A player we all learned a lot from was Basil Meyer, a University of Minnesota-Morris graduate who played ball there with Bill Rutledge, our long-time shortstop. Basil was from Nevis, MN and got a tryout with the Minnesota Twins. He made it as far as AA ball and played for Ron Gardenhire before he was released and Bill convinced him to play for us. I was his next manager after Gardy! He pitched us into the quarterfinals of the State in 1993 and was one hit away from getting us into the semifinals. This was our most successful season.

I have developed great friendships through baseball and I don't think it would surprise anyone that Bill Neuenfeldt and I have a lifelong friendship that began during my college coaching career, extended into a heated but friendly rivalry when he played with Glenwood, and then when I convinced him to give up golf and come back and play ball with Starbuck. He was such a key player being a catcher for us with his personality and leadership. But, he is one of many outstanding players we had. As my wife, Beth, will tell you, I cannot go many places where I do not run into someone I played with or against and we immediately begin a conversation about baseball. I still see a half dozen of the guys who I coached in college on an annual basis.

I keep in touch with some players from my Benson days-Keith Johnson, Gordy Krupke, and Ross Peterson to name a few. There are many memorable games over the years and I don't have time to recount all the memories but here are some:

• With Benson, our first State Tourney in 1976. We played Prior Lake and lost a close game to them behind Keith Johnson's fine pitching effort. This was the days of the two class tournament and Prior Lake had many Gopher alumni on their team.

• Starbuck's 2-0 win over Glenwood in the 1983 league playoffs, and our tight wins over Alexandria in the Region Playoffs in 1983 including Bill Rutledge getting a key single to drive in the winning run to get us to our first State Tournament.

• Andy Pederson commuting from the Twin Cities to be our closer and then pitching a no-hitter against Appleton to get us to the State. Then, we 10-runned Hill City in the first round of the State tournament that year so we knew we belonged there.

• In 1984 we played Red Wing in the first round of the State tournament. They had a great team-three pitchers on the Minnesota Gophers team. Greg Starns and I had our only two hits. But Greg Toivonen made two beautiful throws to the plate to nail potential scores and keep us in the game in a 4-0 loss.

• A Region game in 1985 in Urbank that had just about everything you could ask for and more including cherry bombs thrown at our fielders during the game. We were running out of pitching and in the bottom of the 9th inning our pitcher loaded the bases with two outs and ran the count to 3-0 with the winning run on third. At that time I brought in Ross Peterson to pitch-he had just pitched the day before and did not have much left but he threw three strikes to get us into extra innings and Bob Hagert scored the winning run to keep us alive.

• In 1986 we beat a tough Cyrus team, managed by Pete Bright, to get into the Regions. We scored five runs in the first inning off Steve Selk, their ace, in the first game and beat Lonnie Anderson in a second game. I had a tying home run in that game and Doug Toivonen drove in the winning run and got the win in relief in the 10th inning.

• A game in Wheaton against Dumont in 1991 where Jason Kramber threw 189 pitches to survive a slugfest in front of a rowdy crowd. We got out of town fast after that one and didn't look back for 30 miles!

• Our close loss to Watkins in 1993 which was to get us to the State semi-finals. They really had only one player who could compete with Basil Meyer's pitching that day and he came to bat with the bases loaded and doubled to drive in 3 runs in a 3-2 loss-we had the tying run thrown out at the plate in the 8th inning, too. That followed a win against Regal in the State where Bill Neuenfeldt, from his catcher position picked off a base runner leading off second in the bottom of the 10th inning run on beautiful throw to John Toop at second base to end the game.

• The League playoff game in 1994 when Dick Cordes was asked to pitch against a strong hitting Morris team in the playoffs using his craftiness and control to win this big game for the Stars. Brian Gruber did the same thing a few years later for us coming off his "Tommy John" surgery by beating Morris in a playoff game where I wasn't even planning on starting him. That's how you get to be a good manager.

I am hoping that my amateur baseball career is not over. I miss putting on the baseball uniform and throwing batting practice, but with my younger two kids involved in a lot of sports in the summer I have taken a sabbatical. In my mind there is nothing quite like suiting up for a game. I know the team is in capable hands as Mike Andreas has taken over the reins. He has been with the Stars since about 1989 so he knows what it takes to keep things going and works hard at it. I still hope to rejoin him in a few years and coach again. I hope that I could help instill an appreciation of the game in the young players coming up through town team ball.

I was flattered by the letters to the Hall of Fame committee on my behalf and want to thank the people who were involved in nominating me for the honor, especially Matt Pederson, a long-time coworker with me at First National Bank and great sports booster in our area. I also want to thank Keith Johnson, a long-time friend and baseball teammate at Benson High School, UMM, and the Benson Chiefs; Larry Edlund, my coach at UMM who gave me a lot of managing experience as his one-year assistant; C. Howard Peterson, a former baseball and basketball player at the University of Minnesota and player with the Benson Chiefs in the 1950s who is a great promoter of baseball in Benson; and Chris Bennes, Minnewaska baseball coach and former teammate of mine with Starbuck.

And, I thank all the players, parents of players, and baseball supporters in the two towns I played with. You have given me many great memories that I will replay in my mind the rest of my life.