Happy New Year!  2009 has flown by and 2010 starts tomorrow.  Hard to believe.  I started playing amateur baseball in 1971 in Hayward, Minnesota.  It was a real "Town" team.  We had approximately 15 players and played about 15 games a year.  It was a fun team to play with.  Good times and great memories.  Since then I have played with Dick's Place (A) in Columbia Heights, Dundas Dukes (B), Burnsville Bobcats (B), and back to the Dukes.  I have been in ten Championship games.  Playing or managing on Labor Day is the best there is. 

I wasn't going to write about this right now, but it seems like the right time.  I am retiring from the Baseball field.  I hope to continue to write for this website and I look forward to writing about baseball in many areas of the state.  Dundas will be in capable hands as Mike Ludwig and Charlie Ruud will take over the managerial duties. 

Thanks to all for the special memories playing Minnesota Amateur Baseball.                                                Bill Nelson

Early in the week I wrote about the renovations taking place at Red Haddox Field in Bloomington.  Mike Brendalen, a Bandit rep, responded with this email: 

I just would like to say that the renovation means a lot to myself and the Bandits as most everybody on the team grew up playing Bloomington Youth Baseball and attending Kennedy or Jefferson high school.  Bloomington baseball players have always taken pride in Haddox Field and the renovation only deepens that pride for the guys.  I am hopeful that Haddox can host a state tournament sometime in the future, however I am more hopeful that Haddox can host a yearly amateur ball tournament with the top A, B and C teams to showcase the talent in Minnesota.  I think the dream would be to have a co-host such as Edina or Minnetonka (great ball fields) and have a 3 day tournament between the 2 sites, with a guarantee of 4 games for each participating team.  I think it's important to have some of these teams put against each other since it doesn't appear that a full blown state tournament with all A, B or C classes would work.  The idea behind the tournament would also include getting some recognition towards amateur baseball in Minnesota, hopefully being able to have one of the local news stations come out and watch some games and hopefully do some reporting on the amazing talent throughout the state and also the tradition that Minnesota baseball has.  This is a work in progress for myself and the Bandits, and we are going to be looking to begin this in 2011 with hopefully either Edina or Minnetonka on board.  WE LOVE BASEBALL!

State Meeting on Saturday, January 2, 2010

The State Board will meet this Saturday, January 2nd at the Holiday Inn in St. Cloud.  Meeting time is 11:00 A.M.  This is the last meeting until the two day meeting in March when the Board hands out league supplies and explains the new rules that have been enacted.  This meeting is open for all and I encourage everyone to attend.  Have a Happy New Year. 

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