Diamonds In The Big Sky: Legion Baseball Comes To Billings

The 2025 Goldsmith Gallery Jewelers 2025 AA Legion Baseball Tournament is right around the corner, with games slated to start Thursday, June 26th. Teams from Canada, Colorado, Wyoming, and more join the Royals and Scarlets at Pirtz Field for an exciting weekend of baseball.

Last weekend was the Buffalo Wild Wings A tournament, hosted by the Billings Blue Jays and Cardinals. The first two days of baseball were hampered by a wet weekend, with rain making Musburger unplayable and forcing the tournament directors to abandon the tournament schedule and scramble to get the games in. This weekend is forecast to be perfect for baseball, with temperatures in the mid-80s over the weekend, and less than a 20% chance of rain throughout the tournament.

The Royals will kick off the tournament at 10:00 a.m. with a matchup against the Colorado Lightning, a team from the Denver area and a regular at the Billings Legion tournaments. The Scarlets will have two games on Thursday at 3:00 and 5:30 p.m., with Sheridan and Great Falls on the docket. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will follow a round robin format. (A round robin is a format where every team plays against all other participants. Rather than being eliminated after a single loss, each team plays multiple games, and seeds for the final bracket are determined by overall performance, with ties broken by runs scored and allowed.)

The tournament is hosted jointly by the Billings Royals and Scarlets. They'll be joined by the Great Falls Chargers, Sheridan Troopers, and the Casper Oilers. The Goldsmith will also feature the Colorado Lightning from Parker, Colorado, as well as the Black Gold 47’s, a Canadian team from the Beaumont area (south of Edmonton).

For those of you unfamiliar with Pirtz, there are a few things to note for your trip to the park. No metal spikes are allowed at Pirtz to keep the quality of the turf infield at a high level despite its high use. Along with that is a restriction on shelled or unshelled nuts, gum, and sunflower seeds in dugouts, stands, and on the field. New LED field lights were installed in 2023, along with the Dehler Grill concession stand.

For more details, visit the Billings American Legion Baseball website.