THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Legion ball seems kinda foreign anymore

The Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen and Lewis-Clark Twins will battle it out this weekend for the Idaho American Legion baseball class "AA" Area A (district) championship.

That’s not a shocker.

Coeur d’Alene, which draws from Coeur d'Alene and Lake City high schools, and Lewis-Clark, which draws mostly from Lewiston High, have been the two most successful Legion programs in North Idaho for at least the past 2-3 decades.

And, before that, Lewis-Clark was the gold standard, with more district and state titles than anyone can remember.

The telling thing is, Coeur d’Alene and Lewis-Clark are the ONLY class “AA” Legion teams in North Idaho.

Two teams.

THERE WAS a time, not so long ago, when there were as many as seven teams in the class “AA” North Idaho League — Coeur d’Alene and Lewis-Clark, Prairie (Post Falls), Moscow and Sandpoint, and two British Columbia teams, Trail and Cranbrook.

Trail, which produced future North Idaho College and major league baseball player Jason Bay, was one of the better teams in the league, year in and year out, and a contender even at the state level. So it was a loss when Trail (and Cranbrook) dropped out of the league a few years ago.

Sandpoint still has a Legion program, but its top team has played mostly at the “A” level in recent years. And for the second straight year, Prairie has been unable to field a “AA” team, ending a run of nearly four decades of Legion ball in Post Falls.

Like Sandpoint, Moscow has been mostly an “A” level team in recent years, but this year even Moscow was unable to field a Legion team.

Even the Silver Valley Miners had a Legion team, in class “A”.

Same with Bonners Ferry, which is playing some games this summer, but not a full slate. There was a time, several decades ago, where Bonners and Sandpoint combined for a pretty strong “AA” team.

Obviously the popularity of club (travel-ball) teams in recent years has taken players away from Legion programs, and we get that. We wish we would be able to see those teams play around here a little more, because it would be pretty good ball to watch, but we understand they have to travel (hence, the phrase “travel ball”) to tournaments where the college recruiters are.

THIS IS not to diminish the Legion teams that are still playing “AA” in North Idaho.

Coeur d’Alene in particular, even without some of the Coeur d’Alene High and Lake City High players it could have had on the Legion team, remains a loaded outfit, with a deep and talented pitching staff.

The Lums have more than held their own in tournaments where they have faced club teams, and have the roster to challenge for the first state Legion title in program history, and a trip to regionals for only the second time ever.

There is little on the line this weekend when Coeur d’Alene and Lewis-Clark play for the Area A title. Both teams are guaranteed berths to state; the Area A champ will get a little better first-round draw when the state tourney begins in Nampa.

But both teams will be there regardless.

THERE WERE some great Area A (district) tourneys back in the day.

Bobby Jenks of Prairie, a future World Series champion as a closer, throwing well over 100 pitches on a 100-degree day in Lewiston some two decades ago.

A few years later, at North Idaho College — when NIC still had a baseball field (and team) — Prairie beat Coeur d’Alene for the district title — with the winning pitcher for the Cardinals a kid that had been cut from Coeur d’Alene’s “AA” team, so he was eligible to play for Prairie.

And many years earlier, when the tourney was at cozy Brett James Memorial Field in Post Falls, the games became such home run derbies that the teams in the title game ran out of daylight, and had to finish the next morning.

There were also a few entertaining district tourneys down at McEuen Field, before ... well, you know what happened.

But anyway, like we’ve learned lately from college conference realignment, times change.

And we get that.

We just kinda miss the old days a little bit.

Shoot, I remember when Babe Ruth baseball was a big deal in North Idaho, with Sandpoint hosting tournaments that attracted teams like the Kootenai County All-Stars.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.