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On Monday, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, Legion baseball was canceled in the state, which affects six teams in the Mirror coverage area. However, local baseball is still holding a wait-and-see approach before following the lead of the Pennsylvania American Legion Department.
"The (Altoona Greater City Baseball) league was going to open May 17, but that does not look like that will happen," said John Austin, a spokesperson for the two AAABA teams that compete in the City League. "(City League president) Dale Snyder and I have had conversations. We discussed the schedule. If we could start around mid-June, we would definitely try to do that. Pending what the federal government tells us we can and cannot do, we will follow."
According to Austin, there will be six City League teams along with the two AAABA teams. But for the two AAABA teams, there might not be a national tournament for them to compete in come August.
"The sponsoring organization will need to come up with $150,000 to make this tourney happen, so there are a lot of questions still there to be answered," Austin said. "Even if there is no tourney in Johnstown, we will try to do some kind of baseball schedule here."
Erik Wardrop, the president of the Kelley Federation League, still has hopes for a 2020 season and the 10 teams signed up to compete.
"Right now, it's wait and see. I am planning to play, even if we have to go to October," Wardrop said. "We just put about $10,000 into Stout Field (Geesey Park). We are meeting next Wednesday (April 22). Hopefully, they are going to make another announcement on guidelines. We are hoping to open May 23 if possible, but we can revise that. … We have no intention of canceling right now."
Cory Seymour of the Altoona Teener League says they have 15 teams, nine major league and six minor league teams, ready to go for 2020.
"I am extremely optimistic that we will be playing baseball in 2020. The reason why I am optimistic is that I don't care if we have to start in July, as long as things get back to the new normal, we'll play baseball," said Seymour, who says the league will hold a meeting this Sunday. "Obviously, we will follow any guidelines set by the state or the (federal) government. Even if May 22 does not work, we still plan on playing baseball."
The six teams from the area that lost their Legion season Monday were from Hollidaysburg, Claysburg, Bedford, Ebensburg, Lilly and Northern Cambria. Other teams in the Cambria County League included Richland, Somerset, St. Michael and Nanty Glo.
A.J. Hoenstine, who helps coach a Junior American Legion team in Spring Cove, already lost a baseball season as the Central High School coach.
"I thought they might wait to make the call," Hoenstine said of Legion officials. "It's definitely tough. Our team (16-and-under) finished second in our region last year and we had the whole team coming back."
Hoenstine said there is talk of some kids from teams who lost their high school season getting a chance to play some summer baseball in the Windber area, but only if the state will allow it.