This is how the Black Sox scandal led to the founding of Legion Baseball

We all know the birthplace of American Legion Baseball is Milbank, S.D. This year, we celebrate the 100th Season of American Legion Baseball. At the American Legion Department of South Dakota Convention in 1925, right there in Milbank, Department Commander Frank G. McCormick welcomed the guest speaker, Major John L. Griffith, commissioner of the Western Conference.

What is the Western Conference? Well, you college sports fans all surely know that it is the original name of what’s now the Big Ten Conference.

Griffith’s talk inspired the Legionnaires at the convention to support a resolution from South Dakota Legion’s Americanism Committee that he and McCormick favored. It was a framework for a proposed for boys ages 13 to 19 to play baseball, with sectional, state and national-level tournaments, all sponsored by The American Legion.

Why South Dakota first? Because Griffith had a friendship with McCormick.

Why was the commissioner of the Western Conference trying to get the Legion involved in baseball? That’s because of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series. He was on a mission to get baseball back on its feet. He wanted a program to inspire young people to play baseball.

He knew Frank McCormick from coaching him on a baseball team at Camp Dodge, Iowa.

South Dakota approved the resolution, but it wasn’t alone, as the website makes it sound. Other states did, too. South Dakota just got first crack. Minnesota’s convention in 1925 was in Thief River Falls, and McCormick was there to promote it. There was great enthusiasm, and it was adopted.

Thus, Minnesota American Legion Baseball was born.

Hold the phone, though. It’s not like the Legion hadn’t already been playing baseball.

There was indeed Legion Baseball before 1925. Many American Legion posts were involved in baseball games. Remember, the Legion is bottom-up, not top-down.

One of the first post games in Minnesota was in September 1920. Teams from Minneapolis and St. Paul played a doubleheader, and St. Paul — of course — won both games, 9-7 and 7-5.

This piece of history comes from the book “Legion 50” by Ben Gimmestad. It’s about the first 50 years of The American Legion in Minnesota. These were veterans playing veterans.

By 1921, the book says, informal leagues sprouted. One of the first was a league that included Glencoe, Stewart, Hutchinson, Brownton, Winsted, Lester Prairie and Plato. Other sports leagues popped up: bowling, basketball, football, hockey, archery and rifle shooting. One sport was called kittenball. Do you know what that is? It’s an earlier form of what’s now softball. Kittenball was created in 1895 by a Minneapolis firefighter. Minneapolis actually claims to be the origin of softball, but that’s another story for another centennial celebration.

Griffith called the American Legion Baseball youth program “Junior Baseball” in that it was kids being coached, rather than Legion members playing. This isn’t to be confused with what we call Senior and Junior Legion today. In the olden days, “junior” was interchangeable with “youth.”

Some American Legion posts in Minnesota already were doing this as early as 1923.

It just so happened that the National Convention that year was in that great tourism destination of Omaha, Neb. Griffith’s plan became known as the “Milbank Resolution” and had the support of National Commander James A. Drain, an attorney from Spokane, Wash., who served as a one-handed lieutenant colonel during the First World War as an ordnance officer for the 1st Infantry Division.

Needless to say, it passed. The first season was in 1926, and the first American Legion World Series was held in Philadelphia. A team from Yonkers Post 321 out of New York defeated the Pocatello, Idaho, post. In 1927, there was Legion Baseball played at local levels, but the National Legion lacked the money to hold a national tournament, so there was no American Legion World Series. However, 1928, Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis pledged $50,000 annually to support the program, allowing it to resume.

Minnesota always has been a leader in Legion Baseball. By 1928, Minnesota field 211 baseball teams. By 1929, American Legion Baseball had teams from every state and the District of Columbia.

Crosby won the first Minnesota Legion Baseball state tournament in 1926. Did you know that the Minnesota State High School League didn’t start its state tournament until 1947? The Legion postseason is 21 years older than the high school one.

By 1931, Minnesota fielded more than 400 Legion teams. In the Depression, the figure dropped to under 150, and during World War II, the number went down to 117. However, by 1947, it grew again to 301. By 1959, it topped the nation and remained on top for nine years.

This year, Minnesota American Legion Baseball has 377 teams. It is the largest Legion Baseball program in the country, and has been in that spot since 2014. Pennsylvania or Nebraska usually land at No. 2. This year, it’s Pennsylvania, with 282 teams.

Minnesota has produced five national champions: Richfield in 1943, Edina in 1983, Tri-City Red in 1999. That’s New Brighton. Rochester in 2003 and Eden Prairie in 2011. Minneapolis hosted the American Legion World Series in 1944. St. Paul hosted it in 1955, and Ely hosted it in 1980. The American Legion World Series have been held in Shelby, N.C., since 2011, mainly for TV and convenient-planning reasons.