Staff photo by Fritz Busch Randy Krzmarzick of Sleepy Eye presents "Baseball and Brown County: Still in the Glove" at the Brown County Historical Society Lunch and a Bite of History program in the museum annex Thursday. Krzmarzick holds a copy of the June 1, 1941 New York Sunday Mirror sports spage with a story of Babe Ruth's Oct. 16, 1922 appearance at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

NEW ULM — In a quick 90 minutes Thursday, Sleepy Eye farmer and baseball history lover Randy Krzmarzick glowingly recalled Brown County baseball history from July of 1871 to the present day.

His stories ranged from the likes of major league stars Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Terry Steinbach to Western Minny League semi-pro players, Division 1 college players, New Ulm’s American Legion World Series team to high school and amateurs.

Brown County amateur baseball goes back to the first game reported in a newspaper in July 1871 when Iberia played at Golden Gate. A horse race was held after the game.

“Those two communities were important places back then with mills and stores,” Krzmarzick said. “Men were standing or seated closest to the field back then because they were often gambling. Women and children were behind them. It was very common to play on baseball fields inside a horse track.”

He said sometimes scores were quite one-sided. The New Ulm Germania team defeated the Sleepy Eye Wide Awakes 98-28 in June 1873.

Sometimes financial rewards were involved. Springfield played the Indian 9 of the Lower Sioux Reservation in 1895 with $25 going to the winners.

Some teams had creative nicknames. New Ulm’s business and professional men played a game at the Brown County Fairgrounds July 9, 1899. The “Leans” team topped the “Fats” 27-20. Other team names included the New Ulm Jolly Devils, Champions and the Hardly Ables.

The 1899 Hanska Mudhens won the Brown County League title with six players named Wellmann.

Elmer “Doc” Hamann of the New Ulm Laundry team was recruited by the Cleveland Indians in 1922 and played briefly with the team.

Homerun-hitting sensation Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees stopped in Sleepy Eye on an October 1922 barnstorming tour.

Krzmarzick displayed aJune 1, 1941 New York Sunday Mirror sports story in which Ruth described the event that included the longest home run he ever saw.

“When we arrived at Sleepy Eye, the town band was there to meet us along with leading officials,” Ruth said. “It was hailing so hard when the train pulled up there, every time the tuba player blew on his instrument, hail came out like he was popping corn.”

Ruth said the ball park was packed with more than 2,500 people. When his teammate, Bob Meusel was to bat in the fifth inning, he said it was so cold, he couldn’t hold a bat so Ruth recruited a big, husky guy from the crowd to bat.

The guy hit a ball over the left fielder’s head but stood at the plate watching it and refused to run, saying he didn’t have to because the ball was hit so far.

In 1939, New Ulm’s Johnson Park became the first ballpark with electric lights in rural Minnesota.

The Western Minny semipro league was the pinnacle of Minnesota amateur baseball from 1940 to 1957. Players were paid to play in places like Fairfax, New Ulm, Sleepy Eye and Springfield.

“Some guys played in the Western Minny because they were paid more than they could earn in the major leagues,” said Krzmazick.

Big stars came from small towns. Elden Anderson pitched the Comfrey team to seven league titles.

Powered by Donald “Duke” and Mel Cook, Leavenworth made it to Minnesota Class B State Tournament in 1949. There were five amateur teams in Leavenworth and Mulligan Township in the 1950’s.

Searles had a strong team in 1957 managed by Gene Forstner that included Laverne and Ken Kuck and Bobby Grossmann.

Helget brothers and cousins were most of the Stark amateur team before Myron Seidl joined the team that won the Tomahawk League and Region II playoffs in 1973

Krzmarzick displayed a photo of nuns playing baseball at Leavenworth decades ago.

“They (nuns) still play kickball in Searles,” said a woman at the program.

Krzmarzick listed other area players who made the major leagues including Lester “Les Rock” Schwarzrock and Bob Hegman of Springfield, Sleepy Eye native Fred Bruckbauer, New Ulm native Brad Gulden who played for the Yankees, Mariners, Expos, Red and Giants form 1979 to 1986, New Ulm’s Terry Steinbach, perhaps Brown County’s most successful major league player.

Other New Ulm players to make the majors included Hank Nicklasson, Brian Raabe and Jamie Hoffmann. Raabe was drafted by the Minnesota Twins and played with the Seattle Mariners and Colorado Rockies before playing in Japan. Hoffmann signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals before being traded to the Yankees. He later returned to the Dodgers briefly.

New Ulm native and left-handed pitcher Ethan Stade was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 18th round of the 2026 major league draft. He played at Bowling Green State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Krzmarzick said one of Brown County’s most electrifying moments was when the New Ulm American Legion baseball team reached the American Legion World Series in Yakima, Washington in 1978. The team won the Great Lakes Regional at Johnson Park and advanced to the World Series in Kokomo, Indiana in 1985, winning one of three games.