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NEW ULM -- John Sands of the Minnesota State Legion Board thinks that numbers for legion baseball in Minnesota are doing well.
Sands, who is based out of Chaska, shared those thoughts this past weekend during the DI state legion baseball tourney.
But that is not the case around the country.
Texas has just one American Legion Baseball team.
"And Oklahoma and Georgia only have one legion baseball team," Sands said. "But here it is the community pride that the towns in Minnesota have to support legion baseball.
"I am a coach at Hopkins for legion baseball and for the first time in a while we have three teams for legion baseball, so it shows that even in the Twin Cities, it is growing. And out here you have the pride of the towns here."
Sands said that he is wondering how Texas, with one American Legion baseball team can qualify for a regional tournament.
"That is a question that we are all asking," he said. "When you have one team and Minnesota has 200-some teams and yet they only get one team also to a regional. Minnesota or Pennsylvania or Nebraska should get that spot from Texas," he said.
Tim Engstrom of the Minnesota State Legion Board said that Minnesota has the largest number of American Legion baseball teams in the country with 385 teams.
"That is the most by 100 over Pennsylvania followed by Nebraska," he said. "Minnesota has been doing well. There has been some funding problems with the National Tournament with the cost of hotels.
"We have had some problems with that too, but we have managed to do enough fundraising through sponsorship to bare the burden of all the hotel costs -- that is the biggest cost."
He said that the 2027 DI American Legion State Baseball Tournament is in Brainerd and they are already looking at a proposed $56,000 hotel bill.
Engstrom said that in Oklahoma and Iowa, high school baseball is played in the summer.
"Iowa has their legion season in the spring and that champion resumes its play once the regionals come around," Engstrom said. "Oklahoma just puts together a mega-team of combined towns. Here in Minnesota, we want more kids playing legion baseball."