They support Delgado
The below signed are Glacier Twins Alumni, all of whom had the pleasure of playing American Legion Baseball for the Glacier Twins and under the guidance of Julio Delgado. This letter is not meant to rehash the train wreck that is the management of the Glacier Twins. Julio Delgado’s letter speaks for itself. Instead, we wish to take this opportunity to describe for this community what American Legion Baseball in Whitefish meant to us and describe for this community what has been lost but can be created again for young people in the Whitefish and Columbia Falls.
Simply put, the American Legion baseball program led by Julio Delgado was the envy of every other program in the state of Montana during the 1980s and early 1990s. For good reason. Two small communities of around 5,000 were able to combine their athletes and resources and dominate AA baseball. The Twins became not only the premier program in Montana, but a regional powerhouse. We beat teams from communities with over 50,000 people and triple our budget. We drove around the northwest in a blue bus designed for special needs children. We would get off the bus, beat the hell out of the big city kids and go home. We were blue-collar kids who exceeded expectations every single time.
The downward trajectory of the Glacier Twins can be traced back to the ill-conceived idea of tearing down the grandstands at Memorial Park. This was an historic landmark. The grandstands were a CCC project during the Great Depression.
Memorial Field was, as coaching legend Ed Cheff described, “the best American Legion atmosphere in the Pacific Northwest.”
During this period, the Sapa Johnsrud Memorial Tournament was the one of the premier tournaments in the western United States. Top teams from Washington, Oregon, and even California put this event on their schedules. For example, in 1987, the American Legion team from Vancouver, Washington participated in the Sapa Johnsrud finishing third (the Glacier Twins won that tournament). The Vancouver American Legion team went on to place second at the American Legion World Series. The gap between where things are today and where they were in the 1980s and early 1990s cannot be overstated.
It was telling that at our Alumni Brother Billy Sapa’s funeral, Harry Amend, a scout with the Philadelphia Phillies, made the trip from Spokane to speak. Billy Sapa, along with Dan Hoon, Chuck Higson, Billy Walker, Mike Caldwell, and Josh Fields are all Twins Alumni who were drafted in the Major League Draft. Over 70 kids who played for Julio played college baseball. When 1981 Major League Rookie of the Year Steve Howe moved to Whitefish, he chose to workout with the Glacier Twins. Ray Queen and Matthew Foust served as his off-season catchers. For all his personal problems, Steve Howe was an elite baseball player, and he liked what he saw in our small-town program. It was special and it can be again.
We wish to be clear, the wins and losses on the field are not what saddens us about the state of American Legion baseball in our hometown. What we learned about ourselves from American Legion baseball under Julio Delgado’s leadership changed the trajectory of the lives of each of the Glacier Twins Alumni below (and many others we were unable to reach). The young people of our communities need this program to be back to its previous standards because the experience made us better men, not just better ballplayers.
The most important lesson we learned from Julio can be summed up as follows: “When adults really love you, they expect more out of you than you expect out of yourselves.” We must expect more out of the Glacier Twins.
It is time to move the Glacier Twins back to the AA level and completely reconstruct its purpose and goals. Anyone of the issues raised in Julio Delgado’s letter would cause concern, two would cause consternation, three issues show a pattern and change must happen soon. There are alumni who are ready, willing, and able to rebuild this program.
We would like the opportunity to take over and expect more out of our young men than they expect out of themselves. The time has come for a new board of directors and a new vision for the Glacier Twins.
Yours in baseball.
Lucas J. Foust, Bozeman; and Ray Queen, Matthew Foust, Dave Cornelia, Michael Shaffer, Cary Greenfield, Thom Sutherland, Brock Barnhart, Chuck Freeman, Andrew Mace, Billy Walker