NEW ULM– The Minnesota Baseball Association Board of Directors knows that this year’s State Amateur Baseball Tournament in New Ulm and Springfield has some issues that, because of COVID-19, have never had to be addressed before.

On Saturday at the New Ulm Country Club, the MBA met with tournament chairmen and city officials from both cities to try and address the issues.

One of the issues facing New Ulm, because of the concern of COVID19, is trying to find enough volunteer workers for both Johnson and Mueller Parks in New Ulm and Riverside Park in Springfield.

“Each town has their own group of workers,” MBA President Fred Roufs said. “And the people that are willing to work will show up. I think that the Tomahawk East League has already voiced some opportunity to help and I think that there are going to be other teams that will be willing to come into New Ulm and help with the workers.”

Roufs said that he fully understands that there are going to be some fans and workers who are going to chose not to come to the games.

“They can do whatever they would chose to do but we are hoping that there will be plenty of workers.”

One of the other big issues will be the six-foot social distancing, which may be hard to enforce during a state tournament.

Roufs said that before each game and in the third and sixth innings, the public address announcer will announce the social distancing issue.

“We are prepared to stop the games and tell the fans that if they do not separate the game will be delayed,” Roufs said. “We will have signage that Brown County Health and the cities will be helping with. There are already markings on the ground by the concession stands in each park. People have to be respectful of other people and in the majority of the games that I have gone to, people have been real good about social distancing. Social distancing is very important. If you are going to be within six feet of someone for longer than 15 minutes that is an issue.”

Roufs said that if a situation does arise where a game has to be delayed because fans are not social distancing, that call will be made by the local baseball association and the state board.

“The tournament chairmen from the sites will be at the games all of the time and they will be waking around and wil be able to identify that. We are in this as a team so we all wil work together on that.”

Parks will be emptied after each game for dugouts, bleachers and restrooms to be sanitized.

“Parks will be emptied from one gate with new fans coming in from a different gate,” Roufs said.

Roufs said that the MBA met with Brown County Health Director Karen Moritz on Friday

“She is an excellent person and is very organized. She wants us to have a good tournament,” Roufs said. “She is concerned about the safety in Brown County and so are we. I think that it will be a great working relationship with her. She has some great ideas and we are willing to work with her.”

Some other items from Saturday:

All players and workers will have to have their temperature checked before entering the parks.

Mueller Park will have additional portable bleachers added before the state tournament. Game tickets will be done by presale on the Minnesota Baseball Association website. There is the possibly that all fans coming to a game will have to have their temperature checked. Public Address announcers for the state tournament here in New Ulm will be Jim Bartels, Tyler Buckentine, Denny Laufenburger, Brent Roiger, Jill Bartels, Dick Jonkowski and Frank Whitcomb with Tom Wheeler in the bullpen.

All volunteers for the state tournament must wear masks.