DUNDAS, Minn. – State amateur baseball was the general name for the sport played in Minnesota in the late spring and summer, but it has since transitioned to town team baseball and is now often shortened to townball.
Whatever their handle name, a practice I rediscovered decades ago as fodder for the occasional column, Star Tribune commenters are quick to respond with vitriol when they disagree with opinions on more important subjects (like P.J. Fleck).
“Ruse should focus on small-town baseball.”
The Dundas Dukes have been involved in more column action than perhaps any other team since their 1980 final loss to New Ulm Kaiserhof and Terry Steinbach at Cold Spring.
Bill Nelson was a star pitcher at Dundas.
“I was 28 then, Steiny was 18, and we were the MVPs of the tournament,” Nelson said. “Mike Gelfand wrote in the Star Tribune that my career was in front of me and Steiny’s was in front of him.”
Nelson pitched regularly for the next eight years before becoming the Dukes’ manager and continuing to help scout for talent starting in 1989.
Steinbach? He played three seasons with the Goppers, 14 seasons in the major leagues, three All-Star games and seven RBIs in the 1989 World Series.
“Gelfand wasn’t wrong,” Nelson said this week.
A month ago, when floods hit southern Minnesota (and other areas), I drove up to Dundas to see the village’s Memorial Park submerged.
The Cannon River had risen over the other side of the fence and the field was submerged under a foot or more of water.
The outlook for future home games looked ominous. Less than a month later, the Cannons were back where they belonged, with the field a glorious green for a weekday night game against the neighboring Northfield Knights.
I was there with Nelson to watch a few innings of this game, and on this perfect baseball night, we happened to be talking about Big Lou Olson, the greatest player in Duke history and the slugging MVP of the 1982 state champions.
“Lou hit the ball through the trees and sometimes into the river,” Nelson said.
And at that moment, Nate Van Roekel, today’s big Duke player (though not quite as athletic as Liu), hit a ball toward left-center field and it flew away… the home team took an early 2-0 lead.
I took the shot as a tribute to Big Lew, and also to Nelson, the baseball player from Dundas who has been getting some bad news in recent days.
The world of town ball is widespread, but it’s also a small world where rumors spread quickly.
Out of the blue, a few weeks ago, I got a few messages like this: “Bill Nelson has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
The last time we spoke, he was in Florida with some of his brothers celebrating Bruce’s 80th birthday when the Dundas ballpark flooded.
“I wasn’t feeling too well at the time, but I thought I had pancreatitis,” Nelson said. “It turned out to be cancer. It’s a tough disease, but I’m going to try chemotherapy.”
Harold and Marilyn Nelson owned a farm in Clarks Grove, near Albert Lea, and within a decade six sons were born: Bruce, Bob, Byron, Bill and Greg, followed eight years later by John.
Greg played catcher for the Bills at Albert Lea High School, in Augsburg and on Dick’s Place, a powerhouse state amateur team run by Gary Demers in the Twin Cities.
John followed Nelson’s footsteps to Augsburg, where he pitched 15 complete games in a season, setting a Division III record. Both Bill and John are in the Augsburg Hall of Fame.
Dundas won two state titles with Bill as pitcher and two more with him as manager, won again in 2015 with Mike Ludwig as manager and has been runner-up eight times in its career.
Dundas will co-host the state tournament with Faribault and Miesville in 2022, further enhancing an already excellent baseball field.
As a preliminary selection, Nelson organized a banquet for all previous state tournament MVPs. 62 people attended, including Jim Eisenreich, who played for St. Cloud-Bourdeaux High School in 1984. Steiny was there, too.
“It was a great night,” Nelson said.
It was another such game this week: The Dukes won, 8-7, and Nelson was there with his wife, Pat.
“Someone said to Pat, ‘You must really love baseball to marry him,'” Nelson said. “And Pat replied, ‘I loved baseball before I loved Bill.'”
