over not only the city of Detroit, but found in plenty some in the suburbs and in urban areas of Michigan.

“There was a great ball being played in the Legion leagues, and some of the other leagues,” recalled Bowen, who now resides in Rochester Hills. “There were teams from all over and some very good players.”

Bowen played in the late 1950s as a member of Detroit Edison Post 187. In fact, he played on one of the best Legion teams ever to hail from Michigan — and the first team ever to win a national championship through American Legion baseball.

That first Michigan championship squad won the title in 1959, and Bowen was named the Tournament MVP after helping his team full of all-stars to district, zone, state, Midwest and national titles that summer.

“We had a bunch of college guys on that team. Almost every guy played at least college ball and we had four guys play pro ball from that team,” smiled Bowen, a shortstop who played collegiately at the University of Detroit. “It was a summer that I will never forget.”

Last summer, celebrating 50 years since Michigan’s first and only national title at the time, Midland Berryhill added to that lore and captured the national title in 2009 up in Fargo, N.D.

“It was kind of funny that we celebrated 50 years last season as the only Michigan team to win it and Midland came through and won the (American Legion) World Series —almost to the day,” said Bowen.

This is the 84^th season of American Legion baseball in Michigan. The first two years (1926 and 1927), a state champion was not crowned. In 1928, Detroit Post 125 was tabbed as the first Michigan champion and ventured onto the Midwest regional level.

Since then, a variety of teams have won state championships. Midland Berryhill leads the way with 16 state titles, including six of the past eight, seven of the past 10 and nine of the past 15. Also known as Post 165, Midland claimed its first title in 1969.

As for local teams in Oakland County, four times has the state trophy been brought home. Chief Pontiac 377 near Clarkston won the first in 1969, followed by Rochester Post 172 (1973), Chief Pontiac (1975) and Ferndale Post (1988).

There could be another Oakland County team to claim the gold this season — and on Oakland County turf. Chief Pontiac will host this year’s state championships, July 29-Aug. 1, where six teams will battle for the right to head to the Midwest regional the following weekend in Illinois. There also lies the hope of heading to Seattle, Washington, in two weeks for the national tournament.

Among this year’s state finalists are Chief Pontiac, the hosts of the tournament at Shufer Burns Memorial Field which also drew an automatic bid for hosting the tournament, and Oakland County counterpart Milford Post 216. Also in the mix are Midland Berryhill, which won the past two titles, Fort Dearborn Post 364, Ida Post 514, and Stevensville Post 568.

There will be 11 games played in four days, with first-round game being played all day Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m.

After dropping to all-time lows last season in terms of number of teams, the state has seen an uptick this summer. The revival has been aided by a two-tier system, where smaller towns, many from northern Michigan, play in a separate division

“We only had 40 teams last year, now we have 53,” said Bill Haefman, State Commander for American Legion. “The two tier system is working. A lot of the little schools and towns have added teams. They can’t compete with the bigger schools down here. But they can against each other. Next year, we really hope to promote the two-tier and double the number of teams out there.”

Times have changed. There are so many more sports in which youths play, and there are multiple high-exposure baseball tournament and travel teams for high school-aged players to choose from in 2010 as compared to the previous decades, where Legion baseball ruled the summer months.

“We also need more posts to be able to sponsor teams,” added Haefman, who played in Legion ball from 1954-58 for Powers, Mich., in the Upper Peninsula near Escanaba. “That’s the real story. The more posts we have willing, the more teams we can field. In Wisconsin, there are over 300 Legion teams. Michigan used to be that way.”

The state tournament held its opening ceremonies on Wednesday night at the Shufer Burns Memorial Field.

Former Major League Baseball veteran Dave Bergman was the guest speaker, following the opening ceremonies and banquet for the state tournament. Bergman challenged young players to take both their academics and athletics seriously, as life lessons through these means can be applied later in life. Bergman played 22 seasons in MLB.

NOTABLES

The tournament can be followed on Gametracker through the Chief Pontiac website at www.chiefpontiacbaseball.org, or fans may purchase game or four-day tournament passes. Daily passes are $5 and tournament passes are $15. Children 12 and under are free.

Parking is free, while consesions and programs are for sale on-site.

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Last updated: Sep 01 2010 at 2:21 AM