The American Legion Baseball World Series is coming to eastern Iowa later this month at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. Jim Morrison of Oelwein is the vice chairman of the Legion’s baseball program. Morrison says the kick-off banquet starts in about two weeks.
The banquet is August 17th and Ferguson Jenkins will be the guest speaker. The games start August 18th and there are two games in the morning and two in the afternoon. The championship game is Tuesday the 22nd. Morrison explains the format of the tournament. He says there are eight teams from all over the U.S. and the Iowa team has to win to get in.
Morrison says the Legion World Series has now run eight decades. Morrison says the first games were played in 1925 in South Dakota, with the first series played in 1926. He says this is the oldest youth baseball program in the U.S. Morrison says this is a big deal for Iowa. Morrison says this is the first time the state has held the Legion World Series. He says there will now only be three of the 50 states that haven’t hosted the Legion Series.
Morrison says it’ll give eastern Iowa a big economic boost. Morrison says they anticipated the event will bring in several million dollars from all across the country.
Morrison says several notable Iowans have played American Legion ball. He says former major leaguers such as Mike Boddicker and Cal Eldred played Legion ball, and the most famous is probably Van Meter native Bob Feller. Tickets for the American Legion World Series are available through the Cedar Rapids Kernels box office by calling 319-896-7560, or by going on-line at: WWW.KERNELS.COM