Baseball teams across the Upper Cumberland will come together to be a part of a new league this summer.
The American Legion league will begin play this month. The league will see kids from multiple different baseball teams in the Upper Cumberland face off against other teams across the state of Tennessee. Jackson County Baseball Head Coach Alex Bray said the league will give kids a chance to increase their travel ball play.
“The whole idea is, you know, to give people in certain areas especially that don’t have Babe Ruth Leagues or senior leagues or Little League or, you know, you got to drive to another city or another state to play in travel baseball tournaments that can cost thousands and thousands of dollars per family,” Bray said. “This is another alternative to that.”
Bray said he reached out to the local post to gauge interest, alongside head coaches across the Upper Cumberland. Some of the teams that will have players on the Legion team include Jackson County, Clay County, Livingston, and Cookeville. Bray said he will just be handling who and when the team will face off against other teams.
“[We want] to offer competitive baseball, a good training environment, and good development of young men at little to no cost for the players and the team,” Bray said.
Bray said he blended the team together to see if the league can expand in the future.
“It’s just kind of a jumping point to see where it goes,” Bray said. “We’ve got a lot of good feedback from our sponsors in the American Legion. It’s been really organized.”
The American Legion team will travel to Gallatin June 20th to compete in a tournament. The tournament will run through the 22nd. Bray said he is working on getting other dates for the kids to play.
Bray said the hope is for the American Legion to eventually become three divisions. The divisions will run alongside ten different counties.
