the banished founders of legion all-stars
Decades of Service to Legion Baseball and Its Players and Families
IMt has taken a growing team to build the Legion All-Star program. AT times that team included three members of the Baseball Board: Director Randy Schaub, Adjutant for ZLife Jim Peck, and the communications director Tim Engstrom, all pof whom lent a hand over the lifespan of All-Stars.
Mike Perry and Bruce Barron are given most of the credit for founding the program, however. Mike and Bruce have over 80 years of combined experience in Legion baseball. Mike served 16 years as a district director and state baseball board member followed by 7 years as State Baseball Director (Mike preceded Randy). Mike took on the role of Junior D1 Director when he took over a troubled division that was, shall we say gently, “under managed’ by one board member. Mike built a great team of new leaders, standardized technologies, and laid the foundation for his successor – Jack Strong. Bruce Barron is a Legion Hall of Famer and a National Champion coach – one of just three living champion coaches. Perry tapped Barron and others to advance special projects when he was State Director followed by asking Barron to spearhead new ideas for Legion players and coaches. They share their joint passion for Legion baseball will a growing number of Legion coaches and volunteers that see great opportunities for Minnesota Legion baseball. They both believe that Legion can and should modernize to better thrive in a much-changed baseball landscape. You can like Mike. You can like Bruce. Or not. But you cannot question their lifetimes of commitment and their focus on kids and coaches first. They and the all-star crew took their joy in the success of others.
Mike and Bruce are perhaps uniquely positioned to know the insides of the baseball apparatus. They know many of today’s board members. They know the constitution “bargain” that was struck between the Minnesota American Legion and the Legion Baseball Board that defines the current baseball system. The State Legion granted near full autonomy to a tiny group of non-elected board members that have lifetime appointments. Total power and control actually rests with just a half dozen people. The Minnesota American Legion essentially created a private board or a private club that determines everything and every experience. Legion baseball is literally dictated to 5,500 players, 1,200 Legion coaches, and 11,000 parents. What is the vision offered by any board member or a board officer? What are their capabilities and skills? Are they team players, or do they hoard the game for themselves? The Minnesota Legion system has always been problematic as current and past leaders, board members, and baseball observers referred to the system and to its people as “dysfunctional”. Indeed, the National American Legion Baseball Director labeled Minnesota as “the most backward state in the country”.
But this year’s group takes the cake. The conduct and actions taken by this group of so-called leaders is just off the charts – off the hook. It isn’t just All-Stars. We will look at a bigger list.
Good Times In 2023
Randy Schaub & Bruce Barron 2023 All Star Event
The Closed System - how minnesota Legion baseball operates
A Constitution Grants Virtual Ownership To A Few Individuals
‘Open and Closed Systems’ by David Lee Jones September 9, 2022
Closed Systems Breed Fear, Anger, Repression, Paranoia and Suspicion
- · Closed systems have the following features: dominance, sameness, fusion, herd mentality and group thinking. Such systems discourage equality, change, differentiation, independence, questioning, speaking up, taking a stand, rocking the boat or expressing concern.
- · They tend to promote immaturity, repression, stuckness, triangulation, gossip, parking lot meetings, factions and secrets. People do not feel safe to question or disagree in such systems for fear of disapproval or retribution. Such systems tend to be reactive and anxious (even if it is hidden beneath the surface) because information is not shared freely and secrets bind anxiety.
- · Leaders tend to dominate or over-function, which causes others members of the system to acquiesce or under-function. A few at the top are disproportionately responsible for the many. Such systems often have people who function as dictators or peace-mongers at the top, and may have unduly rigid boundaries.
- · Closed systems breed fear, anger, repression, paranoia and suspicion. They tend to acquiesce to the least mature members or those who hold the most power (who are often the most immature). Closed systems are marked by incessant blaming of others and usually seek a quick fix to conflict rather than managing anxiety maturely. Closed systems are “deadly serious.”
There are issues that relate to people. Then there are issues that relate to the system witin which board members ioperate. And there are issues that are both people and systemic. Under a constitution or contract drawn decades ago, the Minnesota State Legion and a previous baseball board created a Closed System. Some features:
1) No officer no area representative is elected by the fee-paying constituents – the coaches or program director. Taxation but no representation.
2) Each person gets privately appointed by a Legion District Commander which amounts to a rubber stamp.
3) There are no term limits. Appointments run a lifetime. Personal agendas and personal turf are detrimental byproducts. A board member can’t be replaced. If you don’t have any ideas, you don’t need any. If you have a closed mind, no one will challenge you. If you pursue a personal power trip – no one can stop you.
4) Minnesota Legion baseball is an anti-democratic a system.
5) Free speech or alternative views are not welcomed.
6) Meetings are held privately with no public meeting notice. There are no open meetings. Meeting minutes might be available at the discretion of the communications guy if you asked. To us it looks similar to a social club in Little Italy but without the wiretaps.
7) The board can do whatever it wishes as board members are granted complete ownership of all Legion baseball functions in Minnesota. This constitution has not been fully reviewed in 35 years. When individual board members and its officers act like they own the Legion program – they are correct.
8) No other state uses this Minnesota anti-democratic system. No other state is seeking to copy the Minnesota system. Minnesota is a “one off”.
9) The American Legion itself uses a democratic model and promotes American values and principles such as free speech, elected representatives, open meetings, published agendas and minutes, and transparency. The Minnesota American Legion follows the same democratic principles throughout the state organization down through the post structures.
Conclusions:
- The Minnesota structure is a classic "Closed System". Bingo! The article nailed it.
- Closed systems reward closed minds and backroom bullies.
- Many refer to the baseball boatrd as a ‘secret society’.
- A few board members may hate the description. But mkost woiuld agree!
- But that’s what it is - a private club controlled by just a few of the 14 members -
Closed Minds in a Closxed System