Jeff Melton / The Star
National Director of American Legion baseball Jim Quinlan, left, and 2008 Southeast Regional and World Series co-chairman Jim Horn, right, pictured Tuesday afternoon at Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium at Shelby High.
Jim Quinlan, National Director for American Legion baseball, visited Cleveland County this week as the 2008 Southeast Regional and World Series is now less than one year away from coming to Shelby. Quinlan toured the area as he met with the local tournament committee, visited with city and county government officials and took a look around Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium.
Star Assistant Sports Editor Gabe Whisnant sat down with Quinlan Wednesday for an interview focused on tournament preparations and the current state of American Legion baseball.
Q: What has impressed you the most during your trip to Shelby?
A: I love to go where we have enthusiasm. You see that in everybody here. They are working on great improvements to the ballpark … putting up a canopy, expanding the pressbox, building an office up there. The pros from a local golf course are going to help with the field and make sure it is manicured.
That’s what makes things go. You could have the world’s best ballpark and not have leadership, then you have a disaster. You could have a good ballpark that can become much better with the help of volunteers.
I’ve always told people if the record for attendance is going to be broken, it will happen in North Carolina. The current record is 38,000 over 10 games from 1996 in Roseburg, Oregon.
Q: What will be the most difficult aspect in hosting a Southeast Regional and World Series, back-to-back?
A: It will be the man hours. The ground crew will be working from 8 a.m. until midnight and that will wear on them, especially the first three days. We could use more man hours … from taking tickets to working in the concession area. Those people will be going day and night for two solid weeks.
Q: How important is it for you to stay organized as the tournament approaches?
A: Around Aug. 15 I’ll have to transport 1,280 ball players … about 600 on airlines and the rest via buses. We’ll need about 2,500 hotel rooms and that’s something you can’t negotiate at the last minute. We look at what we’ve done in the past and try to build on that.
We’re training a brand new committee every year. You start over from scratch and build on their enthusiasms.
Q: How has technology and the internet changed how you direct tournaments?
A: It’s made life easier. The pressbox phone used to ring off the hook with people asking for scores and the fax machine used to stay cranking. Now, we’re scoring the games live on the internet, so people have the ability to follow the game online. We now make it mandatory for a pressbox to have high-speed Internet.
Q: Are American Legion baseball’s participation numbers increasing or decreasing?
A: USA Baseball in Cary did a survey from 1990-2005 and looked at the number of kids playing amateur baseball. Overall, it went down from 16 million to 12 million. During the same time, Legion baseball has increased every year. We grew by 180 teams. In North Carolina, we went from 60 teams to 160 teams in the last 15 years.
There are some places that are struggling, especially with schools starting early and with two-a-day football.
Q: How do you keep the numbers up and continue to grow?
A: We have a great tradition to fall back on. American Legion still plays fundamental baseball. You ask the average player if he wants to play nine innings or seven, and he wants to play nine. A lot of the travel ball coaches are in it for the money. They say it’s about better exposure, but it’s not. The scouts know where all the better ball players are.
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