Subscribe to our Newsletter

CLICK HERE FOR NEW BLOG POST Dec 19, 2015

By Pat Thompson, Senior Baseball Blog

May 13, 2015

 

What has stirred me out of hibernation, other than finally hearing the sound of ball striking bat, was an email from one of the winningest, if not the winningest, Minnesota senior baseball pitchers, Dave Sobiech. 

“Not sure if you have seen this article on the Mini-Met,” Dave emailed. “My son Brandon is working on building a stadium in Phoenix and found this as an example of the perfect ball park.  May want to share with the guys.”

The example is about the Jordan Mini-Met, the cradle of Over-35 baseball in Minnesota and one of the finest ball parks I have ever played at in more than 30 years of senior baseball. Check out the KARE-11 feature on the Mini-Met.  Only thing missing is the aroma of fried onions and burgers and sounds.

Brandon Sobiech and his brother, Adam, were in the Mini-Met dugout when Dave pitched Eden Prairie Lions Tap to the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association state championship in August 1987 with a 1-0 victory over the St. Paul Saints. I can still hear Dave barking at his boys before the start of the ninth inning to stay in the dugout until after the game was over. When we did get the final out, all I initially remembered were tweety birds and cuckoos – as I flew off the bench to celebrate, my head struck the cement top of the dugout and left me momentarily dazed. I do remember accepting the championship trophy from MSMABA President Duane Gaulke and Miss Jordan.

No doubt, most senior baseball players I know in Minnesota have their own tales of their favorite Mini-Met moment

“The Mini Met dates from 1930 and features a roofed grandstand straight out of Hollywood visions of Americana,” The StarTribune reported on a $90,000 upgrade this past year to shore up the wooden grandstand behind the third base dugout.

WCCO-TV describes the Mini-Met this way: “Just south of the metro lies one of the great amateur baseball parks in Minnesota.”

So….just a few thoughts of warmer times and our best national pastime and about just one of the many great baseball settings we all have the privilege and pleasure to enjoy.

ISN’T IT IRONIC DEPT.:  If you can beat them, join them? Sobiech is still pitching competitvely, some of his senior ball with the St. Paul Saints in their 60s and 65s trips to the Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series in Arizona in the Fall and with the Saints 50s in the M50BL where he was unbeaten in 2014.

Well, it’s time to play ball again in all the wonderful ball parks of our region.

 

Caption and photo:

 

Lion’s Tap pitcher Greg Barnard delivers at the MiniMet under a panoramic sky.

 

 

By Pat Thompson
Senior Baseball Blog
July 21, 2014
 
 
There is nothing original and unusual with the Saints nickname: a number of baseball teams come marching in with the handle originating in the Saintly city of St. Paul, long before the Drew Brees won a Super Bowl for the Saints of New Orleans.
 
What is original is how the Minnesota Saints of the M50BL and Arizona fall tournaments borrowed their nickname.
 
As a manager, equipment manager, scorekeeper, scheduler and treasurer, you are always looking to cut corners to make sure the players have matching uniforms and caps. Thing big.
 
So when I was organizing the Saints in 2010, I hit upon the idea of approaching Viagra to be a corporate sponsor. Wouldn’t we look sharp in those little blue pill colors and, I told the Viagra marketers, wouldn’t this be a natural national media opportunity: A bunch of 50 and 60-year-olds running around blissfully promoting their product.
 
Unfortunately, Viagra and its parent company Pfizer thought otherwise.
 
So thinking and feeling blue, I went to the St. Paul Saints independent league team and asked for their advice.   Would you mind if we used your name in M50BL and our national tournaments in Florida and Arizona.    A resounding yes was the response. 
 
So we might not be that sexy or sex-charged. But our uniforms all match and our Saints road blue uniforms are much more attractive that the little blue pill blue and we don’t have to worry about those four-hour side effects.
 
SO WHAT’s IN A NAME
 
The last Senior Baseball blog chronicled the Crosstown Traffic.   This week we take look at a few more teams.
 
The Bloomington Bald Eagles? That was an easy one.  Most players still play for the Over-35 Bloomington Eagles, albeit with less curly locks than in their younger days.
 
Southwest Minnesota Bullheads: “Lake Hanska was loaded with Bullheads!” reports Bruce Jacobs.  “And we thought it was kind of unique.  When we saw very talented artist/designer Todd Olson’s artwork for the logo, there was no question.  We knew it was the perfect name for us.” Todd was a designer for “Tonka Toys” and “Rollerblade” Companies.
 

The Loretto Sox are celebrating their 25th anniversary of senior baseball in 2014.  In the  inaugural season of 1989, the team was known as Apple Bee’s and sponsored by the restaurant bar with games at Osseo High School with Paul Tate credited as being the founder.  The second year the Apple Bees were renamed the Osseo Sox “How Paul Tate came up with the name he does not even know -  LOL,” says current CEO Rich Ellis.

They played in Osseo until the 1998 season when they moved to Loretto and became the Loretto Sox.
The Sox always played in two leagues and played closed to 65 game per summer. The management varied for the Sox from 1989 to 2005 going from Paul Tate / Brad Fadness, then just Fadness then to Mike Nentl, and finally to Ellis starting in 2006.
 
In 2006, 2007, 2008 the Loretto Sox were back-to-back-to-back Federal League Champions also in 2006 the Sox made it to the NSBL Championship game and lost to a very good Mayer team. Then in 2008 the long time Eden Prairie Padres of the MSMABA 35+ league then managed by Mark “Combo” Comstock were about to fold due to the merger of the North Star Baseball League (founded by Pete Chubb and yours truly) and the Classic League.
 
This started the merger talks with the Loretto Sox. The premise of the merger was the Loretto Sox were staying intact and going to play in the NSCBL while half of the Sox players would then also play in the Federal League with the merged leftover players from the EP Padres.
 
Long time EP Padres catcher Jeff Schmitz, Mark Comstock and Ellis then met that winter and formed the Twin City Metropolitans, aka TC Mets.  The name pretty much came up because all the players on the team were from all around the Metropolitan area and since the inaugural year the Mets home games were going to be played at EP Miller Park and Loretto’s Arnold Klaers field. The name Mets was perfect.
 
The Mets played in the Federal League for five years and captured a Class A Federal League Championship in 2010.  The Mets moved to the Chaska Junior High School junior varsity field, then finally decided all the home games would be in Loretto starting in 2012.  Jeff Schmitz stepped down from the Mets management team that year and Ellis took over all operations. It was then to leave the Federal League and head over to the new M50BL since the average age of the Mets was 54 years of age.  The team has since dropped the Twin City moniker and is now known as the Loretto Mets for 2014, also playing in the MSMABA.
 
In 2010 some members of the TC Mets then formed another new Federal League team called the South Metro Saints. (Take that Viagra). 
 
So it’s kinda cool that the Loretto / Padres gave birth to the Mets and the Mets gave birth to the South Metro Saints.  There are several long time EP Padres players still on the Mets and the Saints.
 
 (More to come on the origins of our Minnesota senior teams in the next blog)
 
 

Three Bald Birds:  Ron Johnson, Colin Quinn and Scott McNally.

 
 

The Loretto Mets of the MSMABA (That is Rich Ellis, second right, far right.

Senior Baseball Blog
 July 5th
By Pat Thompson
Senior Baseball Blogger
 
This edition of the senior baseball blog was intended to feature origins of the Minnesota senior team nicknames. We shuffled the schedule to talk about how the teams of M50BL came to be known to the next blog because this week, a compelling chronicle came to light on how the Crosstown Traffic evolved.  We recognize the Traffic as one of the better teams in our Over 50 league, but all we know about them, really, is that they circle around a cooler after each game and stick pretty much to themselves. More than one player told me, that the Traffic, individually, were great guys – but as a team could come across maybe as too competitive and sometimes surly.
 
Put that aside. Crosstown has earned my admiration through the years because of that competitive fire and close-knit demeanor. Virtually, the backbone of the team has been together for 20-plus. Week after week regardless of which leagues, the same cast of characters show up to play a decent brand of ball.
 
So what is … and who are the Crosstown Traffic? And from where did this name evolve?
 
The core of this team has been together since the late 1980s and early 1990s. They still play in the Over-35 North Star Classic league, the M50BL and are annual national tournament entrants in Arizona and Florida with the same bunch of guys year after year.
 
If you do play the Traffic this season you should know the legacy of this team and appreciate it.
 
So what is ….  and who are the Crosstown Traffic of players from a variety of backgrounds through the years: violin craftsman, piano tuner, teachers, salesmen, coaches, advertising executives?
 
Bill Hillsman, one of the early originals, noted the Traffic started as an outgrowth from  weekly pick-up games in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park in the 1980s . “There weren't any age restrictions –  whoever showed up could play,” Hillman said. “ Most of the guys were in their late 20s-early 30s into the early 40s.”
 
The Crosstown Traffic Baseball Club was born by helping start a new 35+  league (Federal) that was forming and asked guys around that age if they wanted to play.  The original founders chose the name and jersey. Crosstown Traffic became well known and respected in senior league circuit in the Minnesota, more because of the brand of ball but also because the team played most games at small fields in Edina, Minnesota just off  the Crosstown Highway in the Twin Cities. The founders  used to bring a boom box to every game, set it up in the dugout and blared the Jimi Hendrix song "Crosstown Traffic" before every game during warm-ups.
 
“There was a lot of fondness for the weird name, however, and it had become an established franchise in the league,” said Hillsman, the advertising exec.  “So there was never any real consideration for changing the name.  There was consensus that we needed new unies, though.  I had access to some very skilled art directors and designers at the ad agency I owned, so I gave a couple of them the assignment to design a new Crosstown Traffic logo and uniform.”
 
So, in addition to being very competitive, the Traffic players look good, too.
 
“The Traffic ‘family’ extends beyond the guys playing on the team to our wives and kids,” M50BL Manger Dave Johnson says. “My son learned how to swear when he was 10 years old by sitting in the dugout listening to Tim Keimel. The BMWs, as they call themselves (Baseball's Magnificent Wives), get together for dinner without the guys at least once a month.
 
“There is a deep bond that goes beyond the baseball field that I'm sure will last until we die. Even though we are not as competitive as we used to be in the 35+ league,  we will always play together and live with the fact that the younger teams will beat us up pretty good. But regardless we'll always have fun chatting over a beer after the game.”
 
Win or lose.
 
Here are Crosstown Traffic  players from the 2013 Father-Son MSBL World Series in Arizona.
<image002.jpg>
 
NEXT WEEK:  Find out how the Bees, Saints, Owls, Goats, Twins,  Bald Eagles, Coyotes and other teams found their identity. Send me your team info and photos, or other senior  baseball faces, figures and trivia
JUNE 25, 2014
By PAT THOMPSON
Senior Baseball Blogger
 
With the vitriolic atmosphere swirling out of the World Cup of soccer, I can boast that I never bit an umpire. Bit a few words, spit out a few, choked on many.
 
This week’s senior baseball blog is paying tribute to the Men in Blue and calling on all my colleagues to treat our umps with respect in all circumstances, no matter the call. This comes on the heels of the report in late June of a home team manager reportedly pushing an umpire in the parking lot after an Over-35 MSMABA game. This cannot be tolerated. Please review with your teams and teammates that it is important to respect umpires at all times, even if they miss the call . . . and they will. Even video replay is not 100 percent foolproof.
 
In the more than 600 senior baseball games in which I have managed more than 200 players in 29 seasons, I have been ejected only once  – one time too many, and more on that in a moment. I count on one hand the number of times my players have been given the heave-ho – not including the time that my pitcher, Rod Helling, was ejected for contesting balls and strikes and negotiated his way back into a game at Mayer. Another time in Jordan, the ump bellowed: “One more peep and you’re outa here!”  To which, my Over-35 career lifetime hitter, Carlos Ubiera, chirped: “Peep, peep.”  See you later, Carlos.
 
Here is what happened when I got the gate. Colorful Paul Williams was the base umpire in a 1990s state tournament game at the Jordan Mini-Met, with his daughter videotaping his calls. Allegedly, my pitcher, Dave Sobiech, tagged out a batter 10 feet from the bag.  Paul shouted, “SAFE.” To which Dave heatedly objected and was evicted.
 
I was soon to follow when I tried to shield Dave, questioning the call by throwing my cap in the air.
 
“And you’re outa here, too,” Paul proclaimed.
 
“Why?” I challenged.
 
“Unsportsmanlike conduct.”
 
Dave, Paul and I laugh at the event now.  I wonder whatever happened to the videotape. He was out, wasn’t he, Paul?
 
Williams, I am pleased to say, umpires home games for my M50BL Minnesota Saints when he is available. Rest assured: the calls are fair for both teams, regardless of which team recruited him to be the arbiter.
 
 
 
 Colin Quinn, well known senior baseball photographer and proud member of the Bloomington Eagles Over-35 and Bloomington Bald Eagles M50BL and archiver of all things baseball, sent the following pictures of  two senior baseball friends who moved up to play in the the Field of Dreams:  Jay Befort, left, and Joe Jensen.
 
 
 
Jay’s tribute in the Red Wing Republican Eagle.  http://www.republican-eagle.com/content/jay-befort-69
 
 
 
·         WANT TO BE MENTIONED IN THIS BLOG? Send me snippets and blurbs and photos, and I will include them:  patjudythompson@q.com
·         MOTTO OF THE NEW  YORK TIMES: “All the news that’s fit to print.”  Motto of Senior Baseball Blog: “All that news that fits we print.”

 JUNE 18, 2014

By Pat Thompson
Senior Baseball Blogger
 
Please welcome this inaugural entry of Minnesota Senior Baseball Blog, mostly for the players 50+ up to ageless categories and some references now again to amateurs and Over-35s.
 
Your author fancies himself ineligible for the baseball writers hall of fame, although he holds a gold card from the national organization from a previous lifetime vocation. This avocation is one of romance of our great sport and homage to the many, many men and women, boys and girls who have ever played baseball, organized or on the sandlots.
 
Let’s start with Over-50.  M50BL (Minnesota over 50, get it) is starting another season, still in its infancy but growing thanks to the steadfast pioneering of Vic Marotta of St. Louis Park  who has been known to play and manage on three or four teams the same season and has guided his Bees to three Roy Hobbs amateur national championships. We are up to 15 teams and growing, teams playing schedules from 10 to 25 games this year and gearing toward a season ending tournament in October, weather permitting. These teams are organized and managed by most interesting individuals, perhaps a little zany to take on this task. Who else would buy specialty license plates: LETS PLAY2, BATTRUP …
 
If you like this blog and want to participate, send me ammo:  game heroes, no-hitters, winning streaks, multi-homers games, weirdest play you’ll ever see, this  $%@#!$%$%$ rainy weather ever lets up.  Send me unusual photos like the one below, and I will share.
 
TRIBUTES, MUSINGS, INNUENDOS AND OTHER NONSENSE
 
¨       It just won’t be the same at the ball parks this year without  Sharon Larson and Jay Befort. They left us this year, and we will miss them dearly.  Tink Larson plans to remain as active as always with his baseball life, whether from Tink Larson Field in Waseca, Minnesota-Mankto assistant or with the Saints in M50BL, Arizona MSBL 65 or Saints 70s at Roy Hobbs but there is the vacuum left by  Sharon’s passing.
Jay retired many times as a member of John Gilbert’s Shoreview teams but returned to play again every year. He also was a charter member of M50BL and always ready to join special senior games promoting the sport. So long, good friend.
¨       Dave Sobiech, at age 64, fired an Over-35 no-hitter for Red West against Richfield in the Federal League Friday night (June 4) in Loretto. Dave’s previous no-hitter was for Lions Tap in the Class A championship game of MSMABA in Belle Plaine in the 1990s. You’ll see Dave in M50BL for the Saints  a time or two, and he plans to pitch for the Saints 65s in Arizona.
¨       Sobiech and Gary Fritch of the M50BL Bees and Over-35 St. Louis Park Cardinals are two of the storied characters of Minnesota senior baseball.  They have met one time in a MSMABA State Tournament opener a few years back. It was a no-decision. Dave pitched six innings before forced from the game with a stiff back. Gary pitched all 12 innings in an eventual Bees loss to Lions Tap – a game he never forgot, particularly when he no-hit hit Tap in the regular season a couple of years later. Winning pitcher was Randy Walsh (Gaylord, from the Walsh Field Walshes). I once broke up a Fritch no hitter and he has not forgotten that either (“I will never throw you that pitch again.”  He hasn’t, but I will go down swinging.
¨       Congratulations George Blackwell, who coached Blake to its first state tournament this year with a consolation championship to show for it. George manages the Saints 70s at Roy Hobbs. George has been featured on a Mike Max sports clip on Channel 4 and on Mike’s  WCCO radio show Friday night. Any questions – any issues, George asks.
¨       When Vic Marotta announces the next All-Star game, reach for your umbrella. The second straight year, rains washed out this year’s game Saturday (June 14). Vic had 26 players lined up to play at Webster
¨       Quote from Mike Weber after yet another rainout: “It’s been kind of a long time since we’ve played.  Do we still make a left-turn at each base?” Mike doesn’t get lost, driving from Alexandria to join the Saints 50s when the Clippers aren’t playing Over-35. He does not get mileage either. Alexandria’s Roger Johnson (Saints, Clipper catcher) was honored guest of the Alexandria High School Cardinal Athletic foundation golf tournament June 14.
¨