The summer season for the Roseburg Docs baseball team came to an abrupt ending on Tuesday night after team organizers voted to suspend play out of an abundance of caution.

“The consensus was it’s better to be safe than sorry,” said Legion commissioner Tom Donegan.

A five-member executive board for the American Legion Post 16 commission voted 4-1 to end the season early and a poll of the full commission supported the decision by a majority vote.

“Our first obligation is to protect the players in any way that we can, and the coaches, the fans and the commissioners,” said Donegan. “Those are all people that are involved in the game.”

The Docs’ season was put on hold 11 days ago after the team played a doubleheader against the Lumberjacks Baseball Club from Portland to finish out a Fourth of July tournament in Roseburg. The tournament was impacted by coronavirus concerns and four teams withdrew from competition early, including a team from Newberg that later had multiple members test positive for COVID-19.

Donegan said the executive board spent an hour-and-a-half weighing the pros and cons of their decision. “The benefit of the boys getting to play versus the risk of anybody getting hurt, which in this day and age means be in contact with the COVID virus.”

The Docs (6-8) had played 14 games over about a two week span and had approximately 20 games left on the schedule over the next four weeks.

Some of those games were against youth teams from Eugene and Medford that are still in operation and playing games. Grants Pass is attempting to create a new team after the Nuggets program associated with the local American Legion post was shut down at the start of the month.

Donegan says the executive board considered taking further safety precautions, like players wearing masks or closing the gates to fans, before ultimately deciding to cancel the season. He added that the Legion commissioners were happy with the precautions coach Jeremiah Robbins had been taking.

“He went the extra mile to make sure everything was clean and sanitary. We didn’t have any qualms with how he was taking care of everyone. Unfortunately, the virus can be one of those things that sneaks up in weird situations.”

“You can control yourself and you can control your immediate environment, but you honestly don’t know what other people are doing,” Donegan said.

While this summer wasn’t an official American Legion sponsored baseball season, the local Legion commission operates Bill Gill Gray Legion Stadium at Champion Car Wash Field and provided financial support through the sponsorship of local businesses.

The Legion commission is closing the doors to all activities at Champion Car Wash Field, including the Douglas County High School League according to Donegan. The league consisted of high school teams from Roseburg, Umpqua Valley Christian, Glide, Sutherlin, Douglas, South Umpqua and North Douglas.