First year of Legion baseball

Stratford is eligible for the Legion playoffs

By Casey Krautkramer

Stratford no longer has an American Legion post, yet that didn’t prevent Stratford High School varsity assistant baseball coach Drew Spaeth from registering a Stratford 19 and under American Legion baseball team for the first time this summer. Stratford players are wearing the American Legion badge on their uniforms.

Chandler Schmidt was Stratford’s winning pitcher in its 2019 state baseball championship victory against Markesan. He’s now a relief pitcher at Division 2 Winona State University in Minnesota, but this summer he’s back home in Stratford coaching the new American Legion baseball squad. Chandler Schmidt is head coach and his father, Curt Schmidt, is the assistant coach.

Stratford players like Chandler Schmidt played for Marshfield American Legion Post 54 during summers, but now the current Stratford high school players and recent graduates can stay home and play for the new Stratford American Legion squad.

“I believe all kids that played in Marshfield are now only playing in Stratford because it is now the same thing here,” Chandler Schmidt said. “It’s always fun playing with your teammates in summer are the ones that you are going to play with during the spring season. Don’t get me wrong, that Marshfield bunch is fun, but this just gives kids from Stratford opportunities to play baseball.”

Stratford formerly had just a summer baseball team that would play a regular-season schedule with no playoffs. Now that Stratford has a Legion baseball team, it will be eligible to compete in the state American Legion Class A postseason at the end of this summer.

“Speaking from my personal experience, I like competitiveness so obviously when you have something to play for the kids get more motivated to play the game,” Chandler Schmidt said. “It’s always fun winning anything you can, especially if you can win a state Legion title which would be really cool for this Legion team.”

Stratford’s Legion baseball team is off and running with a 9-1 record this far this summer. Stratford began their season on June 13 with a home doubleheader sweep against Abbotsford by scores of 3-2 and 15-0. Stratford’s Legion squad then split a road doubleheader against Auburndale, 3-1 and 4-5, on June 15. Stratford received a forfeit win against Edgar on June 17. Stratford won a home double header against Edgar on June 19 by scores of 2-1 and 4-0. Stratford won a home game against Tomahawk, 13-3, on June 20.

Also, Stratford’s American Legion baseball squad won a road game against Pittsville, 27-2, on June 22. Stratford won a home game against Auburndale on Monday and a home game against Pittsville on Tuesday.

Chandler Schmidt described how different it is for his father who coached in baseball while growing up now being his assistant coach for the Legion squad this summer.

“It’s something to get used to but obviously he’s been a huge impact on my life since growing up and obviously I know that he has a great amount of baseball knowledge because I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for him,” Chandler Schmidt said. “I like to pick his brain sometimes to see what he knows. There’s only a couple of disagreements here and there but we are typically on the same page.”

The Schmidts have the new Stratford Legion baseball team playing great right now.

“We want to make a push in the playoffs and hopefully we can get to the state tournament,” Chandler Schmidt said.