Steinbach speaks at banquet

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm native Terry Steinbach came back to town Wednesday to catch up with some old teammates and kick back and watch some baseball this weekend.

Steinbach was the guest speaker at the Central Plains Regional banquet held at Turner Hall. He is being honored along with the 1978 New Ulm Legion team that won the Central Plains Regional Tournament and was thrilled to be back for this weekend's festivities.

"Well obviously its very special for a couple reasons," Steinbach said. "One, its the 25th year reunion for what we did, and it brings back a lot of memories for how I felt and how my teammates felt. And two, its good to come back and hopefully give the kids a little motivation and incentive and give them something to shoot for."

Steinbach said that the trip to the World Series meant a lot of firsts for the team. One of the many things he remembers was flying on an airplane for the first time, which was a first for many of the team's members. He admitted that the success of the 1978 team surprised a lot of people -- even themselves.

"The biggest memory is winning, because I think no one expected us to," he said. "We probably didn't even expect ourselves to win."

Steinbach was especially proud of telling people that he is from New Ulm and people recognizing that New Ulm is synonymous with baseball success. He admitted that he is often approached by people knowing that year after year, the programs in New Ulm are always among the top in the state at the various levels.

"Being away from New Ulm now for 20-some years and having my kids in a different town, I think the thing that's so special about New Ulm baseball is how consistantly good you are," Steinbach said. "Up in the Cities where I live, New Ulm always gets brought up as 'that's the team to beat,' or is the one to watch out for. They come to me and ask 'how do you guy's do that?' and I don't have a definite answer. It's really neat to be part of a reputation that is very solid."

With so many options out there for kids today, he said that it's becoming a rarity for kids to meet at the diamond and kill a couple of hours playing baseball. Now days, there are many more sports for kids to enjoy and also more stuff to do inside the house.

"It is about going out there and leaving what you have on the field," Steinbach said. "It is about being dedicated to what you want to do. Today's era of kids have a lot more choices, with all the computers and different types of video games. You don't tend to see as much of the kids gathering at the ballpark all day long. My advice to them is that this group in here is a pretty special bunch of kids to keep working on what it is they do."