NEW ULM — The 2026 DI American Senior Legion Baseball Tournament kicks off on Wednesday here in New Ulm with a team check-in and banquet before games start on Thursday at four sites that include Johnson and Mueller Parks in New Ulm and the Sleepy Eye baseball park and Riverside Park in Springfield.

“Wednesday is team check-in day at the New Ulm Community Center one block west of Johnson Park,” Vern Kitzberger of the host New Ulm Legion said. “And we are doing things differently this year — every year teams have their picture taken with the state tournament banner and the two teams that quality for regionals will have their picture sent out on Saturday for the Regional booklets. And we want to have three [photo] stations to speed things up because we want to have an open-air ceremony at 2:45 p.m. that afternoon at Johnson Park. Teams will march down the sidewalk to Johnson Park and onto the field — line up on the baselines. We want to start the ceremony a 3 p.m. That will probably last about 30 minutes.

That night there is an open to the public banquet at the Royal Oak Event Center located at 301 20th Street South .

Kitzberger said tickets can be ordered in advance for $36 each and can be ordered on line at givebutter.com/newulmstatebanquet.

“And if there are any remaining, they are $45 at the door,” Kitzberger said.

“And our main speaker is Brian Raabe,” Kitzberger added. “We will introduce each team and there will be some awards and people honored and one of them will be former New Ulm Legion Gold coach Dave Kunz who is going into the Minnesota American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Games then start on Thursday morning at all three sites.

Kitzberger said that hosting the D-I State American Legion Baseball Tournament is huge.

“It brings a lot of people to town — they get to see the town — and see four nice baseball fields,” he said. “I think that all four are better than we have had in recent state tournaments. And we have had a lot of volunteer help and will look for more this weekend.”

One of the firsts that will happen in a Minnesota State American Legion Baseball Tournament is the new video scoreboard at Johnson Park.

“People are going to be surprised at the updates at Johnson Park including the scoreboard and Mueller Park may be the best ‘second’ baseball field in Minnesota,” Kitzberger said. “And I think that people will be in awe of the new video scoreboard. Some fields just show how many outs and what the score is.”

And Kitzberger said running the tournament that goes from July 30 to August 2 takes a lot of volunteers.

“We have probably around 350 people who are volunteering and work on this tournament began over a year ago when we got the bid in October and November,” hes said. “There are a lot of things that we had to figure out from housing 14 and possibly 15 teams, game schedules, field coordinators, site directors — there are a lot.”

Kitzberger said that working on this tournament with the New Ulm Baseball Association has been very good.

“We cannot say enough good things about them,” he said. “They are on top of so many things and are willing to help — they are outstanding.”

Games start Thursday morning at Mueller Park 10 a.m. with games at the other three locations starting at 10:30 a.m.

Kitzberger said that there is no admission for the opening ceremonies.