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Nebraska Sluggers

My first forum entry has to do with legion baseball, seems kind of silly but here we go. Legion baseball is dying a slow and painful death. My son has signed his NLOI to play baseball in Missouri and we made the mistake of letting him play one more season of legion baseball with his high school teammates. This has been a summer of mediocre baseball played against mediocre teams and any success he has at the next level will be in spite of legion baseball instead of because of it. My son has gone backwards this summer while the kids he will be competing against starting in 45 days have spent the summer facing legitimate competition and getting better while he plays against kids that knocked a winters worth of dust of their gloves the night before their first practice in May. If your kids have any intend of playing baseball at the next level please pursue programs like the Sluggers or whatever you can find. Small town legion baseball is just not very good.
 
My first forum entry has to do with legion baseball, seems kind of silly but here we go. Legion baseball is dying a slow and painful death. My son has signed his NLOI to play baseball in Missouri and we made the mistake of letting him play one more season of legion baseball with his high school teammates. This has been a summer of mediocre baseball played against mediocre teams and any success he has at the next level will be in spite of legion baseball instead of because of it. My son has gone backwards this summer while the kids he will be competing against starting in 45 days have spent the summer facing legitimate competition and getting better while he plays against kids that knocked a winters worth of dust of their gloves the night before their first practice in May. If your kids have any intend of playing baseball at the next level please pursue programs like the Sluggers or whatever you can find. Small town legion baseball is just not very good.

What class?

I would disagree with respect to Class A, but of course agree with anything below that.
 
What class?

I would disagree with respect to Class A, but of course agree with anything below that.

I wouldn’t. Even the teams we face on the fall circuit are so much better. Deep pitching with velocity and crazy solid defense. We have a few class A legion teams that are deep, but most have 1 ace and then a bunch of average Joes. Some of the Omaha legion teams have been entered in the showcase tournaments we have been in and they did not do well.
 
I wouldn’t. Even the teams we face on the fall circuit are so much better. Deep pitching with velocity and crazy solid defense. We have a few class A legion teams that are deep, but most have 1 ace and then a bunch of average Joes. Some of the Omaha legion teams have been entered in the showcase tournaments we have been in and they did not do well.

Meh, fall rosters are usually light with class A football going on. The good class A squads face #1s every time they play.
 



I am way more familiar with class B then the others so I should have been specific. I just think communities look at Legion ball more as a summer activity then a real sport. Kids getting pulled different directions by basketball coaches, football coaches, jobs, vacations, girlfriends, etc. it's just not the big deal that it was 25 years ago when I played it.
 
I am way more familiar with class B then the others so I should have been specific. I just think communities look at Legion ball more as a summer activity then a real sport. Kids getting pulled different directions by basketball coaches, football coaches, jobs, vacations, girlfriends, etc. it's just not the big deal that it was 25 years ago when I played it.

I agree 100% in small communities in Nebraska. Outside of Class A, you maybe get Wakefield that gets up for legion ball and that's it.
 
That's where I played and things have changed drastically there, they only had Seniors this year because they didn't have enough kids to have both and most of their Senior players were Junior age. I recently attended the class B junior state tournament in Columbus and the quality of play there was not good at all. There were some nice players but half the teams had no chance to win the tournament and even the second place team made 8 errors in the championship game. I am very passionate about baseball and it makes me sad what has happened to legion ball in our state.
 
Meh, fall rosters are usually light with class A football going on. The good class A squads face #1s every time they play.

Do you follow real fall baseball? Not the local leagues, but actual Perfect Game, Five Tool, PBR, etc? These rosters are not light. Due to the actions of the Nebraska coaches, up to now fall ball has been the only real chance for these boys to play at a high level. When the Sluggers announced they were expanding I had my doubts. They delivered.

A friend of ours has a son that is going into his 2nd year of college baseball. She said the biggest regret they have is not stepping away from legion to play competitive baseball. He’s in an uphill fight against a flood of Juco transfers and kids that used to easily go to higher level schools. I talk to all levels of college coaches D1, D2, NAIA and D3. They all are under the gun to deliver and all are heavily recruiting Juco and the only schools that tell me they regularly attend legion games are the D3 coaches. NAIA has really stepped it up. Midland’s starting 9 only had 1 kid that started school as a freshman. The other starting 8 were Juco.

Things have changed, and the competition level is serious. To think otherwise means you really are not paying attention and you are in for a rude awakening once your son gets to school thinking he’s going to walk on to that D2 or NAIA roster and be a starter his freshman year. Things have changed so much in just the last 5 years.
 



I had a legion coach laugh when I told him 1 of the kids was likely going to go NAIA. He said NAIA is glorified high school baseball. He also laughed at Jucos. That showed me how much he was not prepaired to lead a high school aged team. Tell the NAIA school that beat Michigan they are just a glorified high school team.
 
I had a legion coach laugh when I told him 1 of the kids was likely going to go NAIA. He said NAIA is glorified high school baseball. He also laughed at Jucos. That showed me how much he was not prepaired to lead a high school aged team. Tell the NAIA school that beat Michigan they are just a glorified high school team.

NAIA is glorified legion, except for the top 10. There are a select few NAIA teams that get D1 washouts and non-qualifiers. Those boys can play. Other than that, nothing to write home about. Locally, the GPAC is glorified legion.
 
The great thing about this country is everybody can voice his opinion, whether it’s reality or not. Back to the heart of this thread....reality is that Nebraska Legion baseball is not preparing these boys for college opportunities. If you are not interested in college ball, then great, you get to play with your friends and be the local small town hero in legion ball. My gripe is the HS coaches that are blackballing the players that actually are trying to get better. Thankfully we have places like Dynamic Velocity, Goodro Catching and Southworth hitting, Sluggers, Prospects, Primetime, Barnstormers and Strikezone in Omaha actually preparing the boys. Similar places and teams in Lincoln.
 
Do you follow real fall baseball? Not the local leagues, but actual Perfect Game, Five Tool, PBR, etc? These rosters are not light. Due to the actions of the Nebraska coaches, up to now fall ball has been the only real chance for these boys to play at a high level. When the Sluggers announced they were expanding I had my doubts. They delivered.

A friend of ours has a son that is going into his 2nd year of college baseball. She said the biggest regret they have is not stepping away from legion to play competitive baseball. He’s in an uphill fight against a flood of Juco transfers and kids that used to easily go to higher level schools. I talk to all levels of college coaches D1, D2, NAIA and D3. They all are under the gun to deliver and all are heavily recruiting Juco and the only schools that tell me they regularly attend legion games are the D3 coaches. NAIA has really stepped it up. Midland’s starting 9 only had 1 kid that started school as a freshman. The other starting 8 were Juco.

Things have changed, and the competition level is serious. To think otherwise means you really are not paying attention and you are in for a rude awakening once your son gets to school thinking he’s going to walk on to that D2 or NAIA roster and be a starter his freshman year. Things have changed so much in just the last 5 years.


I do not follow "real" fall baseball. I've been there, done that. I watch football. I have no interest in watching some group of high school kids try and hit home runs against three dozen kids from the DR try to make Indian Hills CC's team. This type of stuff has been around for years. It was Nebraska Select back in the day; the only guys that played that were single sport athletes.

Several things:
1) If a kid goes to anything other than a D1 or JUCO out of high school, they are going to that school for something other than baseball. Which is fine.

2) If a kid is serious about baseball and doesn't have a D1 offer, you go JUCO.

3) If a D2 or NAIA wants you as a high school senior, they are going to want you as a JUCO transfer. Hell, that's the biggest pitch of JUCO coaches: Come to us and get a shot at SEC; if it doesn't work out Emporia will still want you. I don't know why anyone, if baseball is there sole motivator, would go to a D2 or NAIA out of high school.

4) The JUCO route gets you two extra chances to get drafted, you will get your first two years of college paid for, as opposed to a books and in-state scholarship at best, or $500 at worst from a D2. Plus, the classes are super easy and you can focus on your swing or whatever else is holding you back from D1. You get way more reps at a JUCO. You also get to clean up in the fall against punk high school kids ;).

5) No amount of fall baseball or whatever else is going to change the player you are. Seeing 92 isn't going to fix your long ass swing...it's just going to expose it. There's a reason why some college guys say no to the Cape Cod league; they don't want to be exposed and hurt their draft status.

6) You've either got it or you don't. When Darryl Strawberry was a senior in high school, 26 MLB scouts came to watch his first game. By the time his first at bat was over, only 2 scouts remained. The other 24 left, knowing he wouldn't make it past the second pick and that they were wasting their time.

7) Baseball hasn't revolutionized in the last 20 years, 50 years, or whatever to make it now that there are a bunch of super players out there. To say "kids that used to easily go to higher level schools" is baloney. The reality is that that is college baseball, particularly at the D1 and D2 level, are just better players. Do you really think that if a kid played against different teams 48 months prior, that would make him a starter on his college team? No way. To say that all of a sudden the "competition level is serious" is a big eye roll. It always has been, always will be. All college sports are "serious." If you want to start as a freshman at any level, and I"ll even include NAIA and D3, you got to be able to play.

8) If the high school coach you referenced laughed at JUCOs, I think he is a ******* idiot and should not be anywhere near a baseball field.
 



Don’t disagree.

A lot of good talent never gets seen. Summer travel teams and fall travel teams let the player be seen actually playing the game. Very few coaches are going to offer a kid based on a showcase performance that is not in a real game situation. Those same college coaches are not attening many legion games, outside of Millard West, Millard South, Prep and Burke. Showcases get the kid’s name out and on a watch list or a camp invite. They rarely get a kid an offer.
 
Iowa presents a problem for players in that it is the only state in which high school baseball is in the summer, May through July, making it extremely difficult for them to play with elite travel teams. It forces the elite players to make a choice between playing for their high school with their friends and classmates or playing with a showcase team which will give them much more exposure to scouts and college coaches. I know of a young man from Des Moines who played with an elite team from Kansas City on weekends after playing a weekday schedule with his high school team. It required overnight drives to places like Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, Indianapolis, St.Louis, etc. to get to those games.
 

Iowa presents a problem for players in that it is the only state in which high school baseball is in the summer, May through July, making it extremely difficult for them to play with elite travel teams. It forces the elite players to make a choice between playing for their high school with their friends and classmates or playing with a showcase team which will give them much more exposure to scouts and college coaches. I know of a young man from Des Moines who played with an elite team from Kansas City on weekends after playing a weekday schedule with his high school team. It required overnight drives to places like Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, Indianapolis, St.Louis, etc. to get to those games.


Right. Wyatt Anderson is from Iowa. Chooses to play for the Sluggers instead of his high school team. Committed to SDSU.
 

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