Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Members of the 1985 New Ulm legion baseball World Series team reunited at Johnson Park in New Ulm this past Saturday at the Upper Midwest Classic. Front row (l-r, sitting): Jeff Stoll (head coach), Bob Sellner, Brian Ginn, Scott Gleisner, Terry Helget, Todd Pfaff, Luke Herman (bat boy). Back row (l-r, standing): Curt Forbrook, Scott Schmidt, Chad Stoll, Mike Schiesl, Marshall Bloomer, Rick Wellmann, Russ Traurig, Kevin Hulke.

NEW ULM — 1985 New Ulm legion baseball player Rick Wellmann called the 1985 season “a dream of a summer.”

Saturday afternoon at Johnson Park members of that team came back to New Ulm for a 40th Anniversary reunion of their American Legion World Series appearance.

The team, coached by Jeff Stoll, went 32-15 and won the Great Lakes Regional held at Johnson Park that year.

New Ulm had lost 8-2 to Hutchinson in the Minnesota State American Legion Baseball Tournament but qualified for the Regional as the Host Team.

There, New Ulm defeated State College (PA) 11-9, Midland, Michigan, 3-2, and Barrington, Illinois, 8-7, before losing 8-4 to Oconomowoc, setting up a title game where New Ulm came away with a 12-inning, 8-4 win and New Ulm’s second Legion World Series berth in seven years.

In the World Series in Kokomo, Indiana, New Ulm lost 4-2 to West Covina, California, rebounded with a 4-3 win over Woodward, Oklahoma, before being eliminated by eventual World Series winner Midlothian, Virginia, 5-2.

“It was a great group of guys,” Wellmann said. “Everybody bonded together — we had players from Public, Cathedral, and Kevin Hulke from Minnesota Valley Lutheran — we meshed together.”

Wellmann said that a year before when New Ulm, who had played in the 1978 Legion World Series, found out that they were going to host the Great Lakes Regional, members of that team gave themselves a goal.

“We said that we were going to win it and play in the Legion World Series and people kind of laughed at that,” Wellmann said. “But our passion and love for the game and having the regional here gave us a chance to redeem ourselves (after a loss in the state tournament) and we ended up as one of the eight best legion teams in the United States.”

Mike Schiesl, who is retired and living in Hutchinson, echoed Wellmann’s words.

“We had the will to never lose a game,” said Schiesl, who went 10-6 on the mound for New Ulm that year. “We always found a way to win and we willed every victory that we could.

“It was a roller coaster in the regional — it always seemed like we were coming from behind, It was an incredible emotional experience to win it on your home park in front of 1,700 New Ulm fans.”

Chad Stoll, who was also a pitcher on the team that now lives in Buffalo, Minnesota, said the team’s bond was special due to the many years spent together.

“This was a group of guys who had played ball so long together — it was a team,” he said. “And we knew coming in that we could win the regional. And sometimes it seems just like yesterday and I remember all of the fans that we had here — and my fondest memory of that winning the regional was hugging my dad on the field.”

Jeff Stoll, Chad’s older brother that now lives in Kalispell, Montana, managed the team and again echoed the fact that this team was close and loved to play baseball.

“Having my brother on the team was extra special,” he said. “And for us to get to the championship game and have Johnson Park packed with fans from New Ulm was something special.

“And we had accomplished something that was a goal from the beginning of the season and I got married right after the World Series and we had set that date in case we got to the World Series.”

Traveling the farthest for the reunion was former player Bobby Sellner, who lives in San Diego, California.

And again he said it was the confidence.

“We believed in ourselves and it was so special to have the success that we had game after game and we came back in the last innings of games multiple time — a great group of guys,” he said. “And winning it at home — that was the biggest crowd I have ever played in front of. We had great community support.”

And the memories carry on from the regionals to the World Series.

“We got to be really good friends with the team that bounced us out of the tournament, Midlothian, Virginia,” Wellmann said. “We had some rain delays out there and we were known to play a lot of cards that summer and we hit it off great with them.”

Jeff Stoll said that he remains close with a lot of the players from that team.

“Even today, a lot of the players from that team that lived in the Twin Cities — I hung around with them more than anyone else I graduated with,” he said.

And one of the youngest on the New Ulm roster in the World Series was Luke Herman, who was the bat boy in 1985.

“I was 5 years old,” Herman said. “And for a 5-year-old it was great — all of the players on that team were like big brothers to me — they were a cast of characters that included me and it was a special time. I went on the team bus without my parents and Kokomo without my parents — it was a really special time.”

Wellmann said it best about the 1985 team.

“We were one of the eight best American Legion teams in the United States — one of only eight,” he said.