Classic set

records as

Creighton

earned title

NEW ULM -- Records.

That may well describe the past weekend's Upper Midwest Classic baseball tournament.

Records that had been set just last year were broken, shattered and destroyed.

Omaha (Neb.) Creighton Prep showed why they finished third in last year's American Legion World Series as they rolled through the Classic field with wins of 19-1 over St. Cloud, 6-5 over Mankato (Creighton Prep's closest contest of the tournament), 11-1 wins over both New Ulm Blue and Blue Earth, a 12-1 win over Sioux Falls (S.D.) West in a Sunday morning semifinal game and a 12-2 pasting of Duluth Lakeview for the championship.

Last year, New Ulm Gold topped Creighton Prep 10-4 for the title before falling 19-5 to Creighton Prep in the Central Plains Regional in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The 71 runs scored by Creighton Prep in six games is a record. The 74 hits collected in Prep's six games is also a tournament mark.

Creighton Prep, which won this year's Nebraska state high school championship, left the City of Charm and Tradition with a combined spring and summer baseball record of 77-10.

Another record that was set here in New Ulm was the attendance mark that shattered all records with close to 1,500 tournament passes being sold. Single-session ticket sales were also up.

And both concession stands -- the New Ulm Baseball Association and the New Ulm Legion Auxiliary food stand -- reported "very, very good sales."

And the Legion Auxiliary food stand was well received by visitors, especially those from both Omaha and Creighton Prep.

Ruth Palmer, one of the volunteer workers who served up great food, said that "people from Nebraska said that they looked forward to coming to New Ulm for a year for the sauerkraut and the food that we have here."

And her husband, Gordy, was in charge of the Upper Midwest Classic and did a great job in that capacity. Visitors remarked how well this tournament was run again. That is due in large part to Palmer, Mike Stolt, along with Gardell Kuelbs and the many people who volunteered their time at both Johnson and Mueller parks. Jack Bloedel and Bert Marth again did a stellar job in Sleepy Eye, as they always do.

The Junior Upper Midwest Classic also was well run by Lou Geistfeld and Red Wyczawski.

And thanks to the New Ulm Baseball Association for the many volunteers who spent many hours in concession stands at both Johnson and Mueller parks. And to the people who did the public address and scoreboard operations, thanks a lot.

New Ulm is extremely lucky to have the people to continually run successful tournaments here all the time.

And many thanks to our neighbors in Sleepy Eye for their work in both tournaments. They also spend a lot of long hours at the park. They also were a big part of the success this year.

Next summer will be another busy one with New Ulm not only hosting the Junior Upper Midwest Classic and the Upper Midwest Classic, but also New Ulm will be the site of the 2003 Central Plains Regional Baseball Tournament Aug. 13-18

GOLD OUSTED BY RULE: Many New Ulm Gold baseball fans were left scratching their heads after Gold downed Sault Ste. Marie 15-2 to go 3-1 in the Classic and yet not make the semifinal field.

"The rule that hurt was the North and South Division rule where your wins and losses in your division broke New Ulm's hearts," said Dick Mueller of the New Ulm Baseball Committee.

New Ulm, Sioux Falls West and Omaha were all 3-1 with New Ulm holding wins over Sioux Falls and Omaha. "But the key was New Ulm's loss to Rochester," commented Mueller. "That was, in essence, a killer as it was a division loss. That (eight-run loss) cancelled out the wins. Rochester was a common opponent of teams that were in the hunt and New Ulm was the only team to lose to them. Every team in each division did not play each other, which hurt."

"This is a well-run tournament -- out of town people comment on that all the time," Mueller said.

GANSKE HAS SUCCESS IN ALL-STAR GAME: New Ulm High graduate Charles Ganske had "a good time" in the Outstate's 26-6 win over the Metro in the Minnesota All-Star football game recently.

"I had nine or 10 tackles in the game and I was voted one of the captains for the game," he said. "It was a lot of fun playing with the best players in the state. You have 40 players on your team who are the best in high school. It was a good bunch of guys-- we had a lot of fun all week. We really jelled as a team."

Ganske, who will attend Dartmouth this fall, said that one of the things that he will remember was that "it was 100 degrees for practice. It was the hottest game that I played in. It was fun."

Ganske played inside linebacker and called the defensive signals.

Other area players who participated were McLeod West's (and South Dakota-bound) Tyler Evans, (Mankato Loyola's) Jake Meixl and St. James' Kory Anderson.

"The coaches were happy with how we played and they were happy with the way we played," Ganske said. "They scored on their opening drive and we shut them down after that."