The Small Town Baseball Commute

Longtime ballplayer and current WBA Champion Travis Thompson kicks off season 2 of The Commute!

Ken Daly is one of those great characters within and around the town ball community. Ken has hooked up with several local ball clubs, serving as a guest PA announcer, building a collection of hats from each team, and rubbing elbows with locals around the grandstands, bleachers, and concession stands throughout central Minnesota. His appearance in the stands, a stranger wearing the home team hat, has caused many over the years to ask, "Who is that guy?" Here on the pod, we find out!

Drew Block and I graduated a decade apart, 1999 (me) and 2009 (Drew), from the hallowed hallways of Rochester's Mayo High School. The other thing in common we have is a life around amateur baseball, and in this pod we discuss the past, present, and future of the Rochester Royals. This one comes with a minimal amount of me saying "hey, ya know this guy?" but yeah, there's a little of that...

Andy Niese has a wealth of experience in town baseball. Whether it was scanning the Eau Claire newspaper for box scores as a kid, breaking into the league with the Cadott Red Sox in the early 1990s, or continuing to grace the field with the Eau Claire Rivermen today. Niese has served in leadership roles in the CRBL and the WBA, and for this humble podcaster, he'll also be on the Mount Rushmore of Great Baseball Guys. Plus, in this episode Andy will teach you what a boutique is.

We spoke with a couple of the Hortonville Stars of the Dairyland League, Mike Bunkelman and Luke Baeman. The Stars have experienced a bit of a resurgence in the last few years, built on local talent and a long tradition of great baseball in Hortonville and neighboring Greenville. We talked with the guys amidst a snow storm hitting the area, and there's no better way to escape the winter than talking a little ball!

Gary Isensee has been the manager of Sparta Miller, near La Crosse, WI, for the better part of three decades now. In addition to serving in Sparta, Gary is currently the president of the Wisconsin Baseball Association.

When you were 13, did anyone call your mom to ask you to play in a town ball game? Me neither! Brooks Maurer started his career with the team in Atwater before heading to school and landing a teaching job in Luverne, Minnesota. He's gone on to be the manager of the Redbirds, so we talk some Redbird ball, a little about scheduling, and in general just had some fun baseball talk for this Wednesday evening ride home.

For our holiday-week episode, we talked with Jason Booth of the Brookfield Bulldogs and Land O' Lakes League. We talked a little Christmas prep before getting into our own smorgasbord of topics around managing teams and the role of local media in helping promote our game. Also - have you thought about a league-wide golf outing instead of all our own teams hosting one? I hadn't until this conversation...

It can take a lot of hands to run a town ball team, and that's true of the Anoka Bucs too. What sets the Bucs apart, like some other notable town teams, is that it's a family affair. For this episode we speak with the whole Wells clan - player-manager J.D. Wells, his wife Megan, and JD's parents, Heidi and Dave. We talk plenty of Bucs baseball, and also get a chance to talk about what's enjoyable with each of their roles with the ball club.

"Baseball 365" is two things in Minnesota town baseball - a class A team in Minneapolis' Park National League, and a great baseball shop carrying everything you need just off 494 and 35W in Bloomington, Minnesota. The shop is run by brothers Nate and Ryan Cousins, both longtime town ball players originally from Moorhead. We caught up with Nate for this episode, where we talk about his town ball story, career as a pitcher, and what possessed them to start a this great shop where you can get everything from a new bat, box of D-1 Pros, or a rosin bag.