Outside the Tribe: Chris George, Member of Bridgeport Sports Radio Crew and Longtime Elkins Post 29 Manager Weighs in on Cancellation of Legion Baseball Season
By Chris Johnson on May 16, 2020 from Outside the Tribe
There are not many people in the state as involved in high school athletics as Chris George.
Bridgeport fans know him best as part of the BHS radio team, serving as the color man for Travis Jones or taking over play-by-play duties whenever Jones isn’t available. George even does the majority of Bridgeport baseball games by himself.
Which I’m sure is fine by him. As much as he enjoys football or basketball or pro wrestling, George is a baseball guy first.
Again, there are not many people in the state as involved in athletics as he is. There are even fewer that are as involved in or as passionate about American Legion baseball.
George is the longtime general manager and manager for Elkins Post 29’s Legion team. He is also the architect behind the annual Hillbilly Hardball Classic, one of the premier regular-season Legion tournaments in the state. He’s also the assistant commissioner for the organization in the state.
Last Sunday, on Mother’s Day, news broke that American Legion Baseball was canceled nationwide, the latest victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In early April, the Legion World Series and regionals were canceled but until last Sunday individual states had a glimmer of hope that they could get some regular-season games in, even if there were some restrictions.
Last week’s decision brought an end to that. George hates that the decision was made but he also believes it was the correct one.
“I want to play as bad as anyone, he said. “I want to coach, but let’s face it, at the end of the day, it comes down to the safety of these kids.”
George walked me through the decision process from the state level as well as the national level and it’s clear that it wasn’t one made lightly.
“We formed a committee in the state, myself as the assistant chairman, Bill Burkett, the state chairman, Jay Desantis, who is on the national committee as well and one of the top umpires in the country and the rest of the area chairmen,” George said. “We put a committee together so we could get together to have a conference call or two or three or four or whatever it was going to take to discuss the upcoming season.
“We had one back on May 2, that was our first one. And we discussed a plan to possibly play with the guidelines that were in place and all the safety measures we had to take. If we could play, we were going to try and play in the month of July, knowing that most of the three-week periods in high school were going to be moved to July. A lot of facilities were going to be closed down in June and we had to have 14 days of practice in before our first game. We knew with all of that, it looked like the first of July was going to be the best place where we could play and just play for a month.”
He added that the same May 2 meeting was when they decided to call off the state tournament and all area tournaments and turned their efforts to getting in as many regular season games as they could.
Also, at about the same time, a crucial piece of information surfaced which would ultimately be the primary factor in the nationwide cancellation. And that’s insurance.
“We had been hearing from multiple people and from lawyers that COVID-19 is not covered by the insurance plan we have or any insurance plans for any teams for that matter not just American Legion Baseball National which is our insurance and it’s wonderful but it’s just not covered,” George said.
“Our insurance covers injuries, property damage, liability with all of that. There’s tons of protection with it but it does not cover COVID-19. So what that means is if a player, a fan, a coach or whoever comes into contact with COVID-19 under our watch during a game, a practice, we the American Legion, or any outside sponsored team throughout American Legion baseball would be held liable and could be in line for a lawsuit.
“A kid could be run over by a tractor on the baseball field with a drag and suffer serious injuries, you are covered. But COVID-19, it isn’t there.”
George and the recently formed statewide committee scheduled another conference call for today (May 16) to further discuss plans for some sort of season. But before that meeting time arrived, another state issued a report that changed everything.
“Minnesota had their conference call on May 9th and they sent out a release, stating they were canceling their season for all the reasons I mentioned. They had contacted Nationals and Nationals had told them as of Friday of last week (May 8), they were no longer supporting the Legion baseball program. They were no longer going to offer the insurance. They said if any teams in your state want to play, they must do so at their own risk. They must get their own jerseys, their own hats, their own insurance.
“They would have to take total liability of everything. So, Minnesota decided to go ahead and cancel. This past Sunday on Mother’s Day, the American Legion National sent out a memo to all 50 states. Basically the memo stated, they were done. What they had told Minnesota was in the press release and it became official. So as of Mother’s Day, all American Legion baseball was canceled throughout all 50 states.”
George added that it said right in the memo, if you want to play, go ahead at your own risk but you have to remove the Legion name, you can’t have the patches and can’t play under Legion rules.
“We are still going to have our conference call this weekend,” George said. “There may be some teams out there that want to do something on their own, I don’t know. I have told them, they know the risks. Legion has told them the risks. Also, parents that would sign waivers that would waive their kid from any liability, that doesn’t hold up in court. So, a parent can sign whatever they want, that piece of paper means nothing.”
Earlier this week, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice issued a statement that there is a target date for non-contact youth sports in West Virginia to potentially be allowed to be played beginning on June 8. Few details or guidelines came with that announcement, but it was suggested that baseball, softball and soccer were the primary sports being talked about.
George suggested that if anybody out there is moving toward that June 8 with the plans to get out on the field, they should proceed with caution as their insurance situation is likely similar to what Legion baseball has.
“Little League canceled their World Series, canceled their regionals and they canceled 12-year-old state tournaments across the country,” George said. “But then they left it up to the local Little Leagues to determine what they wanted to do, just like Legion at the national level was going to do but they stepped up and protected us and made the call for us.”
In a strange way, the cancellation of the Legion season was a sense of relief for George or at the very least it brought an end to a domino effect he had been living with since March.
First the high school sports seasons were halted. It seems like a lifetime ago now, but once upon a time there were serious talks of abbreviated spring sports season which in itself would have pushed back the start of Legion baseball. When schools were not allowed to re-open that officially ended spring sports before they even began.
Legion canceled its World Series and regionals, George was then faced with probably having to eliminate out-of-state teams from competing in the Hillbilly Hardball Classic. But then time ran out and the tournament had to be called off completely. On to perhaps a shortened regular season but no state tournament or area tournament. Finally no games at all, no season at all and George — like many of us — is looking at the first spring and summer in our lives without baseball.
“I think the biggest relief was nationals stepping up and making the decision and not leaving it up to the states because we may have made a decision that had been bad,” George said. “We looked at all the factors, understood the factors, but we all wanted to play. And I think it’s good that someone above us with more data available to them made that call.”
Editor's Note: Top photo of Chris George calling a Bridgeport basketball game and bottom photo from a previous Bridgeport Post 68 American Legion baseball game are from benqueenphotography.com. Middle two photos are courtesy of Chris George's Facebook Page.
