Now in its sixth year, the Firecracker 92 Senior Legion baseball tournament has been a staple community event since its inception in 2011.
With the strong partnership the Sports Commission has with the Rochester American Legion programs, we've been able to help each other out in creating a great annual event that benefits the community and significantly helps the Legion programs.
Each Legion team maintains its own field, and operates its own gate admission, concession stand and field maintenance with the exception of one field at RBC which is managed by the Sports Commission.
This keeps tournament costs down and allows for the local teams to make a few dollars to help with their operating expenses throughout the year. The Sports Commission also takes on collecting team entries, scheduling games, ordering T-shirts, baseballs and working with the umpire assigner to take some pressure off the high school coaches.
The tournament has grown from eight to 16 teams since 2011, and brings in some of the top-tier Legion teams locally and out of state. This year, we have 15 teams representing the states of Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
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Having these teams in town for the weekend allows our local teams to get a good amount of games in without having to travel to another tournament. It also presents the unique opportunity to compete against teams they normally wouldn't.
Community businesses also tend to benefit as the event generates nearly $200,000 in economic impact as hotels, restaurants and locals businesses are flooded by teams.
As with any event, tournament planning begins in the fall with marketing the tournament and contacting teams to see if they would like to return, as well as trying to recruit teams from the past or top-tier teams we would like to find a way to bring to town to enhance the quality of the competition.
We've been fortunate to get some of the top programs in the region which tells a lot about the quality of the event and the job the Patriots, A's and Redhawks Legion teams do in running their sites over a holiday weekend.
So if you are around over Fourth of July weekend, stop out to one of the high school fields if you are up for watching some good baseball. More information on the tournament and updated scores can be found throughout the weekend at rochsports.org/legion.
Hope to see you all this weekend!
