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Orange, Stafford ready for American Legion state playoffs

Date published: 8/5/2008

BY JIM McCONNELL

When Chris Haney first broached the idea of bringing American Legion baseball back to Orange County last year, the former major league pitch- er discovered much had changed since he starred for Orange High School in the 1980s.

More than one person told him he would have to change his "old school" approach to the game if he hoped to have enough players to field a team.

But Haney, who learned the finer points of baseball during summers spent with his father, former major league catcher, coach and scout Larry Haney, remains as committed to those ideals as he was when he began his professional career.

He simply refused to believe there weren't at least 15 local ballplayers interested in learning to play the game "the right way."

"It hasn't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we've gotten the kids to understand that we're not asking them to do too much," Chris Haney said Sunday evening, as his Post 156 team (18-8) prepared for its first-round state tournament game today against Annandale Post 1976.

"I'm asking [the players] to play the game hard. When you take a ballclub and they start to buy into what you're doing and you win, that's icing on the cake."

Well, Haney's team has done enough winning this summer to open a bakery. After 30 years without a Legion team in Orange, Post 156's second-year club beat regular-season champion Albemarle twice and went 4-0 in the District 12 tournament to earn one of eight spots in the state playoffs.

"We have plenty of talent, so I'm not totally surprised," said former Culpeper standout Jeremy Brown, who will attend VMI in the fall. "We're just doing what we need to do in the right situation."

That's where the Haneys come in. During Sunday's workout, Orange's players worked on situational hitting--for example, intentionally hitting the ball on the ground to the right side of the infield to advance a runner on second base.

They also spend a lot of time hitting the cutoff man, becoming more instinctive base runners and learning what pitches to throw in different situations. Assistant coach Larry Haney calls these "the little things" that often make a difference between winning and losing baseball games.

STATE PLAYOFFS Today's games at Diamond Club Field, Stuarts Draft Post 1976 Annandale vs. Post 156 Orange, 1 p.m. Post 60 Norfolk vs. Post 290 Stafford Nationals, 5 p.m.

Date published: 8/5/2008