It felt like a perpetual rainout.

Tim Lunn got the word from State American Legion Baseball chairman Rick Harvey about three weeks ago.

The state Legion season was cancelled, thanks to a directive from the National Organization.

He tossed and turned that entire Sunday night.

So he knew what he had to do. And a few weeks later, what do you know, some of the Senior Legion teams may be playing baseball, without the Legion affiliation, of course.

“That night I couldn’t really sleep,” Lunn said. “So, the next day I drafted a framework on how we would still play. It was well received by many of the Legion guys. The kids need something. They need an outlet.”

Meanwhile, the last couple of weeks, Souhegan High School baseball coach Tom Walker has been itchy. His Sabers saw their season scrapped due to the pandemic, along with every other high school team in the state.

He was hoping that Governor Chris Sununu and his COVID Task Force would realize that baseball is needed for the summer.

Walker said that days like the ones leading up to Memorial Day weekend and the warm weather this past week “really fuels the fire.”

“You get a couple of 70 degree days, sunny skies,” he said. “Normally we’d be picking All-State teams, getting ready for (and by now playing in) tournament play.

“Oh yeah, we’re ready. We’re overdue.”

And so Walker has overseen the expansion of the high school-based New England Independent Baseball League, which should begin play, like the NHCBL, around July 1 or so. Maybe the last week in June. Things need to still be worked out, like finding places for teams to play.

Two baseball lifers who, because of their persistence, have opened the door for as many as 600-700 high school or college age kids (no older than 19) to play baseball under the state pandemic guidelines this summer.

Tip your caps.

“For me, I haven’t gone a summer or a season without baseball since I was 6 or 7,” said Lunn, who also coaches as an assistant at Bishop Guertin. “I was always hoping to get some sort of season in, be high school or summer, that itch will be scratched. … “To not have baseball, I don’t know what I would do.”

The players certainly should appreciate it.

“I think anyone who knows Tim knows how much Tim cares about baseball, and particularly baseball in New Hampshire and Nashua, the community,” likely Nashua NHCBL team member Zach Finkelstein. “He’s a guy who played in Nashua, played at BG, came back teaching and coaching.

“He’s a guy who really cares about everybody involved, trying to get the best for kids. It really says a lot about him that he put in the effort to do something he really didn’t have to do.”

That’s the thing, Finkelstein said. Lunn could’ve sat back and let the baseballs fall where they may.

That’s not Tim Lunn. Or Tom Walker, for that matter. They could’ve sat back and enjoyed the summer by the ocean or a lake, or on a golf course (well, Lunn still finds time to hit the links).

Nope.

“(Lunn) could’ve just said ‘Somebody else will do it, another league will pop up,'” Finkelstein said. “These kids will find a place to play. He really put himself out there. He really put himself out there to get this all organized. All the guys who are playing for him and playing against him in the league are definitely thankful for that.”

Lunn and Walker could’ve butted heads in forming these two leagues, but that didn’t happen. Lunn listed in on an NEIBL Zoom meeting or two, but he wanted to go the older player route, with 19-year-olds. Walker’s league is more developmental and high school oriented.

That’s OK. Players have their choice.

“The kids are lucky with Tom doing the NEIBL and us with the Legion teams, they have multiple outlets,” Lunn said.

Both guys have ambitious plans. Walker, whose league won’t have a champion, wants to have a round-robin showcase day for scouts but also wants to have all the teams play in a central multiple field location on or around July 4. Or at least come and go in two or three hour intervals.

Not sure if that type of gathering will be allowed, or not frowned upon, but he just wants to see baseball.

“A baseball, apple pie, America day,” Walker said. “Literally just sit there and say basically baseball is an American sport, America is back, we’re open, we’re playing, just an upbeat connection to baseball’s history in the U.S.

“There’s no parade, nowhere to go, no fireworks. The best place for us to be is on a baseball diamond.”

For Walker and Lunn, it seems this time of year it’s the only place to be. A couple of baseball lifers.

And hundreds of baseball players in the state hope to reap the benefits of that.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter