Steinbach doing well following surgery

NEW ULM -- Terry Steinbach is doing well following surgery on his left hamstring, which he injured waterskiing earlier this season.

"It is doing really well," he said Friday night when he watched brother Tom's Kaiserhoff team beat Mankato in the Class B state tournament.

"I have been happy with the way that it has come around," he said. "I will know more on Monday when I see the doctors again."

Steinbach, who had the surgery on his hamstring 10 days ago, said he hurt the hamstring getting out of the water. "It was just a freak thing."

He said that the doctors told him that, "the hamstring should be 99.9 percent recovered. There will be no limitations when I get better. There will be some rehab once I am off the crutches and get the brace off. They are very optimistic that it won't affect anything."

When asked about his plans next season, Steinbach said that he is "unsigned for next season and available; we will just have to see."

Steinbach, who played some games with New Ulm this season, said that he "had a blast the games that I played with the Kaiserhoff this season and it was a lot of fun. We'll just have to see the (Kaiserhoff) schedule for next year and see what happens and see how many of the (Kaiserhoff) games I can make and don't conflict with what my kids are doing. You never know. Probably the best way to put it is we'll leave it open for next year."

LAMPLIGHTER ROOFERS WIN STATE TITLE: The Lamplighter Roofers of New Ulm won the Minnesota State Class CC softball tournament recently in Duluth. The title qualifies the Roofers to play in in Marietta, Georgia and the National Class CC tournament in October.

New Ulm won the crown with wins over Red Wing (20-9), Coon Rapids (6-3) Willmar (15-8), St. Paul (22-8), and Duluth (13-11).

"I can't remember a team from New Ulm winning a state title before," said Todd Hoffmann of the Roofers.

Hoffmann said that the Roofers record right now is 35-5 following winning the state title.

"We hit the ball well," Hoffmann said. "We have gone to these things before but always finished fifth or sixth. It seemed like we always had that bad game."

Hoffmann said that he does not know who they will play.

"We have played together for eight years and we all get along well," he said. "It has been the same core of players."

In the state tournament, there are some different rules that teams use. One is the home run rule. A team cannot have more than three home runs per game. "So you have to pick and chose when you go for a home run, you want to hit them with runners on base. If you hit a (fourth) home run, it is an out."

He said that the Roofers only had two errors in five games in the tournament.

Team members are Chad Kraus, Shane Kraus, Todd Hoffmann, Chad Hoffmann, Darrin Buegler, Tom Glaser, Darrin Dalueg, Chris Peters, Troy Kamm, Jason Rewitzer, Rick Wellmann (MVP of the state tournament) John Giefer, Pat Davis, Mike Johnson, Tim Abraham and Curt Forbrook.

WOODEN BAT IN NORWOOD: The "Perfect Game Wood Bat Fall Scout League," which features high school select teams from Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, will be playing at Zellmann Field in Norwood this fall.

Games are scheduled for Sept. 9 (3, 5 and 7 p.m.), Sept. 10 (10 a.m. noon and 2 p.m.), Sept. 23 (5 p.m. doubleheader), Sept. 24 (10 a.m. doubleheader), Sept. 30 (5 p.m. doubleheader), and Oct. 1 (10 a.m. doubleheader).

Admission is free for all games.

PALMER RECOVERING: Gordy Palmer, a member of the New Ulm Baseball Association and the New Ulm Legion Baseball Committee, will soon be back at home following triple bypass heart surgery.

We all wish Gordy well and hope he has a speedy recovery. If you want to send him a card, you can write him at 1727 North Garden here in New Ulm.

Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer