History in the making at the Mini-Met

Sunset at the Mini-Met

A historic baseball tournament will be played this weekend at the storied Jordan Mini-Met focusing on Minnesota’s two Over-35 baseball leagues.

For the last 35 years, players from the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association (MSMABA) and the Federal League never genuinely settled the great debate on which organization played the best baseball or ever wanted their teams to play each other.

The MSMABA began play in 1980, followed five years later by the Federal League with teams that disagreed with the early rules of the older league: two-out innings and batters stepping into the box with a 1-1 count – rules revised to conform with standard baseball rules in the early 2000s along with elimination of metal bats.

Old guard directors of both leagues balked at playing each until Troy Mahoney became MSMABA president and opened dialogue with former Federal League Commissioner Josh Norgard.

What has resulted is this week’s first Minnesota 35-Over World Series featuring Searles Bullheads, Jordan Millers, Prior lake Mariners and Waconia Islanders from the MSMABA against Lakeville Lobos, Elko Chargers, Rockford Rail Splitters and New Market Northerns from the Federal League.

Saturday, it’s Prior Lake vs. Rockford at 11 a.m., Waconia vs. New Market at 1:30 p.m., Jordan vs. Elko at 4 p.m. and Searles vs. Lakeville at 6:30 p.m. The semifinals are noon and 2:30 p.m. Sunday with the championship game to follow at 6 p.m.

The two associations account for 60 teams and more than 1,000 players statewide.

“It’s been my mission since I became president of the MSMABA to work with the Federal League to help grow Over-35 baseball in Minnesota,” Mahoney said. “I give a lot of  credit to Josh Norgard in helping get the 35-Over Minnesota World Series sponsored by Pekarna Meats off the ground.”

Mahoney invited Norgard to attend the MSMABA annual meeting to get things rolling this year. “I really think that at that meeting it went from a great idea to actually happening,” Norgard said. “I had a chance to sit and talk to everyone and it was pretty clear that they all wanted the same thing our league wanted they wanted to compete with each other on the field. Given some of the backstories I had been given it was refreshing talking to them, everyone was beyond ready to leave the past in the past and move on and develop a relationship between the leagues. So kudos to both leagues managers/board members cause without them this coming weekend never happens.”

The rivalry is stoked.

Kevin Hart of the Federal League St. Patrick Shamrocks said, “There has always been the question about which league has the better teams, so we will find out. To me, I hope, this will be the start of the process to merge the leagues.”

Both leagues bring rich tradition into the weekend. Several ex-big leaguers contributed to the lore, including Terry Steinbach (A’s-Twins), John Castino (Twins), Bill Davis (Indians-Cardinals), Juan Berenguer (Twins and others), Steve Comer (Rangers-Indians), Dana Kiecker (Red Sox), Greg Olson (Braves). Surf for their bios at Society for American Baseball Research and Baseball Almanac. Former Viking Paul Krause played for Burnsville, which won the 1985 MSMABA state championship with one of my current national tournament players on the mound, Dave Weber.

I had the privilege of managing against Comer, who played for the Shakopee Chiefs, and Steinbach, who was a member of the MSMABA champion Hanska Bullheads teams of 2007-2008.

When my Eden Prairie Lions Tap team played Hanska in the state tournament at Union Hill I gave my fastest runner the steal sign in the first inning.  “Might as well test Mr. Terry Steinbach from the get-go,” I thought. The runner was out by 10 feet on a bullet throw eight inches off the ground

Lions Tap team waged memorable rivalry games with Shakopee and Comer. In one state tournament game, again at Union Hill, Comer and teammate Bob Britz each hit two home runs against us in a drubbing.  We did win our share of games against the Chiefs, including one game in Shakopee when then Viking Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell played while taking important cell calls in the dugout. Soon, the Vikings signed Brett Favre.

One game, Comer cussed me out for walking him to load the bases and my team holding a two-run lead with a barb something to the effect “Pretty stupid putting the winning run on base,” he sniped.  “I remember those two home runs,” I said. My pitcher, Lyndell Frey, had given up the homers in the state tournament. This time, he was the winning pitcher and Comer was left stranded on base.

The other Eden Prairie team, the Padres, was managed by Mark Comstock, who still has a frozen image in time of Castino hitting a towering homer out of the Mini-Met in 1997, over the left field fence, across the road into the park and well beyond the railroad tracks. “I clearly remember a bunch of oldtimers watching the game and scattering for their lives,” Combo said.

Former Padre Joe Armitage remembers Castino “hadn’t batted all season – bad back, fused vertebrae. He could throw and field, but not hit, etc.  But we had only nine players in the state tournament at the Mini-Met. John stepped into the box in his first at-bat of the season and took a fast ball down the middle, 0-1.  The confident pitcher wound up and fired another, and it was promptly deposited deep over the left-center field fence.  Gone!

“John was a prince of a guy on the field and by the end of the season teams looked forward to playing us to see John.  When he clocked that pitch, I recall both teams cheered him, including the pitcher.”

More unforgettable moments await this weekend in a historical happening at the Mini-Met.

“We’re taking baby steps with this inaugural World Series,” Mahoney said. “Next year, we hope to play interleague games with teams from the same geographic locations.”

Norgard added, “In the end something that’s marketable and would bring together some great baseball at a great venue. So kudos to both leagues managers/board members. We talked about a ton of different scenarios and long term goals but we needed a starting point and it needed to be sustainable for years to come while also a building block for future growth that can happen organically.”

This is another Senior Baseball Soup essay. Watch for the next chapter in the coming days and weeks and let me know if there is something I should be cooking up to include in the soup. And there never are enough cooks for this stew – send me a short anecdote of your senior baseball experiences and I will serve them up in a future Senior Baseball Soup vignette.