Pennsylvania Legion cancels season
Pennsylvania Legion Baseball announced Monday it has canceled its 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision comes on the heels of the American Legion last week canceling its eight regional tournaments and World Series, and all American Legion Baseball scholarships also have been suspended for the year.
“I had thought what they were trying to do was hold out hope for these kids because they didn’t have their high school season,” Berwick coach Rich Pinterich said. “But the more I thought about it, the logistics just weren’t there. They were up against it with schools being canceled for the rest of the year.”
Although canceling the season didn’t come as a surprise to Pinterich, he is bothered that a large number of kids may not get the chance to swing a bat for a community-based team again.
“It’s the kids I feel bad for,” he said. “Some might not be able to do it again because they have other things come up or they’ll be too old to play. It’s just an abrupt and final end. ... It’s going to be a different summer for a lot of these kids. It’s hard to even tell them what to do and what to say.”
With the pandemic wiping out sports on a global scale, Pinterich that the impact could be felt beyond the summer.
“It’s hard to fathom, and we just have to get through it,” he said. “Hopefully, there’s something in the fall for the younger kids with Little League or something, but this could infiltrate fall sports too.
“Nobody is prepared for this, and it has people thinking about where it goes from here, but I don’t know where it’s going to go, where it’s going next. It’s scary because there is no end date.”
The American Legion, in a statement on its website, called its choice to cancel postseason play “an improbable situation.”
“The decision to cancel was extremely difficult but deemed necessary, first and foremost in the interest of health and safety, and in the face of uncertainty,” Americanism Commission Richard Anderson stated.
“These times are unparalleled. And while it is distressing to think of all those youth across the nation who are disappointed to learn of the cancelation of American Legion programs this year, it would be a much, much greater tragedy if even just one of those youth were to fall ill during a program.
“The Americanism Commission feels this is the right thing to do.”
With teams not taking the field this summer, Pinterich showed a sense of humor, saying, “I have a lot of time on my hands now.”
He’s certainly not alone in that aspect.
“People are going to have come up with creative things for the summer,” he said. “Baseball is a huge part of people’s lives, especially in the summer months when it’s nice out and people have the urge to get out and do things, and they don’t have the chance to do.”
Link to story: https://www.pressenterpriseonline.com/daily/page/story/pennsylvania-legion-cancels-season
