When the New Ulm Brewers host the Hanska Lakers Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in an exhibition game — and a state amateur baseball tournament tune-up game for both teams — it will mark the 150th baseball game played this season at Johnson and Mueller Parks.

Tuesday’s game will be the 87th game of the season at Johnson Park, with Mueller Park having had 63 games played on its surface.

When thinking about it, 87 home baseball games in the same season on the same field is amazing considering that Mueller Park had 63 baseball games.

And both fields are two of the best in Minnesota.

Thank yous go out to Ed Tietel and his crew at Johnson and Mueller Parks for their work and to Al Flor and members of the Brewers, who did a lot of work on both fields during the season.

And with 150 baseball games played on two fields in the same season, a lot of volunteer help is needed. Many of those volunteers were at both parks many times before — after and when there was no game — cleaning, scrubbing, restocking, and more for upcoming games.

LeRoy and Linda Flor have done tons of work to make the concession stands the best in Minnesota. Not to mention all the homemade sauerkraut and German potato salad that Linda Flor made for games, which area baseball fans love.

LeAnna Fluegge sang the National Anthem either live or on tape for the games at both parks and then spent a lot of time in the concession stands at both parks and did a lot of the necessary cleaning work.

Rick Traulich put a lot of hours in the concession stand and set up the Military Appreciation Day at Johnson Park and was another great success.

Kevin Fischer put it in many hours in the stands and kept our finances in order besides.

There were a lot of great people — many non-New Ulm Baseball Association Board members — who volunteered a lot of hours.

Thank you.

And up in the press box, Bob Reinhart, the voice of New Ulm baseball, did all of the Brewers games, Legion Gold games and lent his voice for many games in both of the Classic tournaments and the recent District 8, Class B amateur tournament. That is a ton of volunteer hours.

Larry and Sue Vogel could be found running the scoreboards for games almost every game. Again, a lot of time.

Tom Wyczawski and Joe Eckstein spent a lot of time on the scoreboards at both parks also.

New Ulm Baseball Association President Bob Skillings has done a lot of work to keep New Ulm baseball going forward to the future.

Members of the NUBA and a lot of volunteers — with a 150-game schedule now complete — have done another great job.

Thank you.

150 GAMES PLAYED NOT RECORD

The combined 150 games played at both parks is not a record.

According to records kept by Skillings, in 2017 there were a combined 162 games played at both parks.

REGION 2C AND DISTRICT 8B ATTENDANCE

Region 2C held at Sleepy Eye and Springfield drew 3,335 fans this year for 29 playoff games, according to Region 2C Commissioner Marty Brandl, for an average of 115 fans per game.

Last year Region 2C drew 3,272 for 23 games, 142 fans per game.

The first-ever District 8B tournament held at Johnson Park this past weekend had 1,137 fans for 11 games for 103 fans a game. But the Brewers-Bird Island game drew a very large crowd.

TEAMS DRAFT FOR STATE TOURNAMENT

From the District 8B draft, the New Ulm Brewers drafted Spencer Chirpich from Fairmont with the first pick and Riley Bersaw from North Mankato with their second pick — and fourth overall pick — for the state tournament.

Bird Island, the 8B runners-up, drafted Fairmont’s Derek Shoen and Luverne’s Ethan Beyer, while the 8B third seed Raymond took Ben Serie and Cade Wenninger, both from Luverne.

For Region 2C, Courtland selected Tony Geiger, Mark Schommer from Searles and Joe Liebl from Wabasso.

Hanska tabbed Connor Jones from St. James, Mitch Bouwman from the Marshall A’s and Dominic Rose from the Gibbon Reds.

Leavenworth added Nathan Duetz fron the Milroy Yankees, Adryen Tietz from Wabasso and Bennett Knapper from Granite Falls to their roster.

Lamberton chose Jack Howard from Sacred Heart, Adam Sellner from Stark and Casey Lux from Searles.