Blue and Gold Classic Still Has Openings.

February 12, 2002

The 2002 Adrean Post Blue and Gold Classic 12-team tournament still has two openings to round out the tournament. If you have any interest in playing in the tournament June 28, 29, and 30th, e-mail Mike Macchione at skip@adreanbaseball.com. For more information and a look at last years schedule, click here.

Utica Post to host the 2002 New York State American Legion Baseball Finals

February 12, 2002

August should prove to be a real interesting month in the Mohawk Valley. For the first time ever an Oneida County team, Utica Post 229, will host American Legion State Championship finals.

But the real interesting part will be the drama that will precede the tournament, as the 14 league teams will be battling to win the district and potentially send 2 Oneida County teams to the tournament. Everyone will be focused on the winning the “RUG” this year because that will give that team an automatic shot at the District 5 Championship too.

Make no mistake about it, Utica 229 will be playing full out all year to be sure that they will be primed and ready to go to the states, even though they will have an automatic place as a result of hosting the tournament. Utica has been there before and knows what it takes to win big games. Moreover, they want to be sure a district victory will seed them in a better position in the states eight-team format.

Hosting the states is a real serious undertaking and UP has staffed up their volunteer corps to be sure things will be the best they could possibly be. Bill Salsbury has a vested interest in seeing the games run like a professional athletic event; he’s the NY State Baseball Chairman, and like anyone in that position, he’ll leave nothing to chance.

The league will benefit from the exposure that the tournament will get it, and the only thing left to see is how well the local media will help Bill and UP to promote the event. It goes without saying that the loss of the Utica Blue Sox will help people in our area realize that the real fun in watching baseball these days, is in high quality baseball provided by high school and college players in state finals. Actually, we should expect to see why the Blue Sox couldn’t draw flies to the ballpark as Bill and his crew makes every game a fans delight. If you ever went to a Blue Sox game, you saw promotion at its worse and imagination one level above idiot savant. With a little help from the local media and direction from Bill, this tournament will be a raging success.

While UP has a formidable legion membership and could no doubt run the tournament by themselves, legionbaseball.com would like to implore all Oneida County American Legion teams and American Legion Posts, to pick up the phone in February and ask how they can support Utica Post, in some way. And oh yeah, when the time comes to rake and drag the infield, or collect at the gate, or sell 50/50’s we’ll need everyone that made the commitment in February, March or April, to honor it in August. That’s the time Bill and UP will be depending on all of us.

Good luck Bill and good luck UP. You can visit the official site of the 2002 New York State American Legion Tournament at www.nystourney.com.