I’ve been saying it for years.
American Legion baseball games should be seven innings instead of nine.
Now they are.
The American Legion baseball commission department directors from across the country meet every September.
Last year, two-thirds of the approximately 50 directors voted to change all state, regional and World Series games to seven frames. The vote was passed to the American Legion’s national committee, which ratified it.
Sydney Parfait eagerly voted for the change.
“We’ve been discussing this change for five years,” said Parfait, the Louisiana department American Legion baseball chairman.
The Missouri state champion advances to the regional played in Louisiana. “Some people felt more strongly and some felt we should maintain the tradition of nine innings, which is the closest thing to major league baseball.”
Since American Legion baseball is played during the summer, safety was partially a concern when discussing the change.
Parfait said most people succumb to the thick Louisiana humidity, which coupled with temperatures around 100 degrees, can mean field temperatures of 115.
“I’ve been a proponent for years because we’re a high school program,” Parfait said. “These young men are used to playing for seven innings and all of a sudden we want them to play nine innings.
“Being from the deep South, we play under 115 degree heat index. I’ve seen umpires and coaches pass out and fans in the stands have problems and we’re expecting young men to go out there and sweat and do the best they can.”
Triple-digit temperatures during games are the norm most years as the season winds through the summer months.
Like any sporting event, if those games are competitive, you kind of forget about the sweat trickling down the small of your back or how fast your ice water turned tepid.
Heat indexes pushed temperatures over 100 degrees all three days of the Ron Bone Tournament, which was played at Yanks Field in Ste. Genevieve, Jefferson College and West City Park in Festus.
A lot of times because American Legion games were nine innings long, that familiar sinking feeling that the game might not end anytime soon because one team simply ran out of pitching was frequently cause for exasperation.
I’ve covered my fair share of American Legion baseball, starting with summer tripleheaders at C&H Ballpark in St. Charles some 20-plus years ago. When it’s too hot to sit on the bleachers, the last thing I wanted to do was watch one team trot out a series of pitchers who only extended everyone’s misery.
For years, I told anyone who would listen that American Legion baseball was doing a disservice to its players and coaches by making them play nine innings when high schools around the country in the spring only play seven.
Playing fewer innings will help coaches adhere to the daily pitch count limit of 105 for each pitcher, and as everyone understands, quality pitching leads to better games.
The new rule also means teams can win by the mercy rule (A lead of 10 runs or greater) in the fifth inning, instead of the seventh. How many times has a game been all but determined, only to watch a series of pitchers trotted out to the mound for more humiliation?
American Legion teams in District 13 already are dealing with a major rules change as directed by the state by using wooden bats instead of the aluminium ones they’ve used for decades. Combine that change with playing fewer innings, and pitchers in the district are probably breathing a sigh of relief.
“It’s a huge impact,” Festus American Legion Post 253 head coach Zac Bone said of playing fewer innings. “When you get into the postseason and into a double-elimination format, you have to have a ton of depth on the mound, and we have depth, but those are two huge innings. I think you see more lead changes in those eighth and ninth innings than you do at the college level.”
Bone consistently says that American Legion baseball isn’t in dire straits when it comes to attracting players, but playing seven-inning games will surely help.
“Anybody who tells you that American Legion baseball is dying isn’t reading the newspaper,” Bone said. “There’s more teams than there’s ever been. The product you saw on the field (June 10 against Ste. Genevieve) is as good as you’ll see anywhere.
“I don’t fault anybody for trying to make an honest buck, but I think there are a lot of non-Legion programs out there are promising things they can’t deliver in exchange for writing a check and that’s not right. To me this a very pure form of baseball with volunteers coaching and it’s the best thing going as far as I’m concerned.”
Bone and Ste. Genevieve head coach Junie Basler are co-commissioners of District 13 this year. Basler said playing seven innings instead of nine is a major change because coaches will manage games differently.
“I like the nine-inning game better but the good thing about seven innings is it’s easier on pitchers’ arms,” Basler said. “I get all that. As an old-timer, I still like the nine-inning game.
“In the past, it’s all been about who has the most pitching. Now you’ll get complete games. You didn’t get a lot of them in nine innings where you had to burn two or three pitchers.”