Reusse: Green Isle’s Irish Yard shines as host for Minnesota State Amateur baseball tournament

GREEN ISLE, Minn. – The 2020 census claimed a loss of population to 522 for this burg tucked in the northeastcorner of Sibley County. That is old information, according to Joe Kreger.

“It must be over 700 by now,” Kreger said Saturday morning. “That was a field where we parked cars for the ballgame for decades. Now, it’s all houses.”

What’s the source? “Mostly people with jobs in the southwest suburbs,” he said. “A house that costs $500,000 in Eden Prairie you can build here for $300,000.”

Just be sure to do your shopping before heading home, because the options are minimal on what serves as Green Isle’s main drag.

Plus, St. Brendan Catholic Church is no longer functioning as a parish and the school building across the street no longer serves students. Which might sound like a bummer, except when Green Isle is hosting baseball games — and especially when those are part of the 101st edition of the Minnesota State Amateur baseball tournament.

That will be the case for these three late-summer weekends, with the church lot providing convenient baseball parking (even on Sundays, with no Mass), and with the school building providing a target for the mightiest blows hit to right field.

The ballpark is named “Irish Yard” and it keeps getting better. There are a half-dozen different viewing areas, a field of spectacular green, a modern scoreboard — all leading to an occasional spot among the multiple hosts required annually for the state baseball tournament.

This year the hosts are Green Isle, Jordan and Belle Plaine, and with Shakopee as an alternate location in the early going. Great ballparks all.

Kreger is the former mayor of Green Isle and now a Sibley County commissioner. And then he also was involved in full-blown politics — as a former member of the State Baseball Board, the nine men (in practice, not by edict) that make the State Am rules and settle disputes, including among themselves.

A year ago, the board melded Class A (Twin Cities teams) into Class B and went with a two-class tournament: B and C. The result was a record 28,000 tickets sold over the three weekends.

Faced with this success, the board has decided to go back to three classes with 80 teams for 2025: 24 in A for teams basically that have won a lot, 24 in B for teams that basically have reached the state tournament regularly, and 32 in C to improve the chances for smallish towns where the state tournament has been a rumor.

Oh, well. Who cares about next year? We had the Maple Lake Lakers, the defending Class C champion, leading off Saturday’s four-game schedule at Irish Yard precisely at 11 a.m. The Lakers had to beat always-tough Delano in an elimination game to reach the tournament.

“We were leading ‘em 1-0 going into the ninth, then got beat 3-1,” said Gene Hayes, a Delano man, disappointed, but not exactly deterred from his mid-August to Labor Day baseball appointments.

Hayes is 87 and this is his 65th year of attending the State Am. He was also headed to Belle Plaine for must-see games this weekend, and he’ll get to Jordan for sure next weekend.

Gene did have a quandary for his daughter: “What’s in this beer, Shelly? Tastes like lemon.”

Later, Gene had another question: What was wrong with defending champion Maple Lake vs. these feisty Farming Flames from the Stearns County League?

Farming was back after a five-year absence, but with only one Schleper and one Nett. What gives?

Robert Schleper, a Flames’ legacy in right field, shrugged later and said: “We do have two Mergens.”

Farming would be facing lefthander Hunter Malachek, the MVP of the 2023 Class C tournament. The Flames countered with a lefty, Payton VanBeck, a draftee from the Elrosa Saints.

Farming slapped a few hits against Malachek and took a 2-0 lead into the seventh. Then, Ethan Navratil homered toward the school in right, and clean-up hitter Adam Winkels squeezed home Isaac Nett — who was 30 feet from the plate when the ball was bunted.

VanBeck pitched through one out in the eighth, 116 pitches (Rocco Baldelli, weeps). Towering Adam Nibaur, the Bailey Ober of the Stearns County League, finished up.

Farming 4, Maple Lake 1. Down went the defending champs, losing three runners on bases and striking out 10 times vs. VanBeck.

“This is fun; I know all these guys on this team,” VanBeck said. “Stearns County League … everybody knows everybody. They played great behind me today.”