As we enter the second week of July — usually the hottest month of the year — the hours of sunlight are slowly diminishing each day as summer begins its annual magical vanishing act.
Fifty years ago, in July of 1969, the world was watching in awe as the Apollo 11 mission completed the first of six successful moon landing adventures by United States astronauts. Most people know who the first man to walk on the moon was, but few can name the last. Eugene Cernan, who flew on the Apollo 10 mission which came within nine miles of the moon’s surface in May of 1969, was the last U.S. astronaut to leave the moon as the commander of Apollo 17 in December of 1972. We have not been back since.
Next week, I aim to discuss some facts about living and working — specifically stacking hay bales — in the summer of ’69.
While the high-priced professional sport athletes continue to draw unbelievable salaries, I continue to admire the local “boys of summer” who play on area amateur baseball teams.
The Hadley Buttermakers, Adrian A’s and Heron Lake Lakers have each played their share of exciting baseball this year and it’s hard to imagine that the regular season winds down this weekend and the playoffs will soon be starting. These guys have played through cold and windy days in May and have endured the recent heat and humidity of late June and early July.
They earn no pay, but certainly deserve to earn the respect of their communities for representing them in the long-standing tradition known as “Town Ball” in Minnesota.
An interesting TV series, often shown prior to Twins’ broadcasts, called “Town Ball” shows lots of amateur baseball ball parks across the state and interviews players throughout Minnesota, including New Ulm’s Terry Steinbach who became an All-Star catcher for the Oakland A’s in the 1990s before finishing his career with the Twins. There are eight episodes in the series and only the first three have been broadcast so far.
Speaking of local area players, I am writing a brief special salute this week to an athlete who has accomplished a lot in a variety of ways.
As a sixth-grader, he was a polite little fellow on the school bus after participating in a junior high cross country meet. Just three years later, he was a hero when as a freshman kicker he booted — soccer style — the winning field goal in Southwestern United’s football victory over Martin County West in the 11-Man playoffs at Heron Lake in late October of 2006.
He continued playing well as a versatile three-sport athlete (for the Wildcats of Southwestern United — the pairing of Heron Lake-Okabena and Round Lake-Brewster — in both football and baseball, along with hustling as a basketball player for the Southwest Star Concept (HL-O) Quasars before graduating from SSC in May of 2010.
Since then, Octavio Jiminez, better known as “Chippy” has played baseball for the Lakers, been as assistant coach for the high school baseball team, played some independent basketball (for Heron Lake) in the Fulda Men’s League and, of course, played slow-pitch softball in the local league. I am thinking that maybe, Chippy played a bit of soccer somewhere, sometime, too?
Manning third base for the Lakers on Sunday, Chippy fielded a hard-hit ground ball and turned a nifty double play by getting the force at third and making a long accurate throw to first baseman Mark Ferguson for the second out. Jiminez has been one of the team’s best hitters for several seasons and continues to make plays at third base.
Last Thursday, Chippy was the first overall draft pick (chosen by team captain Erik Jass) in the newly-formatted Fourth of July slow-pitch softball tournament in Okabena. With Jiminez playing shortstop and Jass doing the pitching — tossing his patented high-arching left-handers — the two Laker baseball teammates provided the leadership which led to the championship of the four-team softball tournament, winning three games without a loss.
Keep smiling and having fun playing ball, Chippy — you’ve done well and earned the love and respect of your teammates!
