JAMESTOWN — The summer is officially winding down, and that means it’s time for the amateur baseball tournaments to start at Jack Brown Stadium.
The A tournament starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7, when one of the two Walsh County teams takes on Tolna. Two Jamestown teams are in the tournament — team NODAKS and the Tarno Brewers.
“I’m excited to play, excited for the opportunity,” Brewers captain Danny Fischer said. “Single A, it’s the … second weekend in August. It’s state tournament time, I think guys are excited to play and get out there and compete and hopefully come away with a state championship.”
The A tournament is not Fischer’s only amateur baseball tournament of the summer as he also played in the Old Pro Tournament that ran from July 26-27 before he plays in the AA and AAA tournaments later this summer.
“I’m in a pretty interesting spot with working at the ballpark on the grounds crew,” Fischer said. “It seems like I’m always down there so whenever Mr. (Tom) Gould needs someone, an extra guy, whatever, I’m there anyways. So it seems that I just get put on whatever team needs a guy and I’m fine with that. I enjoy it and I know my playing days will come to an end at some point so I better take advantage of the opportunities when I have them.”
Fischer said the only summer job he’s ever had is working at the ballpark with Tom Gould. He said he grew up running around Jack Brown Stadium when he was a little kid and now his two kids are following in his footsteps running around the stadium. Fischer said he enjoys the fact that amateur baseball allows multiple generations of families to play together.
“I love the game. I’ve loved the sport since I was 3, 4 years old,” Fischer said. “… I also really enjoy the guys I play with and the guys I get to compete against. It’s an outlet for me. I don’t have a lot of hobbies, amateur baseball is definitely one of them. …. Now my son and my daughter are running around like I was when I was their age so it’s kind of been a full circle deal.”
Fischer and his Brewers teammates will open their tournament at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, when they take on Tolna.
“Tolna’s another team that I’m very familiar with over the years playing them,” Fischer said. “They always have a good club and then a couple Jamestown teams, you never know who’s really gonna be where and who can show up one night and who cannot. So it’s a mixed bag, we could surprise some people but Walsh County’s gonna be very, very strong.”
The NODAKs squad has mostly current and former Jamestown Eagles legion players, including Connor Hoyt. This weekend, Hoyt will be one of the oldest on the team with his teammates.
“It kind of makes me start to feel old a little bit,” Hoyt said. “But I enjoy it, it’s fun. … I know we have Edison Walters on the team. You’ll get those younger guys and it’s fun to watch them start seeing some adversity and different players and get to start playing with those older guys. You get to teach them some things and let them experience some failure a bit but also success. It’s always fun to watch the younger guys grow into the game a bit and start learning different aspects of it.”
This fall, Hoyt will enter his senior year with the Valley City State University baseball team.
“I think it helps a decent amount. I think it really helps with just getting as many at-bats in as possible; same thing with defensive reps,” Hoyt said. “It helps with me getting defensive reps and prepares me a little bit more and more until school starts.”
During the school year, Fischer is a social studies teacher in the Medina Public School District and the head coach of the Medina/Pingree-Buchanan baseball team. Fischer said playing the game helps when he’s coaching to know what he needs to do in certain situations.
“I would say for sure, it keeps you sharp. … You see the game from a different perspective as a player and as a coach,” Fischer said. “So I think when I get into coaching in the spring, I don’t forget what it’s like to be a player and I think that’s important too, is to understand where the players are coming from. When I’m playing it keeps me in game situations thinking of what do we do here and as a player in this position what do you do.”
If Fischer and the Brewers win the tournament title, it will be the team’s fourth consecutive title.
“I think any baseball game but especially in tournament time, it all comes down to starting pitching and if you’ve got a guy who’s on the mound who throws strikes consistently and is able to get outs I think that, that is going to be the key,” Fischer said. “I think whoever can have the most consistent pitching in these tournaments that are coming up, they’re gonna have the most success. Good pitching beats good hitting any day of the week. So if we are fortunate enough to throw the ball across the plate and get outs, I think that’ll be the recipe.”
Hello,
My name is Max O’Neill. I am a Sports Reporter at The Jamestown Sun. I am a native New Yorker, who graduated from Ithaca College in 2020 with a degree in Television-Radio.