For the love of the game

NEW ULM -- Normally when an athlete turns 49, his or her thoughts have changed from playing to watching.

That is not the case with Joe Driscoll.

Now, anyone who has watched amateur baseball in the past knows the name of Joe Driscoll. He started playing the game back in 1966 because he liked it. Now, 34 years later, when you ask him why he keeps playing the game his answer is as simple as it was when he began.

"I just like the game; it is a great game," he said prior to his pitching against the Kaiserhoff when his team, the Le Sueur Braves, arrived Thursday night. "The game is fun and just being outside. I don't fish or hunt ... this is what I do."

And for those 34 years, Driscoll has done it well and quite often.

He has been on 24 Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Association State Tournament rosters and has played for eight different teams, four of which he was drafted to before the state tournament.

He has called Le Sueur, Prior Lake, Arlington and Red Wing home in those years.

And Driscoll has been a good luck charm as well as a player. Six times the team that he has played on has captured the Minnesota State Championships. He has made the All-State team five times, and in 1979 he won the Most Valuable Player Trophy when he played for Arlington.

Driscoll has played in over 1,200 amateur baseball games in his career, 310 of which he has pitched in. Some of which were dandies.

"I pitched 12, 13 innings in some of those games," he said. "There wasn't a problem that night of the game but the next day, it was tough."

He has pitched to over 50 different catchers and he shows his age when about 50 of his teammates were former batboys.

Driscoll began his career in Le Sueur with the team back then called the Giants. He mainly sat on the bench and watched brothers Dan and Mike play in the River Valley League.

Driscoll's first championship came only nine years after he started when his Prior Lake team won the state crown in 1975 and he was the winning pitcher in the state title game. Prior Lake repeated as champions the next year and he hit over. 390 for the season.

He won another state title in 1979 with Arlington and then won was a member of the 1980 New Ulm Kaiserhoff state champions as a draftee from Arlington.

"Playing with the Steinbachs and New Ulm (in 1980) and against teams like Cold Spring that had (major league player) Jim Eisenreich on the team, with St. Cloud. There were a lot of good teams and good players," said Driscoll, who played for three years at Southwest State in Marshall where he majored in Physical Education.

Now, Driscoll, who will be married in early August, tries to show other younger players the love of the game of baseball that he has. "I don't coach the players as such; I just let them know the little things and how to do them. A lot of it is by trial and error. I try and lead by example."

Driscoll said that he does not know when he will call it a career. "It used to be a year-by-year decision; now it is a day-by-day (decision)."

But when Driscoll does decide to end his career, it will not only be a loss for him but for all of amateur baseball in Minnesota.

Joe Driscolls don't come along every day.

KLAVITER DROPS ERA: Steph Klaviter continues to overpower opposing hitters in the Women's Professional Softball League for the Florida Wahoos. She is now 5-1 on the year and lowered her ERA to a spectacular 0.13. Opponents are hitting only .099 against her.

BREWERS CLINCH TITLE: The New Ulm Brewers, by virtue of their 6-2 win over Springfield last week, not only improved to 16-2 on the season but also clinched a division championship.

"At the beginning with the pitching that we got, I felt pretty comfortable with the team," said Brewer manager Bob Weber, now in his fourth year at the helm. "We are probably playing better than I thought we would."

One of the biggest additions has been that of righthander Jeremy Wieland, who saw limited action last year with the New Ulm Kaiserhoff. This year, Wieland has been one of the big reasons for the Brewers' success. "He has just been tremendous for us," said Weber. "His ERA is just over a run a game and he is 7-0 this year."

Weber said that the team has six ballplayers that are currently hitting over .400. "Dan O'Brien (.455) and Scott Schaefer (.475) are really banging the ball. Al Wurtzberger, Chris Peters and Brad Weber are all over .400 along with Dan Krzmarzick. I figured out the other night that I could put nine ballplayers on the field with a DH, have the defensive positions covered pretty good, and have a team batting average of around .407."

Weber said that this team is a deep one and a team that knows what it takes to win. Fans in New Ulm can see this team Sunday night when they host Sleepy Eye at 7:30.

ARS NIGHT: Contrary to what is being said, there will be an ARS Night at Johnson Park on Tuesday, July 25 when the Kaiserhoff hosts Mankato. The New Ulm Baseball Association will always have an ARS Night each year, regardless of what their record is or what is being said to the contrary.

Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer