For at least four Annandale natives, playing amateur baseball in Maple Lake is a tradition. Some have been making the six-mile commute for over 20 years. They’ve run the gamut of Annandale’s traveling league, left their legacy as Cardinal hitters and now they’ve found their niche. “I wanted to play a little more ball,” 17-year Laker veteran and Annandale High School graduate Bill Porter said. “A little more ball” included three years playing for both the Cardinals during the high school season, where he was named all-conference, and the Lakers during the summer. He’s been in six state amateur baseball games and today plays outfield while his dad, Gary Porter, manages the Lakers. He also played at Bemidji State University for several years. His classmate, Marty Johnson, has been with the Lakers 11 years. Both men graduated in 1989 from AHS and still live in Annandale. When Marty started, Annandale didn’t have many options for baseball players beyond the traveling league’s Mickey Mantle program, which recruited 14- and 15- year-olds. Back then kids who wanted to play summer ball beyond that joined the American Legion team in Maple Lake. “Bill’s dad was the legion coach here (at Maple Lake). We came to play legion ball and just stayed in Maple Lake,” Marty said. Gary has coached Bill and his friends almost every summer since they were kids, first as their Babe Ruth coach, then as their Mickey Mantle coach, Town Ball and Legion coach, and eventually as the Laker’s manager. “There was that one group of boys from the class of ’89 – we grew up together on the baseball field,” Gary said. Today some of those players have gone on to other things, but athletes like Marty and Bill have remained. This year, Gary will be the one to move on. After 29 years he has declared this his last season. Originally from Bloomington, Gary, a school teacher in Maple Lake, was key in resurrecting the Lakers back in 1975. He has coached the team through 11 state games, and has both played and managed during his career. Today the Lakers have members ranging in age from 20 to 43. Ryan Klingelhofer, a 1993 Annandale graduate, celebrated his 10th year with the Lakers this summer. The former Cardinal plays infield and pitches. He brings to the team experience from the University of Minnesota Duluth baseball club. Keith Jerpseth has been the Laker’s catcher for four years. He and his wife, Sandy, live and work in Annandale. Keith is employed at the Annandale State Bank and Sandy teaches social studies at the high school. Keith played baseball for four years at St. John’s University and before that was a member of the varsity squad at Robbinsdale-Cooper, home of the Hawks. These five have helped their team to a 19-12 overall record and a 10-7 finish in the North Star League. They are joined by athletes from cities across the county including Maple Lake, Howard Lake, St. Michael, Buffalo and Monticello. The Lakers begin their season the first week of May but start practicing as early as February. On Sunday, July 27, they finished their regular season schedule with an 11-0 loss to Ultimate Sports of St. Cloud. They will begin playoffs on Wednesday, July 30. The Lakers will be among top dogs Dassel-Cokato, which won the Central Division Championship; Hutchinson and St. Michael, which originally tied with Maple Lake for second. A tiebreaker deemed Hutchinson the second-place team and St. Michael third, which left the Lakers with a fourth-place ranking. The top two teams will go on to state. “It’s a whole new season once the playoffs start,” Gary said. State is always a possibility for the Lakers, who have seen that level of competition 17 times in the past, starting as early as 1932. This year they have a number of things going for them including a strong pitching staff and a tough defense. “The determining factor will be our offense, if we can score some runs,” Gary said. This year’s favorites for state are Austin, Cold Spring, New Ulm and Rochester. The playoffs are scheduled to continue Sunday, Aug. 3, Thursday, Aug. 7 and Sunday, Aug. 10. Wednesday night’s game will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Delano. “I hope I can see one more state game before it’s over,” Gary said.
