The old-fashioned sound of the crack of wood baseball bats will echo across the area starting today, July 4.
The Wood Bat Classic American Legion Baseball tournament will take place between Independence Day and July 7.
This means American Legion baseball will be right around the corner virtually everywhere from Coeur d’Alene to Hillyard and Millwood and of course Medical Lake.
“They are playing on 15 fields at 14 different sites,” Legion Baseball official Glen Reser noted. “Post Falls has two pods/fields,” he added.
Seven pods of AAA teams, 19U, will feature 36 teams coming from as far away as California with numerous entries from Canada. Thirty-eight AA teams, those 17U, are scattered across eight sites, three in Idaho.
“It’s the biggest ever,” West Plains Cannons coach Austin Sharp has been told. “I think right before COVID we were up close to that number.” Reser confirmed that the 2024 event is the biggest ever.
The event, whose origins are difficult to track, has recovered from post-COVID disruptions but flies largely under the community radar. “I know it’s been going on forever and ever,” Legion official Paul Carroll said.
In the wake of big community athletic events like Bloodsday, Hoop Fest and Ironman, the Wood Bat does its share to quietly boost the economy with 74 teams — and their followers — staying in hotels, campgrounds and eating at area establishments.
“I think the allure is the Wood Bat and the large quantity of teams,” event organizer and Mt. Spokane Wild head coach Alex Schuerman wrote in an email. “Canadian teams also love just being in Spokane, it’s a fun town for them.”
In terms of just teams alone, and based on a minimum of 20 people per squad, that equates to about 1,500 people. Add in parents and other fans that numbers speak for themselves.
“It’s a huge economic boost, you’re talking out of the 70 teams, 40 of them are from outside of Spokane,” West Plains Cannons head coach Austin Sharp said. “I mean, we got a California team.”
On another front Sharp said the connections made in the baseball community pay dividends down the road.
“My favorite part of it, we get a lot of teams from out of the area,” Sharp said. “So you end up making a lot of connections with other coaches across Canada and the U.S.”
His Medical Lake Pod is an example where the Glacier Twins from Whitefish, Montana reciprocate playing here after the Cannons have been regular attendees for several years in the Montana tourney.
Hodgin Distributing is another visitor from Pendleton, Oregon. The Parkland Twins travel from Canada with the 18U Crew Spokane club team rounding out the pod.
The tournament is a solid test at the right time for many teams who are on the way to post-season — and hopefully state competition.
“It’s pretty big, and it’s tough,” Sharp explained. “We’ve made the quarterfinals one time and I think that was in 2021?” Going forward it is the dream of Sharp to have much better visibility for this showcase of summer baseball.
“I wish they would advertise it more and maybe try to have the championship at Avista (Stadium) or something like that,” Sharp said.
— Paul Delaney is a Cheney Free Press reporter and can be reached at [email protected].
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