Post 58 Season In Review

I think all of the old timers that follow Legion baseball would all tell you that this just completed season will be one remembered for the quirky year that unfolded more than the play on the field.

It all started when Rocky Mount Academy kept winning during the high school baseball season and by win after win and deeper and deeper the Eagles ventured there was less time to formulate the squad that would be Post 58 in the summer  of 2013.  That is of course no fault of anyone.  I think we all would want at least one of our local high schools every year to play in the final high school baseball game of the season and Hank Jones just happened to be the Legion coach so his time was spent more in May on RMA that Post 58.

Once P 58 opened play and beat Apex in the season opener a few days later word came that an ineligible player  was used in the game and Coleman Pitt had to forfeit their first game of the season.  The only problem was this will not be the last time we hear the word forfeit this season.

A weekend  tournament in Garner when Jones wanted to get a feel of what type of team he would have by tournament time and where P58 might stack up with them just happened to occur on the weekend of graduation of RMA and Faith Christian and this Legion team would have more private school players than any other in Rocky Mount Legion History. Just enough players are able to field a team and two losses were not close and the third was  up in the air when an injury left only eight players to take the field and another forfeit  and never finished the game.

Once conference started Albemarle failed to show on game day. A  week later when  they did show a double header was planned and the first game was washed out tied 4-4 in the eighth and the second never happened.  A scheduled double header with Ahoskie never happened after their roster dropped down so low that they didn't have enough players to finish the season.  Then Edenton shows up with eight players and no one else arrives and they forfeit two to P58.

So far we have not mentioned all the rain outs  and rescheduled games that got rain out again.  This team at best was average.  They had the best overall pitching staff but not one of the starters was an over powering pitcher.  Hitting I don't know if you could say they were average.  I think this team hit three home runs all year so they had to manufacture runs by getting multiple hits back to back and that lead in the playoffs  to not getting the big hits when needed.  The defense the last two weeks was not good but I think that can be explained as when you only play 13 inning in 19 days because of the rain outs and forfeits  there is just no practice time.

This Legion team was a reflections of our high school ball over all from this spring.  None of our public high schools teams were better than average and that is what Post 58 was this year.   Regardless of the outcome I was in the press box for every home game  and the Wilson road game and what I saw was a team that liked each other.  They gave it all they had all the time.

 I like at any game I go to pull for the team I support to win all the games.  What I don't like is here I am thinking I am wasting my time because I care more about the out come of this game than the team does.  I never once this year had that thought about this team.  This team gave me every thing they had to give every game.  As a fan I can not ask of  a team more than that.