Section: SPORTS
Page#: 11C
Perfect day for baseball in hamlet of Hamburg
By Patrick Reusse; Staff Writer
Hamburg qualified for the State Amateur baseball tournament in 1969. When Hamburg arrived in Jordan to play its first game, the people running the tournament asked if there was a nickname by which the team wanted to be identified.
Loran Graupmann was a star pitcher for Hamburg for more than 20 years. In 1969, Graupmann was both the manager and a pitcher. He had two nicknames in his hometown - Lefty and The Hawk.
"They started calling me `Lefty' in grade school, for an obvious reason," Graupmann said. "Someone started calling me `The Hawk' while I was pitching town-team ball. I can't remember the reason for it."
Graupmann's players on the '69 team appreciated what the lefthander had meant for Hamburg baseball. Asked for a nickname that day in Jordan, the Hamburg players said, "We're the Hawks."
Twenty-nine years later, the Hamburg Baseball Association has carved a gem of a ballpark from the corn fields that bump against the northwest corner of town. And there is a sign above the cement grandstand that reads: "Home of the Hawks"
The grandstand and bleachers now seat 1,200 at the Hamburg ballpark. The lights that illuminate the field were the first set used at the Metrodome. The $25,000 electronic scoreboard in right field has the capability of spelling out the names of the opponents, not merely "Visitors" and "Home," as is the case with most small-town scoreboards.
"It cost an extra $6,000 to put in the electronics to spell out the names," Wendell Stuewe said.
Hamburg, a village of 525, was set to share the 1998 State Amateur baseball tournament - the 75th anniversary tournament - with Chaska. George Droege, retired after 50 years in the construction business, and Gerry Beneke, owner of a company that sells agricultural specialty products, wrote out checks to pay for the new scoreboard.
Droege and Beneke were co-chairmen of the Hamburg portion of the tournament. Stuewe was in charge of the committee that made sure the ballpark was ready. The scoreboard - complete with the ability to spell a town's name - was the final piece to make this a first-class country ballpark.
Hamburg was a host for the state tournament with Arlington in 1983. It shared the tournament with Chaska in 1988. Now, 10 years later, tiny Hamburg and fast-growing Chaska are again splitting the Class B and Class C tournaments.
There are 292 teams affiliated with the State Amateur Baseball Association. Thirty-eight are located inside the Interstate 494-694 corridor and compete in the Class A tournament in the Twin Cities. There are 46 teams in Class B and 208 in Class C.
This is the second weekend of the B-C tournaments. After today, there will be eight teams left in both classifications to decide the championships on Labor Day weekend. There were four Class C games at both locations Saturday.
Saturday's second game at Hamburg was a lively contest between the Union Hill Bulldogs and Glencoe, a Hamburg rival from the Crow River League.
Union Hill is a stop on the road that consists of St. John's Catholic Church, Huck's Bar, 10 houses and 30 residents. The farms in the area swell the parish membership to 300, and the Union Hill ballpark is home to the Bulldogs and three other teams - pee wees, a developmental team (13 to 17 years) for the Bulldogs and an over-35 team.
Union Hill had the task of facing Glencoe righthander Brian Jenneke in this second-round game. Jenneke, 21, is entering his junior year at North Dakota State and has a chance to be the Bison's No. 1 starter next spring.
Paul Hahn gave Jenneke a lead with a home run in the second. Nate Gorr made it 3-0 with a long two-run home run in the fifth. Jenneke was cruising along, throwing his slurve - half curve, half slider - more than 50 percent and sending the Bulldogs waving back to the dugout.
It was 4-2 when Union Hall batted in the ninth. The inning opened with an error and then Jenneke's 16th strikeout. Eventually, the bases were loaded with two outs and Mick Gill, a .457 hitter entering the tournament, was batting.
On the second pitch, Gill lifted a fly, and first baseman Hahn ran it down in foul territory.
"I was saying, `Come on, Paul, catch it, so I don't have to throw another pitch,' " Jenneke said. "I don't know how many pitches I had today. It was a lot. You don't count pitches in town-team ball. Unless you say you're dead tired, you keep going out there."
Glencoe's victory completed Saturday's first session. The ballpark was emptied for a quick cleaning, then tickets were sold for the evening doubleheader.
For the Hamburg Baseball Association, the main financial reward in hosting the tournament is concessions revenue. The hottest selling item is beer - $1.75 for a Miller or a Budweiser.
Saturday's final game featured Richmond and Sobieski. Last weekend, the Richmond fans arrived two busloads strong and very thirsty. The Hamburg beer sellers were ready for another workout as the Richmond buses arrived on this perfect beer-drinking, ball-watching night.
"A Richmond guy told me last week that they get on the bus to drink beer," Gerry Beneke said. "And if they get here and a ballgame happens to break out, that's fine."