With heat and humidty forecast for this coming weekend, it really will feel like summer. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. Right?
Last weekend, both the Adrian A’s and the Heron Lake Lakers participated in a 16-team amateur baseball tournament in Green Isle and Hamburg. Each of those small towns, located about 50 miles west of Minneapolis, have beautiful ball parks and have been part of “Town Ball” in Minnesota for decades. The field in Hamburg was built in 1948.
The Lakers were able to play a game at each of the parks, dropping a 5-0 decision on Friday to the Starbuck Stars at Hamburg as Austin Ver Steeg, the grandson of Heron Lake’s Dean Garoutte (youngest daughter Denise’s son) pitched a complete game one-hit shutout for Starbuck and also belted a two-run homer (measured at 376 feet) over the left-field fence in his team’s five-run second inning.
Moving to Green Isle on Saturday, Heron Lake played well and trailed the Anoka Bucks by just one run (4-3) after four innings. But things unraveled for the Lakers in the fifth frame and they ended up on the short end of a 13-3 final.
The A’s came so close to knotting the score, in the bottom of the seventh inning, against the host Hamburg Hawks on Friday evening, but were edged 4-3. On Saturday, Adrian played another competitive game at Hamburg, being defeated 10-3 by Hanska.
The A’s are back in action Wednesday night (June 26) as they travel to Fairmont to tangle with the Martins in a First Nite-Gopher League clash.
Hadley’s Buttermakers are on the road three times this week, playing night games at Lakefield Tuesday (the 25th) and at Worthington Wednesday (the 26th). Hadley will play a late-afternoon game (4 p.m. start) at Heron Lake on Sunday, June 30.
Heron Lake is scheduled to play a make-up game against the Tracy Express at the Milroy Yankees field on Friday evening (June 28) before hosting Worthington Saturday (2 p.m.) and Hadley (4 p.m.) Sunday.
Come on out and support your local amateur baseball team. These guys are playing the game for the pure enjoyment of the sport.
Post WW II years had lots of great small-town high school basketball
I came across an interesting article in the Indianapolis Star about the 1954 Fillmore Cardinals. Fillmore had just 93 students in grades 9-12 and had an undefeated basketball season, winning 24 straight games before losing a 55-52 decision to the Montezuma Aztecs in the regional tournament.
Milan (161 students in grades 9-12) defeated Montezuma, Crispus Attucks of Indianapolis and Muncie Central to win the ’54 one-class state tournament in Indiana. Milan’s state championship later surfaced as the ‘story’ behind the fiction-based Hickory Huskers 1952 state title claimed in the 1986 classic film, “Hoosiers.”
It’s also most interesting that the little town of Hebron, Illinois (near the Wisconsin border) did win the single-class tournament in that state in 1952.
Then, there’s Lynd — which caught the fancy of Minnesota hoops’ fans in 1946 with a pair of impressive victories, defeating highly-favored Crosby-Ironton (58-47) and Stillwater (45-39), with its fast-break attack. The Panthers lost a lop-sided game to the dreaded Austin Packers (63-31) in the ’46 state championship game.
Lynd’s story is a fascinating one. Of course, 14 years later, Edgerton did what Lynd was unable to do —- beat Austin in the state title clash — much to the delight of small-town basketball fans.
Hebron (Illinois, 1952), Milan (Indiana, 1954) and Edgerton (Minnesota, 1960) were each small schools in small towns that won one-class state basketball tournaments. But teams like Fillmore (Indiana, 1954) and Lynd (Minnesota, 1946) were so close to being nearly as famous.
