Travel ball that’s what happened, not to mention many of the successful programs were run and supported by WW2 aged guys who are no longer around. Travel programs tried to act like Legion Ball was park district ball but the reality is the strong programs like Edwardsville, Arlington Heights, Rock Island and others were really on par with the travel teams but the perception was that they were lesser when they weren’t. I coached Legion ball for while and it was great but starting around 2004 the number of teams still playing dropped like a rock and even Arlington Heights folded 3-4 years ago and they were really the gold standard in the state for Legion ball, very sad.
