Legion Baseball: Macomb Post 6 @ Monmouth Post 136

American Legion Baseball
Macomb Post 6 @ Monmouth Post 136
Thursday 6/17/10
Sunnylane Field, Monmouth

After a late decision to head home and get my house and yard picked up and presentable for the realtors showing it, I missed my first opportunity to get out to an American Legion baseball game. For those not in the know, Legion baseball is pretty unique.

Each Legion that has a team, has a territory, and players can play from age 16 to 20. Sometimes, there are players that just wrapped up their sophomore years in high school, playing with a college baseball player. I am not exactly sure on how the territories work in American Legion baseball, but I do know some players can get exemptions to play out of their area and go with a bordering Legion team.

As for the players on these two squads, Macomb has a much larger area to draw from. There are a few close Legion teams to Monmouth, with Aledo now having a team, Galesburg, Oneida, and Abingdon, meaning most of the Post 136 players are from Monmouth-Roseville High School, or just graduated from M-R.

Macomb has a very large geographic area to pick from, since they are one of the only Legion teams in western Illinois. Macomb draws players from West Prairie, Illini West, Rushville-Industry, Central/Southeastern, West Hancock, Beardstown, and South Fulton. They also pull from B-PC, though none this season.

The schedule I had for Post 136 had this game a 5:00 start, though I had heard late in the afternoon that it was a 5:30 first pitch. I left work at about 4:45, and made the quick drive down Broadway to Sunnylane Field. There were just a few people milling about, and neither team had taken to the infield yet.

My first stop was to the Monmouth dugout, where I talked with coaches Rick Chick and Shawn Temple. Corey Rundle is also helping coach Post 136 this year. Their starter tonight would be Justen Adams. Temple jokingly asked if I had bought a lottery ticket today, in reference that it didn't rain, so we had some luck going for us this afternoon. The Monmouth-Roseville High School team only played 18 or 19 games this past spring due to constant rainouts. Post 136 has been rained out several times this month, and I heard fans talking in the bleachers during the game, that we had received some sort of rainfall in 13 of the first 15 days of June.

Speaking of rainouts, Post 136 actually had a leg up on their competition today. In talking with Macomb Post 6 coach Brock Bainter (also an assistant coach for the Western Illinois University baseball team), he said this was just the third game his team had played, and they have had 10 rainouts so far. One of those games was a trip all the way to Rock Island...a trip made with no game being played.

I took a seat as the game began in the front row of the bleachers directly behind home plate. Monmouth took an early, 1-0 lead, on a Tanner Schreck RBI single in the first inning, that scored Tanner Adams who reached on a double. Macomb tied the game up in the second inning.

Mark Richardson, who owns Breadeaux Pizza in Monmouth, "the best pizza in town", was sitting near by. His son, Max, catches for Post 136. We talked about the amazing debut of Boston Red Sox rookie Daniel Nava, who launched a grand slam in his first at-bat, and first pitch he saw in the big leagues. Another interesting topic was a bungee cord that appeared to be holding nothing on the fence behind home plate. This bungee cord has certainly seen better days, and those days most likely came when President Jimmy Carter was in office. Mark even mentioned he thought there was a pool on when the cord would snap. Hopefully not tonight, with me standing 10 feet away.

In the third inning, Post 136's Alex Temple reached base on a single, and Schreck followed with a double. Those two were knocked in on a 2-run single by Blaine Robinson. Schreck plays college baseball at Eureka, and Robinson plays at Carl Sandburg College.

Macomb tied the game in the top of the 4th inning with a pair of runs, to make it, 3-3. Shortly thereafter, is when the offensive flood gates opened for Macomb Post 6. The visitors plated nine runs in the 5th inning, highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Kendall Hocker. He also hit a double in his first at-bat, in the same frame.

Another weather topic came up, when Dina Chick, the wife of Post 136 coach Rick Chick gave me grief for saying bad words on the radio today. It was just one word in particular....RAIN. Unfortunately, there is a chance of showers for the next several days.

The game wrapped up after seven innings, with Macomb Post 6 earning the 10-run win, 13-3. I walked over to the Macomb dugout to talk with Coach Bainter. Before he finished his postgame talk with his team, I met one of the father's of the Macomb team, Garrett Kestner. He will be a junior, and plays his high school baseball for the legendary Dave Swisegood, the all-time winningest coach in IHSA baseball history, in a career that has spanned around 55 years (as a head coach!). Kestner also plays football, and I mentioned I will be writing a preview on C/SE shortly, as coach Bill Reed just sent me a wealth of information on his 2010 Panthers.