Conflicting rulings force rescheduling of Legion district tourney

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Herald-Tribune

Friday the Nevada Red Sox and the Warrensburg AAA Legion teams were supposed to play for the District 6 championship at 5 p.m. Friday.

That didn't happen.

Instead, Red Sox manager Matt Ketterman said Friday night that because of an incorrect ruling by the Legion district tournament chairman, Nevada, Warrensburg and perhaps Harrisonville will replay a limited district tournament on Sunday and Monday if needed, in Warrensburg.

The current schedule Warrensburg and Harrisonville to play a 1 p.m. game, the winner of which will face Nevada ar 4 p.m. And that's only if everyone can find enough players to field a team.

It seems there is a rule for all Legion post-season play that requires at least 12 players on each team's bench to be allowed to play. All of these players apparently do not have to be eligible to actually play; they just have to be present.

Ketterman said this all stems from a ruling before an elimination game Wednesday between Harrisonville and Windsor. Windsor did not have the required 12 players but the district tournament chairman ruled that the game could go ahead -- and that Windsor could even play with as few as eight players. Ketterman said that the tournament chairman said that he had checked with Gary Stone, the Missouri state director of American Legion baseball, who said this would be OK. However the 12-player rule would be enforced next week in the zone tournament.

Windsor went on to beat Harrisonville and advance to another elimination game on Thursday, with the Red Sox after they lost to Warrensburg Wednesday afternoon.

The Red Sox, which only had 10 players on their bench --remember that the district chairman had told the Red Six this was OK -- won that game, and advanced to the double-elimination championship series with the undefeated Warrensburg team.

After Warrensburg lost to Nevada Thursday in the first of two games, the Warrensburg manager filed a protest with the Legion. The Legion initially ruled that Nevada would have to forfeit the games with Warrensburg and Windsor and that Harrisonville would play for the championship Friday afternoon.

Then hours of telephone calls from Matt Ketterman and Jim Rayburn to state Legion baseball officials resulted in the current format.

Stay tuned and we will let you know what happens.

Comments

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The first elimination game between Harrisonville and Windsor was won by Harrisonville, 13-8.

It is a shame that the district tournament director would do something like this to put so many teams and players at risk.

-- Posted by royalones on Sat, Jul 21, 2012, at 7:57 AM
What a travesty. Nevada should have been eliminated due to their forfeit for not having enough players. Instead, their tournament director's decision to circumvent the rules leads to the replaying of the tournament only to have two of the three teams forfeit due to not enough players - leaving Nevada headed to state. That's not right. The two teams who had the appropriate number of players on the bench are left out in the cold. The one team that could not field enough players makes an end run around the rules and takes advantage of the same rule they broke. Again, what a shame!

-- Posted by royalones on Sun, Jul 22, 2012, at 10:12 PM
The Nevada Red Sox played extremely well on Thursday in that horrific heat. Just because they had one less boy in the dugout, should not discredit their win. It is not the players fault the director okayed the playing of the games that day. The 9 players are on the field played baseball and beat the other 9 players on the field. Simple as that!

-- Posted by Moeloves theTigers on Tue, Jul 24, 2012, at 10:28 AM

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