Baseball in Austin has come a long way.

Monday, August 14, 2000

Baseball in Austin has come a long way. Some things about the game have changed, some haven’t.

For example, Marcusen Park. The House That Emil Scheid Built is not just a part of Austin’s rich baseball heritage, it’s a part of Austin and a part of every player who has ever called it home. Through floods and at least a game a day during the summer time, Marcusen still stands.

The jerseys worn by the amateur team and the high school players speak as much to the respect the town has for baseball as the legendary park does. While today’s uniforms are more comfortable and keep with current fashion trends, they still say Packers across the chest, just as they did 50 years ago when Austin brought home a state amateur championship.

Some aspects of the game have changed, or, perhaps more accurately, evolved, in some cases out of necessity.

Back in 1947, Packer player Norman Ahnemann signed a pro baseball contract with the St. Cloud Rox of the original Northern League. Ahnemann received a $200 signing bonus and $175 per month salary. Do you suppose Austin’s Dave Meyer or Mike Wuertz – both currently playing professional baseball - would settle for that today?

Maybe so, said Meyer, an Austin High School graduate, who starred for Mayville (N.D.) State University and later the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the new Northern League. Meyer, a right-handed fireballer, was inked by the Los Angeles Dodgers in May and has progressed from rookie ball in San Bernardina, Calif., to Class A Vero Beach, Fla., in less than three months.

"I didn’t expect to make it out of Fargo," Meyer said. "I’m still in awe that I’m here (playing in Florida)."

Meyer also noted that southern Minnesota has produced some talented ball players. Former Minnesota Twins star Kent Hrbek is a product of Bloomington and Mike Restovich, a Rochester native, is currently plugging away with the Twins’ Class A team in Ft. Myers, Fla. That leaves three southern Minnesota products – Meyer, Wuertz, and Restovich – all playing in the Class A Florida State League.

Meyer and Wuertz’ careers started on the same ball field that was once home to stars such as Moose Skowren, a former first baseman for the New York Yankees and legendary Packers coach Emil Scheid.

A family tradition

Scheid has been credited with rejuvenating baseball in Austin shortly following World War II. He died in 1982, but his son, Larry, still resides in Austin. Larry was a bat boy for some of the Packers’ championship teams of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

"Baseball was the show in town back then," Larry Scheid said. "After the war, everybody had money and not many places to spend it, so they turned to baseball for entertainment."

Larry Scheid said the biggest thrill for him was, as a seven- or eight-year-old boy, being able to hang out with, play catch with, and just be around big-time ball players every day.

"It wasn’t only the Packers," he said. "There would be games going on on 10 or 12 fields at one time. It was an exciting place to be from 1945 until the late 1950s."

Scheid vividly remembers 2,500-3,000 fans packing Marcusen Park, often lining the fences down each baseline and around the outfield.

"They’d line up two or three deep along the fences," he said. "And fans would get attached to the players because they’d see them everywhere in town."

Baseball past meets baseball present seemingly everywhere in this town. You need look no further than the 2000 Packers’ roster, with names like Cummins, Ciola and Raso, for proof.

Tate spent his summer as the Packers’ every day right fielder, Mike spent his as manager/coach.

Nick Ciola returned to Austin for the summer, taking the mound when he could between dates playing bass for the Mattin Zellar Band. Ciola’s dad, Louis, passed away in 1981. Louis Ciola played professionally for the Philadelphia A’s in 1942 and 1943, pitching in all th legendary ball parks of the day.

Amateur baseball isn’t the end-all, be-all of Austin baseball, though. It would be difficult to build a strong amateur program without a feeder system in place and the Post 91 American Legion club takes a back seat to no one in the summer.

The Legion program is the longest running baseball club in the United States, having fielded a team for 75 consecutive seasons, even through the heart of WWII, when most ballplayers were shipped off to combat.

Post 91 had its most successful season in the last four years this summer under coach Mike Raso, who, like Scheid, is a second generation Austin ball player.

Mike’s dad, Joe, was a second baseman in the Chicago Cubs system in the late 1930s and 1940s. He spent six weeks with the parent club and spent much of his time in the minor leagues bouncing between Davenport, Iowa, and Janesville, Wisc.

Mike Raso recently completed his fourth season as manager of the Legion, a season he said was fun to be a part of.

"This year’s team really understood what it took to win games," Raso said. "If they had to give themselves up to advance a runner, regardless of the situation, they’d do it."

The team finished 25-15, coming up one game shy of a berth in the Minnesota State American Legion tournament. Much of that success is due to Raso’s relationship with his players. It was just as common to see a player throw an arm around the coach’s shoulder after a game as it was to see Raso slap a deserving player on the back.

Raso’s son Matt finished his first season with the Packers on Tuesday night, like his father and grandfather once did. Matt played this past spring at Iowa Western and will transfer to St. Cloud State in the fall to play for the Huskies. He also played Legion baseball under his dad for three years.

"Baseball’s a lifelong thing with our family," Mike Raso said.

And baseball has come full circle with the family, as Mike’s 6-year-old son Joe, named after his grandfather, began the same baseball path that his dad took.

"Joe’s been around the team all summer," Mike said. "He just likes being at the field and being around the guys."

A different game

Players such as Wuertz and Meyer weren’t around during the original glory days of Austin baseball.

They are a part of a new history. A history of baseball not like Scheid and Raso remember. Or like former Austin mayor Hans Marcusen could’ve predicted when he turned some old swamp land into a ball field in 1925.

"The game is so much different today," Scheid said. "You can watch two or three games at a time on TV. People have more choices."

Raso agrees that people have more choices for their entertainment dollar these days. But even though attendance is down at Packer and American Legion games, he said it doesn’t mean the city has lost its appetite for the game.

"We’ve had 700 or 800 kids out for little league ball the past few years," Raso said. "That’s incredible for a town this size.

"My goal is to get baseball back to where it once was here, and I think we’re there. People in Austin still know what’s going on with the baseball teams."

Some things never change.