Legion State Chairman: ‘Was it right? No.’

“It should’ve been played,” stated Arkansas American Legion State chairman Jeral Howard today regarding the controversy over the championship game of the MidSouth Regional Tournament which was rained out on Sunday and, initially, rescheduled for Monday before being called off in favor of a tiebreaker that awarded the title and the trip to the World Series to Texarkana over Bryant.

“It could’ve been played, I think,’ Howard continued. “In the meeting in the hospitality room (Sunday), I said ‘I don’t want this to happen. I want to go somewhere. They’ve got to play this.’

“But it was handled and I was told it was done,” he continued. “I objected to it. It made me sick to know we were doing what we were doing. Yes, I’m the State chairman but I’m assistant tournament director.”

Bryant had been the winners bracket final victor and had clinched a spot in the championship game going into Sunday’s “extra” semifinal game against Texarkana. With their season on the line, the Razorbacks rallied to survive with a 6-5 win then Sunday, before the rain, ousted Sedalia, Mo., in the losers’ bracket final to set up the final showdown, which never occurred due to the storms at Gary Hogan Field at UALR. Tournament director Ron LaPorte canceled the game and, by the Legion tiebreaking procedures, Texarkana would go to the Series by virtue of that 6-5 victory.

A bid was made to move the game from UALR with its turf infield and grass outfield to Henderson State University’s all-turf field in Arkadelphia where there had been far less rain.

Howard gave the following account of the sequence of events:

“Between 7:30 and 8 (Monday morning), we were at the (UALR) ballpark and Coach (Chris) Curry (UALR baseball) came out and walked the field. He advised Ron and I that, if it rained anymore, we could not play there. It was about a quarter inch just below the grass in the outfield. There was water still standing. You could see the wet areas where there was definitely water.

“At that time, it started misting but when I walked out the front gate, I immediately called (Bryant manager) Darren Hurt and asked him if we would contact Coach (Cody) Hooten (at Henderson) and see what kind of weather they had there and if we could play. I also told him that I’d talked to Hendrix and UCA, and, of course, they got the same blow and heavy rain we did. It came straight south.

“Darren called me back about 45 minutes later and said that the field was playable and if it did rain it might take only 25 to 30 minutes to get the water off so we could continue to play.

“I then called the North Little Rock weather bureau and they said that the rain was going to end in the Little Rock area, fairly early, say 9 or 9:30. They didn’t think we were going to get any more. Then I asked them about Arkadelphia and he told me there were no thunderstorms in any of this. He said it would start raining and it would progress into the afternoon and get a lot more.

“So I gave that information to Ron. He went back in and talked to Coach Curry. He came back out and said they were going to cancel the tournament and they would go to the tiebreaker.

“I called Darren to tell him what was happening and he requested to talk to Ron and I handed Ron my phone. Ron walked away from Jeff (Nakaishi), the other (assistant) tournament director and I. I looked at Jeff and said, ‘Did he ask you anything whether to cancel this or get your opinion or anything?’ He said, ‘No.’ And (LaPorte) didn’t ask me either. I had no idea he was even going to say that.

“At that time, I told Jeff, ‘I’m working with Darren Hurt trying to contact Coach Hooten and we’re getting a positive feel on that, about that field can be played on.’ Jeff told me, ‘I think we should go.’ I said, ‘I do too.’

“When (Ron) hung up — and I did hear him close out with Darren, something to the effect that they couldn’t talk about it anymore, there wasn’t anything else to say — and he handed me my phone.

“I still couldn’t believe that we weren’t going to (move to Henderson). Anyway, he called it. None of us had any input. He said he talked to National and National agreed with him. Have I talked to National? No. I haven’t talked to anybody. Did they know the whole story? I don’t know. I wasn’t privileged to be in that conversation. Ron said to move forward, and what we were doing.

“It was a shocker to us too. The thing about it was, I did tell Ron that I had a bus there, that we could move Texarkana and there was no doubt in my mind that Bryant could drive down because they’re just about halfway between. I said we have all the transportation. I furnished cars to (official stat keeper) Stanley (Bell) and to Jeff. So we had transportation. And, of course, Ron lives in northwest Arkansas. He had his vehicle and, of course, I had mine.

“It was one of those deals where, as assistant tournament director and, being in the military, if you get an order to do something, you do it.

“Was it right? No.

“I called the weather bureau (Monday) afternoon, late, and asked for a report on what kind of weather we had in Arkadelphia. The weather bureau told me that the rain quit at 10:01 (a.m.) and they had .52 inches of rain. The way he was so fast with it, I assumed somebody else had called him to get that too.

“Of course, Darren sent out a protest right after midnight. I didn’t read it until about 6:30 or quarter to 7 (Tuesday morning). I filed it with (American Legion Baseball Assistant Director and Assistant Program Director) Steve Cloud, my boss. And I stated in it what I’ve said here, that Jeff and I were not asked about it.”

Howard reiterated, “I promise I did not take sides on this. Both of those teams are great and both of those head coaches are friends of mine, I feel like. Every time I do anything, just like the pitch count we did in the State and the area (tournaments), I met Darren and (Texarkana coach) Dane (Peavy) in Little Rock way before we decided about it last fall. I said, ‘Guys, I’m going to depend on you because you’re two of the best coaches we’ve got and I want your input.’ We set that up and we talked (with them) about it all the way through and they were the big supporters I had.

“So the last thing I wanted to do was, number one, lose a friend,” he added. “But what irritates me is that my credibility went over the line there and I didn’t like it. I understand that if we had gone (to Henderson) and couldn’t play, I would understand that.”

“Dane felt the same way. I told him, ‘Dane, I don’t like what’s going down.’ And he said, ‘I agree. We should play it.’”

There was talk about making it a seven-inning game too.

“I said we need to move it to seven because we don’t have a lot of time,” Howard recounted. “We’ve got to start by 1 and be through by 5 (p.m). We’ve got to have pictures sent and all of that. When we were talking about that, it was about 10 o’clock (Monday). It would’ve been no problem to get (to Arkadelphia) by 12 o’clock.”

On a side note, Howard mentioned that in Legion tournaments with nine-inning games, unless there’s a 10-run lead after seven innings, no game is complete. If time had run out or the game had gotten rained out without completion, it would not have counted.

“If it was only in the seventh inning, Bryant could’ve been ahead 9-0 and only needing one run and didn’t have it, it’s not a complete game,” he explained. “In the Major Leagues, in a nine-inning ballgame, they can say that’s a complete game after five innings if it’s rained out. We can’t do that. The only time we can cut a ballgame short is on a 10-run lead, in a nine-inning game, if somebody’s ahead at the end of seven, or in a seven-inning game, in five.”

In other words, if the game had started, reached the 5 o’clock deadline or had been delayed or rained out, since it hadn’t been completed, it would’ve been determined by the tiebreaking procedures as well.