State Legion tournament to be held at Riverside Park
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Hudson - All the hard work that began last fall will start to pay off Saturday Aug. 4, when the American Legion State Baseball Championship Tournament begins at Riverside Park.

The double-elimination tournament features the top eight teams in the state including Hudson Post 100 - which qualified as tournament host.

The winner of the of the fiveday tournament will be the Massachusetts representative in the American Legion New England Regional Championship Tournament, to be held in Burlington, Vt., beginning Thursday Aug. 16. The regional tourney winner advances to the American Legion World Series, beginning Wednesday Aug. 24 in Bartlesville, Okla.

The volunteer committee, which will number more than 50 during the event, began meeting monthly in November 2006. Those meetings became twice-weekly summit meetings in June and daily affairs in mid-July.

Coordinating the eff ort to pull off the tournament is Post 100 baseball General Manager Brian Davis and Hudson Recreation Director Linda Ghiloni.

Among the details that need to be figured out to host a tournament of this magnitude include: securing the perimeter of the field; setting up and staffing parking lots; organizing ticket sales and the always popular 50/50 raffle; preparing the field several times a day for the 11 games that are going to be played in a five-day span; trash pickup; and restroom maintenance.

And then there's the gamemanagement stuff , including scorers, announcers, umpires and food concessionaires.

In addition, hotel arrangements must be made for Legion dignitaries attending the games, practice fields, trophies and other awards, T-shirts and game programs that will be sold, college and professional scouts that will attend the games, identification badges for players, coaches and volunteers, as well as sign-in sheets.

It's a good thing members of this committee - including Davis and Ghiloni - have done this before, as Hudson hosted the 2003 state tournament. That year, even though it was awarded to Hudson and was going to be played at Riverside Park, construction of the High School next door forced the games to be moved to Tivnan Field at Lake Park in Worcester.

"A lot of what we learned in Worcester has really helped us this time around," Davis said. "We've saved a lot of time on various things, because we've already gone through it once, and already handled some of the things that inevitably come up when you host a tournament of this magnitude."

Among the complications of hosting the tournament at Riverside Park is the fact that the baseball field is part of an expansive athletic complex that includes tennis courts, a heavily-used jogging track at the Morgan Bowl and a playground located right near the field. All will be open to the public during the tournament.

"People will be allowed full access to the facilities," Ghiloni said, "but if they're going to watch the games, too, they're going to have to buy a ticket."

Folks planning on attending the games are advised to park at Hudson High School, just a short walk from the field. Ticket windows will be available along the walkway to both left and right field. Handicapped parking will also be available closer to the field.