Twenty five years ago, Tom Gould set out to start an amateur tournament for young and up-and-comers in Jamestown.

“We wanted to beat the Elks,” he said.

That was 1989 when the idea hatched and since has grown into the Jamestown Miller Lite Merchants, who along with the Jamestown Elks have been the two dominant amateur teams in North Dakota for a generation.

Jeff Gould, who could fill a voluminous book with statistics and stories of years gone by — some fit for print, some not — recalls the early days vividly.

“I remember our college basketball team going up to dad’s place and on the countertop there were baseball pants on the table and I remember him saying, ‘We’re going to do this,’” Jeff recounted his dad Tom saying. “That was kinda where it all began.”

Back then, there was no sponsorship money. No fancy gear. They had to get creative, and a little devious, to make it work.

“We played a lot of road games, and we were good and we won a lot of games and in the bottom of the seventh or the bottom of ninth inning whoever caught the last out, we’d quick shake hands and get out of there … we’d steal the game ball. That way we’d have a good ball for the next game,” Jeff said. “We were stealing baseballs in Ellendale, Thompson, Hatton, Wishek … Twenty five years later this is kinda me saying sorry about that.”

Years later when a former Merchants alum — albeit for a short time — hit it big, stealing balls no longer became necessary.

“Thank God Darin (Erstad) made it to the Bigs. Every year he’d send 40 dozen boxes of baseballs to dad’s place with batting gloves and other equipment,” Jeff said. “We never had to worry about stealing baseballs anymore after that.”

The rivalry between the Elks and Merchants had begun in earnest prior to Erstad’s Big League career taking off. The Merchants won the 1993 Class AA state tournament, one of eight state titles the team owns.

“The mid and late 90s and early 2000s, the Elks and Merchants rivalry was the best in the state. Those are the types of games I miss the most in my old age,” the 44-year-old Gould said. “The Elks had all those fantastic players — the Hogans (Doug and Wayne), Bob Piatz, Cory Anderson and on and on — they were the measuring stick.

“If you could play with the Elks, maybe beat them, that was like the Holy Grail. You’d made it.”

The rivalry lives on strong today.

Since 2000, the two teams have won every Class AAA state title with the Merchants prevailing in 2001-2003, ‘06-08 and then last season.

This year’s Class AAA state tournament begins today at Jack Brown Stadium. The tournament has grown to six teams with the Fargo Expos, Fargo-Moorhead Bulldogs, Mayville Redcaps and Bismarck Capitals rounding out the field. Play continues on Saturday with the championship game set for Sunday at 1 p.m.

Bryan Erstad is now in charge of the Merchants, who have set a team-record in games played this season with 37, winning 25 of them. They’ve had to piece together lineups at times, using a total of 37 players, but they continue to field a strong squad.

“With the history and tradition of the Merchants you definitely feel a sense of wanting to continue what Tom and Jeff started and keep it going strong,” Bryan said. “We like to think we’re a desirable team to play for. But there are good teams out there, but I think guys know we’re going to have a good team and play a good schedule.”

As Jeff Gould pointed out, among the keys in having a sturdy amateur team is getting n­­­­­ine players committed to being there every night. In Gould’s day it was the Steve Bennions, Kevin Galls, Dave Flemings, Grant Geiszlers, Steve Hockerts and Joe Vannetts of the Jamestown baseball scene, while Erstad’s crew has staples like Jared Purdy, Greg Lunski and even Vannett still plays frequently.

It becomes like a family, both literally and figuratively.

For Gould, his grandpa (Jack Brown) was an Elks man and his uncle (R.D. Brown) ran the Elks for years and he says of his grandma Mirt, “She should be the first woman in the amateur baseball hall of fame. She knows more about amateur baseball than 99 percent of men.

“Whenever I’m back in the winter and I talk to KG (Kevin Gall) or Benny (Steve Bennion) or I talk to Darin (Erstad) or (Travis) Hafner, the first question is how’s the family? And then eventually the conversation turns to ‘How are the Merchants?”

Hafner, of course, being former Major Leaguer Travis Hafner, who played for the Merchants in the summer of 1996.

It’s all part of the fabric of a team now 25 years old, which still calls Jamestown home, and continues to go strong.

“For me, there’s no better place to spend a Saturday then at Jack Brown Stadium,” Jeff said. “My grandma’s in the stands, my dad runs the place. My uncle’s in the concession doing all of the things he does so well and my kids are there running around doing what we used to do.

“I have to think my grandpa is looking down smiling and thinking, ‘Not much has changed and that’s a pretty good deal.’”

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460(701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at dselvig@jamestownsun.com