Retiree dartball league wraps up season

September through April, a group of regional male retirees get together at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet on Friday mornings to try their hand at dartball.

Players ranging in age from their late 50s to their late 90s continue to play week after week and year after year, with the league now decades old. The Cloquet league is very informal, with teams chosen randomly each week, which means a new champion each week too.

"That's two weeks in a row of my team winning all three games," said 90-year-old Bob Fuller after a set in early April. "I wonder if my wife will believe me when I get home and tell her. That was fun." Fuller isn't the only nonagenarian in the league. Bob Pearson is 90 and won an award for perfect attendance this season.

Dartball is fundamentally the same as baseball: players toss large darts, from about 15 feet away, at a sizable (4 by 4 foot) target board diagrammed with a diamond, complete with balls and strikes, outs, hits, errors, double plays, home runs ... just like a baseball game. Each player, usually on a four-player team, throws the official 7 ¼-inch darts underhand in order, until they get a hit, an out, and so on until three outs are recorded. As in baseball, a game lasts nine innings.

The first dartball board was introduced in America by the Apex Dart Company in 1923. The first dartball league was established in 1928. Life Magazine ran a March 1941 story on dartball, citing Philadelphia, Kansas City and Milwaukee as "strongholds of the sport." The sport is still very popular in many states - including Wisconsin, which holds a big state championship in Eau Claire annually.

The former president of Apex stated that the sport "was spread across the country by Johnny Appleseed types such as Lutheran ministers who would bring their dartboards and their Bibles as they moved from one congregation to the next."

That's almost exactly what happened in Cloquet.

According to local league commissioner/organizer Ray Wiles, dartball was introduced to Cloquet by Our Savior's pastor Gilbert "Gib" Lee Jr., who served the parish from 1972-1981.

Wiles makes the weekly team assignments, puts notifications in the newspaper of the league startup and ending, and even perks delicious coffee for all participants. He is also one of the top power hitters in the league and his father was a former player.

Wiles shared how he became commissioner.

"Once, Ray Manisto, who was going on vacation, asked me if I could make coffee for the league while he was gone," he said. "I agreed and he gave me the key to the coffee supplies. When he returned, I went to give him the key back, and he said 'No, it's yours now.' That's how I got it once upon a time!" Ray said that was several years ago now. (Fair warning to the group now if Ray goes on vacation.)

Scanlon's own Mike Berthiume serves as the league secretary, keeps attendance and notifies participants if there is a weather cancellation. He is probably more revered, however, for bringing homemade cookies and muffins each week for all the ball players.

Bruce Spetz is the league financial officer and also brings cheese and crackers and other treats weekly to the games.

The cost per player is $2 weekly, with a donation made annually to thank Our Savior's for use of the facility and to the New Horizons preschool kids, who provide musical entertainment to the retirees each week by singing songs.

Part of the reason for the league's success is the networking on coffee breaks between games and the occasional "chicken calls" and other friendly ribbing during the game's pressure-packed tosses. Everyone has a lot of fun. Thanks to all the volunteers and players who participated in the 2018-2019 season. Look for information in the Pine Knot News Bulletin Board and other places regarding league startup after Labor Day.