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Post 156's lessons span generations AMERICAN LEGION

August 5, 2008 12:15 am

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.

"It's quite a bit different [in the major leagues]," he said. "Not to say those guys don't love the game, but the money is so big at that level, it's hard to teach. It seems like a lot of them already have the answers.

"With these guys, if you're going to tell them something, you'd better be right--because they're going to try it."

Rising Orange High School junior Derrick Justice, who played for Massaponax's American Legion team last year, acknowledged that the Haneys' background in pro baseball gives them more credibility with the players.

"That's the hardest thing for teenagers, just taking in what people are saying. Most of the time, you just reject it. But with Chris--my mom always asks me why I don't listen to her, but I listen to Chris," Justice said.

Following directions isn't optional for the Post 156 squad, which comprises players from Orange, Culpeper and Madison high schools. Neither is hustling down the base line after hitting a routine ground ball.

On this team, such offenses will land even the most productive player on the bench.

"We certainly can't take all the credit. We're very fortunate that we had 18 really good kids. The ones who came back [from last year's team] knew how we ran the program, knew that we expected them to play the game hard. We're not going to put up with dragging your butt around or being lazy," Chris Haney said.

"When you bench a kid for not hustling, there's a chance he won't come back. But you're going to play our way or you're not going to play for us. I think that's helped us more than it's hurt us."

Discipline wasn't supposed to work in the laid-back atmosphere of American Legion baseball. Despite having one of the youngest teams in the state bracket, Post 156 finds itself a handful of victories away from a berth in the regional tournament later this month in Richmond.

"It took a while with all these kids to get everybody playing together, but once we did you couldn't stop us," Justice said. "When we play the way we're capable of, we're really hard to beat."

Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com