Illinois senior, junior American Legion baseball seasons canceled by coronavirus
Greg Eschman, Belleville Senior American Legion manager the past two years, had been in on the early discussions and, despite hearing conflicting rumors, had hoped something could be done to save the 2020 season.
Earlier this week, Eschman’s worst legion baseball fear became a reality. For the first time in over 80 years, the Belleville Hilgards will not have a baseball season.
Additionally, no junior or senior legion baseball will be played in Illinois, either, this summer.
Don Wallis, Department of Illinois Baseball Chairman for American Legion Baseball, announced earlier this week, due to the continued coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 senior and junior American Legion seasons have been canceled.
“It’s been a long month as we’ve tried to come up with different ways which would allow us to at least play a few games this summer,” Wallis said Wednesday. “We even thought about moving the start of the season to July 1 and just playing a few games. But in the end, we just did not want to take the chance of having any of our players, coaches or fans getting sick.”
The decision to cancel the season effects 30-38 junior and senior legion teams in Southern Illinois. Wallis said Wednesday he expected six-seven junior and senior legion teams to compete in District 22 and nine-10 teams in both divisions to play in District 23 during the 2020 season.
The news of the cancellation was a major disappointment to Eschman and the Hilgards. A perennial legion power in Southern Illinois and one of the most successful in state history, the Hilgards were expected to be a strong team again this summer. Eschman had also hoped the legion season would provide his seniors one last chance to play after the Illinois High School Association recently canceled spring sports due to COVID-19.
“I had been in contact with Don (Wallis) for the past several weeks and the decision by the committee to cancel the season comes as no surprise,” Eschman said Wednesday. “While we are very disappointed that there will be no Hilgards baseball this summer we certainly understand the unique circumstances we are currently under. I feel bad for those seniors that missed out on their final year of high school baseball and we were hoping to give them a ‘second chance’ to compete this summer.
“It is hard to believe that for the first time in over 80 years the Hilgards will not take the field. We will continue to promote Belleville Hilgards and American Legion baseball. We are looking forward to making additional improvements to Whitey Herzog field and I am confident we will be back. Our goal for 2021 will be to have both a junior and a senior team competing next summer.”
Legion chairmen voted 4-1 to cancel
Wallis said a teleconference for legion coaches and administrators around the state was held Saturday with the conclusion of delaying a final decision until May 23.
But after thinking about it overnight, then calling the district chairmen around the state, a final vote was taken on the season on Sunday.
“The vote was 4-1 that we cancel the season,’” Wallis said. “Missouri canceled their season last week and Iowa and others had as well. The only state bordering ours which had not canceled was Wisconsin which has a lot of legion teams.
“Another factor was that some teams did not have a field to play on. Places are closed and the fields had not been worked on. It was just a difficult situation and for the safety of everyone we felt this is the right decision. I have no doubt that legion baseball will survive this situation. We have a lot of dedicated people around the state who love and support American Legion baseball.”
