Should Montana Add Baseball As a High School Sport?

As much as I want to think this would be a great addition to Montana High School sports, there are a lot of hurdles for this to happen.

406 MT Sports asked the question should Montana add baseball as a high school sport with the recent petition in Stevensville to gain momentum. The earliest this would happen would be 2023 but baseball would need to get approval by the Montana High School Association. This will be a long process and is very much a uphill battle.

Here are my thoughts on the whole subject for having high school baseball. Would I love to see high school baseball in Montana? Absolutely. Do I think it will happen? Probably not.

When I was growing up in Polson, I knew there wasn't high school baseball due to multiple reasons. One of the big factors is the weather. The season could be extremely short due to Montana usually having long winters that can go all the way into April. That would cut the season short and would be heartbreaking for many student athletes. Another problem is what levels are going to have baseball. The big schools can easily field teams like Bozeman, Gallatin, Belgrade but what about smaller schools like Three Forks or Manhattan? Getting kids to play could be a huge issue.

Then comes another huge problem, fields. Not every high school has a readily available baseball field. Will they have to share fields with neighboring towns or will they have to build one from scratch? That could be a huge cost that might seem worth it.

I played American Legion baseball and I don't see a problem with changing it up. They get more games in than most high school baseball teams in cold weather states and they bring together kids from neighboring towns. That makes the team feel like a family and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Would you like to see high school baseball come to Montana? Let me know.

Check out 406 MT Sports for the whole article.