Each Legion team maintains their own field, operates their own gate admission and concession stand, and conducts their own field maintenance with the exception of one field at the Rochester Baseball Complex which is managed by Rochester Sports. Rochester Sports also assumes responsibility for collecting team entries, scheduling games, ordering t-shirts and baseballs, and serves as the tournament director to take some pressure off the high school programs.
Several other groups are key to maintaining this annual event including Rochester Youth Baseball, which maintains fields on the fourth pool play site run by Rochester Sports at the Rochester Baseball Complex. Local umpire assigner Marshall Behrens is also behind the scenes and has assigned all the umpires for each of the Firecracker tournaments for the past seven years. At times, this is an extremely difficult task when the 4thof July falls over the weekend of the tournament.
The tournament will feature 16 of the top-tier Legion teams locally and out of state. New to the field this year is Bennington, NE; Marshfield, WI; Fargo, ND; Omaha, NE and Albert Lea, MN. The 2017 champions from Plover, WI will also be returning to try to defend their title.
Stop out to one of the high school baseball fields if you are in town this weekend and up for watching some good baseball. More info on the tournament and updated scores can be found throughout the weekend at www.rochestermnsports.org/legion. Games kick off Friday at 2:30 pm and continue through Sunday afternoon. Hope to see you all this weekend!
Upcoming Events:
June 29 – July 1: Firecracker 92 Legion Baseball Tournament