The 1952 state baseball tournament is monumental for a reason beyond that being St. Louis Park's only previous appearance in the event. These were the early days of one-class tournaments and eight regional champions, divided geographically and not by enrollment.
Looking back on the last time St. Louis Park baseball made the state tournament
Back in 1952, the state tournaments were one class and divided by geographic location.
June 12, 2022 at 10:25PM
The champion was Halstad, a tiny burgh 30 miles north of Moorhead. The Pirates were basically the baseball equivalent of the Edgerton Dutchmen, the one-class basketball winners in 1960.
And those Pirates actually had reached the 1952 state basketball tournament and finished third as Region 8 champions. There's a book, "Pirates of the Prairie," on Halstad's exploits to be found on Amazon.
The baseball tournament was played in Owatonna. St. Louis Park was credited with upsetting Melrose, the 1951 runner-up in the first round. Then it ran into Halstad, a first-round winner over New Ulm.
Down went the Orioles in the semis, as did powerhouse Austin, 9-2, in the title game. Morris Holm pitched all three games for Halstad.
"My arm feels all right, but I'm tired all over,'' Holm told Jimmy Byrne from the Minneapolis Star.
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
