American Legion Post 50 commander Dan Skamperle works the dirt on the pitcher’s mound at Legion Park. Post 50 is now in charge of what has been known for decades as Pemo Stewart baseball.
The program known for years as "Pemo Stewart" baseball will be taken over and maintained by American Legion Post 50, starting this spring. American Legion will no longer sponsor Scotland High School's junior and senior summer baseball teams.
An announcement was made during Wednesday's Scotland County Parks and Recreation meeting, and American Legion has already been working on major repairs to Legion Park, where all Pemo Stewart games are held.
The old park has received a new fence, and new bathrooms are being built. An old, World War II quasi-hut that has a pair of bathrooms inside it has received a makeover, both dugouts have been repaired and there is also painting going on inside the park. The county is helping fund the renovations.
The Pemo Stewart league will be known as the American Legion Youth Baseball program, starting this season. There will be three teams, a 13-year-old, 14-15 year-old and 16-18 year-old team. The teams will still compete as members of Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken baseball.
The new league's director will be Charles White. White is an American Legion Post 50 member, and also helps run the Scotland County Tennis Association.
Parks and Recreation advisory board member Guy McCook said that Pemo Stewart had been struggling, especially in finding the needed number of volunteers to run the program effectively.
"In a year I think we'll see a dramatic difference in the way Legion Park looks, and we hope Legion can make Pemo Stewart a viable program again," McCook said.
American Legion baseball has been fading away in the eastern part of the state for the last few years. The Scotland Junior Legion team was still sponsored by Post 50 last summer, but it no longer played Legion baseball, opting instead to become part of the Central Carolina High School Baseball League.
The senior team still played Legion ball last summer, but the number of teams in the Area 2-West League had dwindled to five, and another team has since left. The varsity-level players at Scotland are now expected to make up one team that will also compete in the Central Carolina league this summer.
"We made this decision to drop out of the American Legion baseball conference because the program itself was dying in this area of the state," said American Legion Post 50 commander Dan Skamperle, who has been involved with Legion baseball since 2001. "The Junior Legion team had already been scrubbed out, but we still sponsored the Central Carolina High School Baseball team last year.
"This year, we decided to suspend all activities regarding those two teams."
The new American Legion Baseball League will provide a fresh challenge for the Post 50 members who volunteer to help run the league. There are more games played, and many more players (Skamperle said over 200 kids should end up playing this season).
Skamperle says the more players, the better.
"Those kids who don't have a place to play or don't play AAU baseball, they're all more than welcome to play here," Skamperle said. "We don't want to see anyone spend a summer sitting idle and not developing their talents."
Skamperle said American Legion Baseball League sign-ups will run co-current with Scotland County Parks and Recreation sign-ups, which should begin in mid-March. The cost will be $12 per player. All American Legion League games will be played at Legion Park.
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