Fastpitch softball was once a big deal in Carlton County

It’s probably been more than 20 years since there was an active Carlton County fastpitch softball league. I thought about it the other day when I was driving down Minnesota Highway 210 toward Cromwell and passed the old Iverson Inn ballfield. The inn, a bar and restaurant that grilled great hamburgers and served ice-cold beer, burned down to the ground many years ago. The adjacent ball field still has a backstop today but does not resemble the field where I had the privilege of playing fastpitch softball for a decade or so. There is a big pile of dirt where the pitcher’s mound once existed, with no home run fence or infield diamond.

My older brother got me interested in playing when I was in ninth grade in 1969. The county fastpitch league was very active in the 1960s and into the 1990s. The original teams included the Highway Patrol, the Scanlon Volunteer Fire Department, Blackhoof Valley, Moose Lake and Barnum.

By the mid-1970s there were 11 teams and two divisions, north and south. Teams included Dairy Queen (Cloquet Hilltoppers whose field was by Fond du Lac College), Cloquet Royals (the field was on Reservation Road), Scanlon’s Don’s Rendezvous (played at Sather Park), Blackhoof Valley (on County Highway 5), Barnum, Moose Lake Oil (field by Mercy Hospital), Henry’s Skelly/Carlton VFW, Wrenshall/Rocket Al and the Continental Kids, which included players from Mahtowa, Kalevala and even Sandstone.

The all-star game was held at the Barnum field and broadcast on WKLK radio. The box scores and game summaries were published in the Pine Knot.

Cloquet was a Minnesota fastpitch softball capital in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with teams playing at Pinehurst Park. Players from this era are in the Minnesota Fastpitch Hall of Fame and teams won state championships. Local interest in the sport was growing. Games at Pinehurst Park drew crowds of more than 1,000 people. There was no internet, ESPN or other distractions.

I’m not sure if the Cloquet teams spurred interest in young kids in the county or if the sport’s popularity simply just catapulted.

Pitching is a necessity for fastpitch softball success. It takes hours of practice to perfect the underhand — often referred to as “windmill” — pitching motion. Most Carlton County teams had one primary pitcher with maybe one or two rarely used relievers. The pitchers would practice in front of sheds, chicken coops, and barns — any place with a hard surface.

Many fields evolved across the county. A few were established city parks or ball fields but many were former hayfields and even some were adjacent to bars and restaurants. The ball field dimensions were very similar to Little League baseball. It often took many hours from players, volunteers and friends to maintain the fields — tackling chores like cutting grass, dragging the infields, putting out bases and even repairing bleachers and fences.

There must not have been free agency in county softball as a majority of players stayed with their same local team for decades. Here are some of the county’s legends, by no means a complete list:

• Scanlon and later Iverson Inn had the Korby boys, Chuck Walczak, Daryl Harper, Paul Howe, Jeff Hedlund, the Karjala brothers, Tim Forrest, Tom Tyman, and Bruce Johnson.

• Dairy Queen included the Smith and Putnam brothers, and Jerry Honkala.

• Royals all-star players were the Big George Houle, Willie Diver, and John Issacson.

• Perennial Moose Lake players included player- coach Duane Anderson, Chuck and Jerry (last names unknown) and the Ryden family, including father and sons.

• Randy Myhre and Buzz Delarosby pitched for Barnum. Other players were the Benson brothers and current Carlton County commissioner Gary Peterson.

• Blackhoof Valley included brother combinations: Swansons, Soukkalas, and Haleys.

• Mahtowa had the Mundell, Nuumala, and Lindstrom brothers.

• Wrenshall had Mike Hyland, Maury Veilluex and Frank Meinart.

• Carlton was led by pitcher-catcher and brother combination Rick and Mel Schlaffer respectively, plus Bones Crandall, Doug Omar and Henry D.

• Continental kids had Rocket Al, the McMillan brothers and Bob Howe.

• Kalavala had its famous pitcher, Hoot Johnson.

Moose Lake and Blackhoof Valley had the most impressive summer weekend tournaments. Both tourneys usually had 16 teams, used two or more fields, and crowned a champion on Sunday evening. Concessions were sold and the teams used the funding to buy uniforms, balls, bats, egg lime, chalk, umpires and other costs associated with operating a ball club for the whole season. Entries usually included most Carlton County fastpitch teams, plus out-of-area squads from Duluth, the Iron Range and the Cambridge area to the south. Championship games saw crowds of more than 250 people. It was not uncommon for pitchers to log more than 30 innings in one day.

County teams had success. The Blackhoof Valley “Crew of ’72” claimed immortality by going undefeated for a whole season. The Mahtowa Tavern team, led by pitcher Mick Mundell, won the Minnesota Class B State Tournament in the 1980s. The Rendezvous of Scanlon, once again led by Mundell and comprised of Mahtowa Tavern and Iverson Inn players, competed in two national softball tournaments in Arizona.

So, what happened? Why no fastpitch softball today?

It’s hard to say for sure, and we could incorporate sociologists to do an analysis, but maybe it was just a change of interests. Maybe it’s because we have fewer chicken coops?

I know one thing for certain, the Carlton County fastpitch “boys of summer” are gone but not completely forgotten.