Good evening District 27. Tomorrow our South Dakota Little League Champions from Sioux Falls play in Game 12 of the Midwest Regional Tournament in Whitestown, Indiana to advance to the Championship Game on Friday to punch their ticket to the Little League World Series to be held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania August 14-25. I extend my best wishes to them. They are currently 2-0 in the tournament. See the posted 2024 Little League Baseball Midwest Region Tournament bracket (below).
I recall growing up as a child playing Little League Baseball with my classmates and siblings. I started out in the Minor League (Age: 9-10), then moved up to the Major League (Age: 11-12), and ultimately to the Senior League (Age: 13-15). I then skipped Teener’s baseball and moved on to play Legion Baseball with my two older brothers.
My favorite years of playing baseball were in the Minor and Major League. I didn’t have any brothers on my team and I got to play a lot of positions: Catcher, Third Base, Pitcher, and Outfield. My dad umpired a lot of my ball games back then. He had a wide strike zone to move the game along. Ask my younger sibling about that…
I enjoyed my years playing under Coach Duane Chladek. He was the best coach that I had. He taught us kids the fundamentals of baseball and always said when getting up to bat, “We just need a little contact.” In other words, we shouldn’t swing for the fence. He taught us signs on when to steal, take a pitch, bunt the ball, or hit away. He also taught us how to cut the bases to save steps when running the bases. He taught us how to be in position for a hit ground ball. To retrieve a hit ground ball, we were to have our knees bent, leaning forward ready to charge it, and scoop it up with our glove on the ground while using the other hand to protect it from falling out of our gloves. He then told us to bend a knee and to use our body to prevent the ball from going through our legs. Coach Chladek never scolded us and made sure that we all got to play. I recall our team ended up playing in the Sertoma Little League Championship, but I believe we lost that game to another tough team.
I also remember hitting an in-the-park homerun during a game and after the game Mr. Chladek gave me a gift certificate for a free Big Duffer Burger to be traded in at the Lil’ Duffer Restaurant located on Broadway Avenue (in Yankton). My mom would take my siblings and me to the restaurant after the game to turn in our Big Duffer certificates. After the game, having the burger with a chocolate or vanilla shake was a treat for all of us. If I recall, I ended up getting two Big Duffers that year.
In my second year of playing in the Major Leagues, Mr. Chladek contacted my mom to see if it was okay for me to try out for the All-Stars. We had to attend practice all week and I got to play in the game, but at the end of the day, only two out of three from each team could go on to represent the Yankton All-Stars in the State Tournament. You can guess who did not get selected.
The following year I participated in the Senior League. I was on my team with one of my older siblings. Unfortunately, there were 15 players on the team and only 9 got to play. I sat on the bench and cheered for the team. I remember tearing up when I was finally asked to get up to bat by the female coach because I thought I would never get to play. It didn’t seem right to me that the coach’s son and his friends always got to play and the remaining six always had to sit out for the entire six or seven innings. Those on the bench never got the opportunity to develop their skills as a result and were quickly written off by the two parents who coached the team. The following year I had a new coach and no longer in the shadow of my older sibling. Rollie Hausmann saw great potential in me. I even got to pitch and catch in the games and played all sorts of positions on the field. Mr. Hausmann fielded a good team and made us better players always encouraging us on and to “talk it up” in the field to support one another.
In my last year of Senior League, I remember telling my dad early on in the season how my left arm was starting to get crooked. I could not straighten it and he said I just needed to exercise it. Throughout the season, my health steadily declined and by mid-July, my teammates were kidding me that I was running between bases like I was “pulling a plow” out there. One day, my sister and cousins woke me up and found my nose as big as a clown’s nose. My dad took me to the clinic and the doctor in Freeman said that I needed to be checked in to the hospital, but my dad decided to wait until my aunt evaluated me and she urged him to take me to the hospital the following day. I was checked into a hospital for a whole week and was diagnosed with severe staph infection which, if left untreated, would have killed me. I won’t go into the details of what led up to it, but this event would eventually be the beginning of the end of my summer baseball playing.
My older brothers would end up winning a State “B” Legion Baseball Championship in 1983 and the following summer I skipped Teener Ball and was told by my dad that I would play on the Lesterville Legion baseball team with two of my older brothers since he didn’t want a lot of cars driving up and down the roads for baseball practice and games. Hence, it was the summer of sitting the bench and playing right field. It was no longer fun and the team was not as cohesive as the previous season when they had won the state championship. It was a rebuilding year since many of the previous year’s players were no longer eligible to play. The opportunity to improve or perform was quickly closing. After that summer, I no longer wanted to play baseball. Sitting the bench and being in my brother’s shadows was not what I would consider fun when I could be doing something more productive. My dad never pushed me to continue playing thereafter. One must understand that baseball was my dad’s favorite sport. It was either this sport or nothing at all since he would not allow us to participate in any other sports during the school year. Therefore, I took it upon myself to sharpen other skills that led me to where I am today.
I share this story with you because it helps one better understand that as a young child, we never know our true gifts unless someone else points it out, or nurtures those God-given skills or talents. My two coaches (Chladek and Hausmann) saw something in me, encouraged me, and gave me an opportunity to prove to myself that I was capable of playing baseball when given the opportunity. As a substitute teacher in the local school district, I saw so much potential in a child and shared with them of what they were capable of doing. However, I saw some teachers completely write off students because of poor behavior or lacking interest while participating in classroom activities. As an adult, we have to be willing to tap that potential out of our youth because many don’t know that they have it within them which brings me to the conclusion of this story.
I was tapped to run for state senate. I have never thought of running for a political office in my life. However, I was tapped from Above to do so because the Lord saw the potential within me. Out of obedience, I said, “Yes, Lord. I will do it, but you have to lead the way.” To this day, the Lord has not let me down and continues to have my back by giving me the strength and courage to persevere to the finish line. It is not easy running in a district that is 100 miles long by 100 miles wide, especially when there are many variables at play including the added expenses, but like Coach Chladek and Hausmann, who steadily guided me on the baseball field and allowed me to blossom as a Little League baseball player, I am becoming a better candidate as the campaign progresses and I am steadily becoming more at ease with answering questions when a voter approaches me. One of the major hurdles is understanding and learning about all the issues that are out there. This requires spending a lot of my time reading about state, local, and national issues, attending meetings, and then talking it over with the local voters to see how they react when asked about an issue. It goes without saying that “slow and steady wins the race.” If given the opportunity, I know I can be the state senator who can use his God-given talent for the benefit of all of District 27, much like the young Anthony who was given the opportunity to play on the baseball field many years ago and had fun while playing the game. God bless.
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