John L. Griffith was an early 20th-century college sports administrator whose call to action inspired the creation of American Legion Baseball in 1925.
Major John Griffith envisioned a nation made better, healthier and stronger — more powerful and patriotic — and forged by youthful competition that preached good citizenship. To this day, his legacy thrives on baseball fields across America and in the highest levels of intercollegiate competition. Griffith, a World War I veteran, inspired the creation of American Legion Baseball. It is the nation's oldest organized youth baseball league, founded nearly a century ago in the summer of 1925.
American Legion Post 9 in Milbank, South Dakota, where Griffith issued his call to action, fielded one of the organization's very first baseball teams. The small community proudly embraces its heritage as the birthplace of American Legion Baseball. 'Baseball is a pastime and a passion for the people of Milbank.
However, it notes that 'more than half of current major-leaguers played Legion Baseball. So did almost every working Major League Baseball manager, along with several former commissioners.' American Legion Baseball has produced 82 players who have gone on to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Many of the nation’s greatest baseball players were also among its most distinguished soldiers.
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