Amateur baseball participation growing steadily around the state – Jamestown Sun
JAMESTOWN — The peak of amateur baseball might never return but the number of people playing this summer is steadily increasing.
According to former longtime coach and teacher Tom Gould, there have been three new teams added to the state this year, the LaMoure Woodpeckers, Oakes and Wahpeton. Gould said he is hoping the sport continues to grow from the 23 teams that they have now.
Gould said the peak of amateur baseball in North Dakota came in the late 1940s through the 1960s, when all area towns had teams. As far as why the numbers have dropped over time, Gould has his theories.
“Amateur baseball’s a tough deal, you’ve got to make a commitment, you’ve got to drive to play games. It’s not like slow-pitch softball where you can go up to the same town and play,” Gould said. “It’s a commitment thing and kids sometimes today maybe have a little bit difficult time committing to playing baseball because it is a frustrating sport, and it is a commitment.”
One of the most established players in the state is Bryan Erstad, who has been playing for the Jamestown Merchants since 2000. Erstad said in order to keep a team running, there needs to be a mix of veteran players and younger players who want to use it as an opportunity to stay in shape during the summer.
“I’m one of those guys that has to prioritize my kids and coaching,” Erstad said. “I’ve only made it to one game this year but I still enjoy managing and making sure guys are there and the schedule’s set and umpires are there and everything’s getting taken care of. It takes someone like that to really organize a team and keep it going.”
During the peak of amateur baseball in the state, Gould said there were teams in every small town around the state. While the current numbers of players are not available, there are teams from multiple towns in the state, including two teams in Jamestown, the Jamestown Greyhounds and the Jamestown Elks.
Erstad said while he has noted the numbers have dropped from the early 2000s, he has seen the number of teams stay consistent.
“I don’t think it’ll ever get there (to the early 2000s level of participation) but the whole thing is … Bismarck used to have a league, their league folded,” Gould said. “Somebody’s gotta grab the bull by the horns and get something organized. Fargo now’s got a nice little league, they have like six teams. Grand Forks doesn’t play anymore, hopefully somebody down there can get something going. But … we’re fortunate in Jamestown, when we use the park it doesn’t cost us a ton but these other places it costs a lot of money to rent the park and all that kind of stuff. It’s a continual battle, we just hope we can keep holding on.”
Erstad said in order for the sport to continue to grow around the state there needs to be a lot of ground work from people who have a stake in amateur baseball.
“It takes some people to help organize for it,” Erstad said. “One, you gotta have to have some people who are really driven to start a team, I guess, if there’s not a local team in your area. You need someone to kind of spearhead it and recruit some players to keep playing and find sponsorships, find field availability, find umpires. There’s a lot of things that go into it to run a team. … As long as we can have the teams keep fielding teams and play some ball, join the state tournaments at the end of the year, I think that’s a good direction that they’re headed.”
Gould said every time the Hounds or the Elks hosts a doubleheader, it costs $200 to pay the umpires, the people who go fetch the baseballs and to buy the baseballs themselves.
The three amateur tournaments, the Old Pro, AAA and AA, all call Jamestown and Jack Brown Stadium home.
This season, there are no amateur baseball teams west of Jamestown, something Erstad posited might have something to do with all that it takes to have an amateur team. Gould said one of the most important ingredients in growing the sport is expanding it westward. Erstad said he believes the lack of teams out west is due to the prevalence of softball in the western part of North Dakota with events like the Sam McQuade SR Charity Softball Tournament taking up a lot of people’s time and energy.
“I know softball is always a big competing sport with even baseball players, there’s a lot of softball leagues,” Erstad said. “… (It) maybe has something to do with field availability too as far as I’m not sure how easy it is to access baseball fields in those towns and the price to play, that always goes up as well, cost can be an issue. I know in Jamestown they’ve traditionally made it pretty affordable for amateur teams to play there and have access to the field. … Tom Gould and the Park(s) and Rec are great examples of allowing amateur players to continue playing at an affordable rate.”
This season’s Jamestown Hounds roster includes four college players, Isaac Mitchell from Bismarck State College, Connor Hoyt and Grady Shipman from Valley City State University, and Mason Lunzman, who is transferring from Bismarck State to Dickinson State University. The current Jamestown Merchants squad includes two current college players, Jackson Baeth and Jake Jaroszewski, who both play for the University of Minnesota Crookston. Hoyt said playing against some of the other college kids playing amateur baseball will help him because he continues to get challenged against high-level pitchers. Hounds captain Danny Fischer said the younger players on the team are important because they are the future of the sport if they want it to continue.
“We got a really good mix. …” Fischer said. “You need to rely on those young guys because they do a lot for us. Grady, Connor and Isaac, they bring that youth and they come out and they play with the old guys, they try and stay as sharp as they can for their school seasons and get ready and rehab and get reps and do all that kind of thing. We’re happy to have them and it’s great to have some local kids that want to play and continue to play and do that sort of thing, it’s wonderful to have.”
