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Tyler Zierke
February 20, 2006
3:39:13 PM
Entry ID: 776013 | Fergus Falls Reigns:
In the past few years teams have come and gone. Dents had its good years as the Ramblers and now are trying to rebuild. Vergas went to the state tournament a few ago. Frazee has always placed a solid team on the field. Pelican had its days in the late 1990’s and early 2000. Each team has seen the good and bad, the wins and loses. I remember when I first started playing we had a double header and scored 32 runs, granted aluminum bats. As for the Hi10 I’m sure they are going through the same thing. Perham, New York Mills, Frazee, Vergas, Dent, Bluffton and other teams in different regions are fighting for the same players. For some teams it’s hard to find nine guys to show up. When town sizes are small and teams are fighting over players.
Bluffton-210
Dent- 192
Frazee-1,377
NYM-1,158
Pelican Rapids- 2374
Perham- 2,559
Vergas-311
WDC- 4500
http://www.city-data.com/city/Minnesota2.html.
But one thing has remained consistent; Fergus Falls has a great baseball team. In my opinion Fergus may go through the same struggles as other teams. However, they have more options then the rest. Fergus has a population of 13,471 and also has a Community college when brings in an additional 15-20 players that are eligible to play for the Canes. The only team in the Countryside how is eligible to sign Fergus players is Pelican. And in the past we had players from Fergus and if they would have stayed in Fergus, they probably would have a couple of state titles.
In the region tournament last year, Fergus Falls was the third largest town in the class C tournament. Moorhead and St. Cloud were the highest populated towns in the class C tournament. The next largest town had a population between four and six thousand people. Again, it’s hard to compete against a town that has a wider variety to choose from.
Teams in the league are now starting to see the effects of players moving on, getting to old or just don’t want to play anymore. Pelican went through a transition period a couple of years ago. Dent moved to Perham for a couple of years ago and now has a solid young core of players. Vergas is seeing players move on to different aspects of there life. Perham’s team last year struggled to find players and this year may have up to nine players participating in the legion program. But the one thing that remains consistent is that Fergus Falls has young players. The town has a much larger population, as stated above, but also has a community college.
Having a community college is a major advantage to Fergus Falls. Even though Pelican has the option to acquire players from there, we choose not too. Each of the other eight teams in the country side may be between three and six players that at some point have played baseball after high school. In Fergus, a good majority of there roster has played college ball or could have but opted for another sport. In fact, most of you know two players played for the Redhawks last and still played in Region tournament. Personally, I not really sure how many players from FFCC actually played for the Canes, but the option is still available for the Canes. Having additional twelve-to-fifteen players to choose from is an advantage. If these players do stay, they have the advantage along with other college players because they have been playing for five and half months already.
The purpose of this paper is not to take anything away from Fergus Falls baseball program. I just want to state some facts about what actually is happening in the Countryside League and Hi-10. Personally, I think the eight teams in the league are equal. But Fergus seems to be step above the rest of the other teams. Playing for the Pelican for the last six years, I have been to region tournament once for Pelican and was drafted by the Loons once. Personally, I think the Region tournament is the reason why we play. You play better teams, the games are more exciting and the fan base is great. But there are some players that might not ever get a chance to play in Regions, unless they are pitcher or catcher and get drafted. When your team doesn’t make the Regions players get frustrated and possibly move on.
In the Countryside league, Fergus as been the number one seed for the past couple of years. Basically, four teams are fighting for the one spot. As a college graduate, four teams competing for two spots and better than five teams competing for two spots. Even worse, four teams competing for one spot. In my opinion I would rather have a twenty-five percent chance for two spots than twenty-five percent chance for two spots or a twenty percent chance for one spot.
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Tyler Zierke
Lakers
February 17, 2006
4:27:48 PM
Entry ID: 773975 | Just a reminder that the first games is April 29th in Pelican vs. Fergus Falls. Also, if anyone has seen the Pickle please contact Lisko as soon as possible. |
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