Pineville Legion Coach Randy Rummage---Q&A

Coach Randy Rummage is acknowledged in the Charlotte baseball community as one of the best around. He has a very keen eye for talent, great developer of those talents and where most of us need a book to describe a problem, Coach Rummage can summarize it in a sentence. I asked him if he could clarify some of the questions people have about Legion player eligibility. If anybody has any questions...post them here!

Coach, there has been some misunderstanding about how Legion areas select their players. Can you help us out?

Braves, All rules are found on ALB website www.baseball.legion.orgOne of the areas where people seem to be confused is the PLAYER RECRUITING PLANS. There two plans, PLAN "A" (RULE 3)and PLAN "B" (RULE 4). Most areas in North Carolina are under PLAN"B" sometimes called the Base School Plan.Mecklenburg County is under PLAN"A" sometimes called the Zone plan. Major points PLAN"A"-1. Used in large cities. 2. Geographic boundaries are established. 3. Transfers/Releases are virtually
impossible. I'll use the Mecklenburg Zone Plan to illustrate.There are
between 20,000 and 21,000 high school students in Mecklenburg County-
GRADES 10-12,Private-Public etc. An ALB team can draw from a maximum
of 5,000 students. Therefore take 21,000 and divide by 5,000 and you
get 4.2 which means Mecklenburg could have 4.2 teams. We have 4. What
about the .2? Our boundaries are determined by Census Tracts.
Therefore, we have some tracts that are DEAD ZONES and people in those
zones cannot play.The Zones for Mecklenburg were done by an
independent third party and the DEAD ZONES have no players living in
them.

Regarding Transfers/Releases, remember, eligibility is established based on the parent's domicile. Any player wanting to transfer must
have the population of his domicile zone added to the zone team to
which he seeks tranfer and not exceed 5,000. That's impossible. After
being in this a while, believe it or not, I understand this rule.
Without RULE 3 B.3 some unsavory activities could take place.

Major points PLAN "B"-1. Base School is established 2. Distance(DeLorme,Street Atlas USA 2005 Computer Program) from Base School is determining factor for eligibility. 3.Transfers/Releases. The Base School is the
center of the Plan "B" universe.You can go out equal distance from the
Base School until you reach 5,000 students or you intersect with
another Base School. Players must play for the team determined by the
Base School nearest to the parent's domicile.Players can be released
to the next closest Base School. I know this happens but I do not play
under PLAN"B" so I do not know the specifics. I do not see any rule changes in these plans. I do not know of anyone who likes all of them.

Do you see Mecklenburg County adding an additional team?

Four teams is the maximum we can competitively field. Unless some
things change, I can make a case for three teams, or less.,

Do you see the 19 year old rule changing?

19 year olds will continue to play. It appears to be gaining
popularity across the Country. Young college players are getting to play
and use metal.

Any changes that you would like to see in Legion baseball?

I would like to see the Form 1 Roster increased from 18 to 21 or
more.

You have another very successful team this year. What do you like about this year's team?

This year's Pineville has chemistry,character and toughness. They
are a delight to work with. That applies to the entire 24 who made
our regular season team.

With all of your experience at the legion and HS level, do you have any interest in becoming a HS HC?

I enjoy working at South Meck.Coaching and Classroom.I enjoy working
with Coach Bagwell.We are on the same page.Our approaches may be
slightly different but we work for a sole purpose.I love to see
players develop in baseball and more importantly in life.I am happy
where I am----but----if TORRE gets fired or retires----you never
know.

Thanks, Coach, for taking the time to answer a few of my questions. Please continue to be a contributor to this Board.

 

Hey Coach,

We appreciate your time. Congratulations on a great season with Post 337.

We have had the debate on TBR several times regarding Legion vs Showcase...from a Legion Coach perspective what advantages does a player have from playing Legion ball in the summer and do you see any disavantages?

 

SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can anyone say that "FOUR TEAMS IS THE MAXIMUM WE CAN COMPETITIVELY FIELD." 18 players x's 4 teams = 72 players.
The facts are simple. Charlotte/Mecklenburg has a bigger pool of players too choose from, more than enough playing fields, and many legion posts that should be supporting AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Of the 4 teams in Charlotte...2 struggled to find enough players and one of those disqualified in the 1st round for not having enough players to field a team.

With the continued growth in the number of showcase teams in Charlotte, it will become even harder to find quality and quantity of players.

 

I believe Charlotte is a perfect example of what folks are talking about when they say legion ball is more popular in certain areas of the state. Because in big cities like Charlotte, kids simply have more options (i.e. showcase, year-round personal instruction, etc). Look at how many indoor facilities are within driving distance to Charlotte...

In smaller towns, unless a showcase coach SWOOPS IN and recruits a key ballplayer, the small town boys grow up more inclined to play legion because its more of a "community thing" and "THATS ALL THEY KNOW".

As for Coach Rummage at Pineville,,,, I have personally seen how he's brought that legion program along the past few years and he's done a tremendous job. I occasionally hear folks complain about all the large schools that Pineville draws players from in Charlotte, but folks who complain usually don't know the rules. Pineville is within the rules. Coach Rummage has simply done a great job,,,, and congratulations to you coach on your guys having a great season this summer.

 

Having being involved with both showcase and Legion ball, I am an advocate of playing Legion in the summer and Showcase in the fall...especially if you play in towns like Kannapolis, Shelby, Caldwell, Cherryville,..etc.

But many kids are afraid that if they don't hook up with a showcase team in the summer, they may not have an opportunity to join one in the fall.

I love American Legion baseball. I would like to see them modify some of their rules, though. If I had one wish in the Charlotte community, it is for each team to gather the support that you find in other areas.

 

By Coach Rummage: RESPONSE to Trock. There is nothing wrong here. We have 3 Legion Posts which supported teams this year. Steele Creek had no Post support to my knowledge. Newell had no support last year. Please do not confuse the number of mecklenburg students with those who play or even have an interest in baseball. Access to fields is extremely difficult. The red tape is massive in most situations.Also, please remember that
Mecklenburg is divided by Census Tracts. For example,in Pineville's
drawing area we do not have the total population of any school. We
have parts of 4 public and any private school players who live in our
Zone. Thank you for your comment.

 

By Coach Rummage: RESPONSE to DBACK 20: I prefer not to give opinions or state what I think.I will answer with the things I know and have experienced.An ALB player needs to have reached a playing maturity where he has a high level of self-disipline and self-motivation. He needs to
understand his abilities and ask for help hopefully before the
coaching staff sees the flaw.ALB players must want to play for
championships.A demanding season with division, area, state,
regional, and national championship playoffs.ALB plays 9 inning
games and many of them.(This year we played 31 offical games in about
45 days) Advanced players need to play games. Skills development is
intense in the fall at the high school and college level. Colleges
have less than 30 days for team practices in the fall.During those 30
days is when they intrasquad.The rest of the fall is maximum 4-man
group and individual workout. ALB allows hitters to see returning
college pitching and some of the best high school pitching. ALB
pitchers face excellent hitters using metal.They learn to pitch
through a line-up possibly 3 or 4 times. That is real baseball.
Player exposure is excellent. Since the start of the season there
have been maybe 5 days(excluding weekends)that I have not taken calls
from coaches and recruiters. In the last 4 years every player on our
18 player FORM 1 could have played at the college level in some
division. Some chose not to play and pursue other educational or
career goals.ALB is free to the player. In our case our Legion Post
supports our program.An ALB player must love to compete and have no
fear of competition.When a player reaches this level if he is not
willing or afraid to compete for a position or roster spot, his
playing days are nearing an end.

Thank you for your question.

 

By Coach Rummage: RESPONSE to tj21: Thank you for your kind comments. I believe you are a Kannapolis ALB fan. We really enjoyed playing Kannapolis last year(2 games H/A). If you have any influence or contacts, we would
like to see if we could schedule each other. From what I have read
our only mistake was not eating at K-TOWN. Maybe we can correct
that.Also, a College in this area has offered to host some ALB games.
The possibilities are ideal for AREA III and AREA IV games such as a
2-day flip opponents schedule. 2 teams from III and 2 teams from IV
would be entertaining and fun.
--

 

Coach Rummage, we (Kannapolis Legion) wanted to keep our H/A series with Pineville this year also, but nearly all of our early scheduled games were scrapped because we only draw from 2 high schools and half our legion team was tied up with NW Cabarrus who made it to the state 3A finals. Early legion games were impossible, we postponed numerous others, and we ended up having to play the first 4-5 games in our Area 3 schedule with only half a team. Maybe we can get something started back H/A with Pineville for next summer. I will stay in touch with you.