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American Legion Baseball Joins JML

By John Wezenski, 12/04/19, 11:00AM EST

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American Legion Baseball Teams at the 19U and 17U Levels to join JML for the upcoming 2020 summer season.

Dear Legion Post 196 Members, Milford Residents, Past and Future Legion Players and the entire Milford Baseball Community.

It is with great pride that I am writing to officially announce the intent to form Legion Baseball Teams at the 19U and 17U Levels for the upcoming 2020 summer season. This has been quite the process over the last year to get to this point. The American Legion is a very organized and thorough organization that wanted to see a detailed plan for the success of Milford Legion for the long term. We have put together an organizational structure that allows Milford Post 196 to remain as a co-sponsor of the program. This structure includes a baseball committee with a representative from the Legion Post, representatives from Milford’s youth leagues and a Baseball Director who will organize the formation of the teams and oversee the entire program. After countless hours of discussion and a well-organized presentation, we received word that Milford Legion Baseball is officially reinstated as of December 1, 2019.

Milford Legion has not played a game since the end of the 2017 summer season. Our involvement began after this time frame, and therefore, we are not concerned with the reason for the legion program being inactive for 2 seasons. Our focus is on 2020 and the long term future of both Post 196 baseball and the Milford baseball community. The more players interested in the game at a young age will be beneficial for the legion program in the long term and one of our focus points is to increase the legions involvement with Milford youth sports and the entire community.

Milford Legion’s first two partnerships are a great example of our plan moving forward. Milford Legion has partnered with Milford Junior Major League to bring a good amount of exposure to future legion players, but also to provide an opportunity for everyone to have a place to play each season. Junior Major League organizes the Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth Leagues here in Milford. These divisions are a great preparation for legion baseball and provide non-legion players an opportunity to continue their baseball careers. The second partnership is for player memberships at Turn 2. Turn 2 is Milford’s newest indoor baseball and softball training facility and will be home to the Milford Legion program. Located on Anderson Avenue in Milford, Turn 2 is a 4,000 sq. ft. facility that features 3 batting tunnels that open up for defensive drills and a separate bullpen area.

I am not only excited to bring legion baseball back this summer, but I am thrilled that Milford Post 196 Legion will be the newest addition to Zone 4. Zone 4 features the top baseball in the state at any level. Strong baseball towns that include Trumbull, Greenwich, Ridgefield, Fairfield and 2019’s 19U and 15U State Champions from Stamford. What a great opportunity for the talented players in Milford to go up against the best players from the state. Playing in Zone 4 against this competition will allow Milford players to get increased exposure on a bigger stage. It will take the right combination of talent, effort and hard work by the players and coaches to be competitive right off the bat.

I look forward to working with the Legion Post, Milford’s recreation and travel programs and city officials to have the players of Milford Post 196 represent their town well both on and off the field.