This baseball season, it was rare when there were no baseball games being played at either Johnson Park or Mueller Park.

This year, the parks combined to host 139 games, with Johnson having 84 games played on it and Mueller 55 games.

Last year there were 141 combined games on both fields.

The games started this season on April 4 at Mueller when Minnesota Valley Lutheran hosted Madelia and on April 26 at Johnson Park when New Ulm Cathedral entertained Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart.

Games ended at both parks (unless the New Ulm Brewers play an exhibition game to stay sharp for the Region 2C playoffs) on July 27 when both parks hosted Tomahawk East League games.

So this season averaged over a game per day and had the Region 2AAA tournament, the Junior Upper Midwest Classic, the Upper Midwest Classic, the Second District VFW Tournament and the DII Junior Legion East Sub, Sub-state tournament.

It takes a lot of volunteers to help all of those tournaments and all of the regular season games go smooth — not only the New Ulm Baseball Association Board members, but the dozens of other volunteers, especially in the concession stand.

They spent a lot of long hours at the parks.

The food was second to none — the volunteers were the BEST.

So a big “Thank You” to ALL of the people who made the 139 games here and the season a huge success.

And with 139 games at both parks, a big “Thank You” has to go out to Ed Tietel and his grounds crew, who work on both fields each day. There is a lot of wear and tear on both parks with those number of games. The 84 games at Johnson are more than the Twins will play at Target Field during the regular season.

STEEL NAMES ASSISTANT COACH: Alex North, the head coach/General Manager of the New Ulm Steel named Tommy Adams as his assistant coach Friday morning.

Adams will also work with the goaltenders.

“Tommy is a goalie from Plymouth, Minnesota, and he was a guy I wanted because of his goaltending background,” North said. “He played Junior Hockey in Canada (Meaford, Ontario in the Great Metro Hockey League).”

North said that what separated Adams from the rest of the applicants came in his interview.

“We were already talking about players,” North said. “Tommy has a lot of connections in Minnesota hockey and in an area that I do not necessarily have, so we can compliment each other very well there. And being from the Twin Cities, he has those connections with high school coaches.”

Adams said that he wanted to coach because he just loves hockey.

“There is no better job than working in hockey,” he said. “I am a hard worker — I love the game — and I can pass that on to the players, along with my passion for the game.”

North said that Steel players will start reporting to New Ulm on August 15. He said that there is still a need for billet families in the area.

Those interested in hosting a player this season can contact Karen Haala at 507-276-2063.

North also said that he has signed New Ulm High School graduate Josh Gulden to a Steel contract.