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Column: Raabe having success in Year 7 at Bethel University

New Ulm native Brian Raabe has always had the possibility of being a head baseball coach on his mind.

“I knew I was a pretty good player and I knew I was a student of the game,” Raabe said. “I always figured that I would want to give back to the game. But there are not many (coaching) jobs open.”

Now in his seventh season as head baseball coach at Bethel University, Raabe has the Royals at 29-9 record this season and the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs.

“It was always a goal of mine to put myself in a positon to get a head coaching job someday and obviously it has worked out good,” said Raabe, who was the head baseball coach at Forest Lake High School from 2001-2011.

And Raabe, who played at New Ulm High School and the University of Minnesota before playing professional baseball for the Twins, Seattle, Colorado and also in Japan, has had been able to learn from two great coaches in now retired New Ulm High School coach Jim Senske and current University of Minnesota coach John Anderson.

“The big thing is to have a passion for the game,” Raabe said. “Jim had a passion and love for the game and that is something that I have. And from John and his assistant coach Rob Fornasiere is how much they enjoyed their players and built a great culture. And that is something that I am trying to do at Bethel — have that passion for the game and give that passion back to my players.”

Raabe said that the two things that both Senske and Anderson instilled in him is the understanding of the game and the fundamentals.

“They taught the fundamentals of the game extremely well,” Raabe said. “And in order to play the game of baseball you have to be a very fundamentally sound player. Both John and Jim did that.”

Raabe also said that he learned early that two aspects of the game win championships. “Pitching and defense win championships,” he said. “If you can pitch and play defense, you can win a lot of baseball games and that is how we do at Bethel. We are No. 1 in the country as far as ERA. And last year (when the Royals finished at 33-9) we set a record for our defense.”

When Raabe is looking at a potential player for Bethel, he looks for a player that has the same passion that is identical to his.

“I want players who love to come to practice and love the game. Those are the players that I try and go after. And I look for the good classroom student who plays the game the right way.”

With the success that Raabe has posted at Bethel, would he consider a jump to a higher level of college baseball?

“You never know what can come up down the line,” he said. “I never say never to anything. I really enjoy it at Bethel. We have done a lot of great things here, but you never know what possibilities can come up.”

UPPER MIDWEST CLASSIC UP TO 20 TEAMS; The 2018 Upper Midwest Classic which runs from July 5 through the 8th, now has 20 teams.

They are Mankato American and Mankato National,Las Vegas, St. Michael, Wayzata, Springfield, Minneapolis Millers, New Ulm Blue. New Ulm Gold, LeSueuer/Henderson, Waconia, Harrisburg, South Dakota, Marshall, Creighton Prep, Sleepy Eye, North St. Paul, Eastview, Brandon Valley, South Dakota, Rosetown and Chaska.

The Junior Upper Midwest Classic, which runs from June 28 through July 1st has 16 teams including New Ulm Gold, Osseo, Fridley, Sleepy Eye, Hopkins, Mankato, Maple Grove, Wayzata, New Ulm Silver, Harrisburg, South Dakota, Hutchinson, Chaska, Luverne, Willmar, Springfield, and the Tonka Mudhens.

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