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July 30, 2009 Page 3
Tescher providing Volunteers
OPINION with big bat, plenty of humor
Looking for good
Hello.
Well. we're getting down to the
end of the haying season. Shirley
and Will should about wrap it up the
next couple days. And it has been
relatively uneventful.
Oh. there has been a few
mishaps. And l think if we had a
way to investigate, like they do in
airline crashes, we would determine
that most of our problems are
caused by "pilot error".
Have you ever noticed that there
is a direct link between salary and
repairs? I mean it. If you hire a good
man, or woman, and pay them pret-
ty good. it seems like things get
greased, throttled back. raised over.
gone around, aired up, and so forth.
I'm always too cheap to hire
good help. Shirley and Will work
long days. I work occasionally. But
we haven't hired anybody in years.
We rely on donated labor by friends
and relatives. People who mean
well.
For instance there is Herb. Herb
is from New York. Upstate New
York. He makes sure you know this.
And he comes out to North Dakota
each year to help us out during hay-
ing. And to shoot pd's. PDs are
prairie dogs. I guess that's what you
call them in Upstate New York.
So, every year. Herb loads his
weapons of mass destruction in the
back of his jeep and heads for the
ranch. He brings a truckload of guns
ranging from pellet guns to how-
itzers. I wouldn't be surprised if he
has rocket propelled grenades in
there. He has shooting tables.
tripods, and enough rifles to defeat
the French in a shoot out.
help
tremendous dan/age! His explana-
I wouldn't be sur-
prised if he has
rocket propelled
grenades in there.
He has shooting
tables, tripods, and
enough rifles to
defeat the French
in a shoot out.
And he likes to help. So. I put
him on the mower-conditioner.
Brand new. Paid for with a credit
card. I want it to last. at least till we
make the first payment. So 1 asked
if he can drive the Ford tractor• He
assures me, "'If it has wheels. [ can
run it!"
I explain the transmission, the
pto. and the hydraulics. He has it
down. I explain there is only one
thing you have to worry about.
DON'T TURN TOO SHORT! 1
mention this time and time again.
DON'T TURN TOO SHORT! If
you turn too short the gooseneck
hitch on the swing tongue hits the
tractor tire and can cause tremen-
dous harm.
I make one round with Herb. He
has it down. So l get out and stand
there and watch him go down the
field, make one turn. and run the
gooseneck over the tire. Causing
tion is always the same. "the trick-
in' mirrors aren't set".
A couple days later, we have
things pretty well straightened out.
And Herb is shooting pd's. I leave
the swing tongue in a field near the
dog town and come home for din-
ner. Herb. always wanting to help,
takes over the cutting.
Unbeknownst to me. He makes a
couple of rounds ,and a wheel falls
off. Not his fault. The lug bolts
worked loose. Can happen. He
doesn't notice that he is dragging
the swing tongue down the field
sideways cause it has only one
wheel. Well. he notices when he
comes around again and finds he
has a dead furrow to drive in.
He explains it wasn't his fault.
"The frickin" mirrors aren't set".
I gently explain that as long as he
is in the tractor anyway, "'just kind
of glance back once in awhile".
That reminds me of the guy that
used to work for Jim. He was haul-
ing hay home and would occasion-
ally lose a few bales. And his mir-
rors didn't work either, and he
would come home with half a load
of hay.
One time he pulled in the yard
with no trailer. I mean no trailer. Jim
walks over and asked where the
trailer was.
"Darrel" looks back and says, " I
don's know. It was behine me da las
time dat I looked!"
But. myself, if I had to work for
what I was worth. I'd starve to
death.
Later. Dean
Can the Twins weather the storms?
Having played only one season
N.D. Matters
By Lloyd Omdahl
of organized baseball, I am just a
whisper in the shadows compared
to the wisdom of Dick Bremer and
Bert Blyleven, the TV newscasters
for the Minnesota Twins.
Throughout the 2009 season, they One of these
have been touting the virtuethe .... 000000venings, ! expect
new open-air baseball field that wi
be ready for the 2010 season.
To support their campaign, Dick
and Bert have been recruiting
endorsements from such old Twins
greats as Kent Hrbek and Jack
Morris. They even have Joe
Mauer's mother insisting that the
boys take their game outside. One
of these evenings, I expect to hear a
vocal endorsement from Kirby
Puckett, electronically resurrected
from some ethereal location, adding
his approval to the outdoor park.
At a cost of $500 million, Target
Field will be opened on April 12
with a game against Boston.
Without a doubt, a large portion of
the 40,000 seats will be filled by
diehards, all shivering in longer
than usual "long johns" in a "more
desirable" atmosphere than found
in the Metrodome.
While games in St. Louis,
Seattle and other parks will be
rained out in 2010. games in Target
Field will be snowed out. (After all,
it snowed in Dickinson just a cou-
ple of weeks ago - around the mid-
dle of the baseball season.) April is
to hear a vocal
endorsement from
Kirby Puckett, elec-
tronically resur-
rected from some
ethereal location,
adding his
approval to the out-
door park.
still winter all the way down to
Omaha. They plan to host the
World Series in October of 2014.
Unthinkable!
The vendors will be happy
because they can throw their cool-
ers away. The Coors beer cans will
be blue without them. Instead of
bobbleheads, they will be giving
away pneumonia shots. I imagine
the new mascots will be fully-
equipped St. Bernards. ready to res-
cue the players in the occasional
blizzards.
With rain. sleet and snow
inevitable, the only folks in the
stands over the long haul will be the
mailpersons who have a reputation
for thriving in this sort of environ-
ment. But I doubt that there are
enough of them in Minnesota to
keep this. undertaking out of. the
baguptcy courts.
A rational person has to wonder
what happened to the common
sense that Dick and Bert normally
demonstrate in calling the games.
There can be only one answer.
They are banking on earth warming
and the promise of a 7-degree
increase in temperature over the
next 20 years.
The first few years will be tough,
they figure, but after that it will be
all sunshine and roses.
Now l have a selfish reason for
being negative about this new out-
door arrangement. At our house,
watching Twins games on televi-
sion is a regular event. Everything
else on television - except the
Weather Channel - is really trash.
Regrettably, the Twins sometimes
sink to that level.
With the Metrodome, we can
count on a Twins game every night.
With an open-air ballpark, games
will be disrupted by weather and,
on those evenings when the Twins
games get snowed out. we will be
stuck with more than we want to
know about the weather in Utah.
i
By Chris Aarhrus
As Dickinson Volunteers coach
Carter Fong walked past Jordan
Tescher on his way to the third base
coaching box, he felt a nudge.
"He said, 'Coach, can I drag
bunt'?'" Fong said. "He had that lit-
tle grin on his Pace and I couldn't
tell if he was serious.
"I said 'No, Jordan, why don't
you hit a line drive up the middle'?'"
Tescher did one better. He
smashed his first home run of the
year. a line shot over the deepest
part of the ballpark that helped
Dickinson earn a split with the
Mandan A's on June 24.
"He hit a home run that went 30
feet longer than the fence," Fong
said. "It bounced on the street. He
had that same little grin when he
passed me on his home run trot. To
this day, I don't know if he was seri-
ous about (bunting)."
Though it came with an unsure
grin. Tescher said he wasn't kidding
around.
"I just want to see if I've got
what it takes to bunt," Tescher said.
Tescher, with his 5-foot-ll, 205-
pound frame, doesn't exactly fit the
speed-demon mold. But good luck
convincing him that he's not capa-
ble of beating out a bunt or stealing
third base.
"Guys my size can't run as fast
as me." Tescher said.
It's that type of confidence and
drive that brought Tescher to
Dickinson for the summer.
Determined to play Legion baseball
after competing in Babe Ruth for
Beach for three years, Tescher
sought out the next level.
"He decided he wanted to con-
tinue his baseball career and
Dickinson was the closest town
for him." Fong said. "On days
when we have practice, he wakes
up early. I'm sure he puts in a full
day of work. then drives into town
and gives us a good two hours of
practice as well, then, heads
home 7
Tescher, who attends high school
in Beach. lives on a ranch northwest
of Dickinson about 90 miles away.
It's a 180-mile trip every day,
though he does occasionally stay
with friends in Dickinson.
"If we have :back4o-back (dou-
bleheaders), ttill" Utl stay in
Dickinson, ' Tescher said. "Other
than that, I drive back and forth."
It's the type of commitment
coaches' dream about. A player
whose desire to play baseball
extends farther than the 5-minute
,trip to the ballpark many players
take for granted.
"'He clearly made a commitment
to baseball and a commitment to our
team by being willing to spend all
that time on the road," Fong said.
Driving wasn't the only hard
part, at least not right away.
On the first day of practice, Fong
remembered, Tescher looked more
like that of someone m spring train-
ing, trying to make a major league
team.
"He was flying all over the dia-
mond." Fong.said. "'He was throw-
ing every ball as hard as he could to
show off some of his strength. He
hustled all over the place, which
i i
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Dickinson Volu nteers' Jordan Tescher is hitting .536 and has
three home runs this season. Along with his big bat, Tescher
can be known to provide some comic relief. (Press Photo by
Chris Aarhus)
was great. 1 think he really felt he
had to prove himself to the coaching
staff.'"
Fong was dead on.
"Nobody knew me." Tescher
said. "1 was pretty nervous coming
in the first day, not knowing what
the ropes were. I thought I had to
give it my all."
Tescher's teammates learned
quickly his love for the game.
"He likes baseball as much as
anybody else." Brett Braunagel
said. "It's one more person to add to
the group."
Tescher. who has played mostly
right field and a little bit at third
base. entered that first day with one
position in mind - and it wasn't
right field.
I asked him if he wanted to' play
a little bit of third base and he said.
'I can't stand third base. I'm a sec-
ond baseman.'" Fong said, "'and he
said it with a ton of confidence."
Tescher quickly found out that
was not the spot for him and at this
point, he said it doesn't really mat-
ter to him.
"As long as coach lets me pray, I
don't care." Tescher said.
"Wherever they need me to help us
win, whatever it takes. And if I'm
not playing good and (coach)
benches me, that's fine. He's got a
job to do."
The serious approach Tescher
takes on the field is no different at
the plate where he's hitting a team-
bet .536 with three home runs and
a team-leading 36 runs batted in 80
plate appearances.
"'I'm just being patient with my
at-bats and not jumping on the first
pitch," Tescher said.
He's also second on the team in
doubles (7) and runs scored (25),
both of which trail Scott Gordon.
Fong said some of Tescher's hits
can be attributed to his pure
strength.
"He can muscle a lot of pitches
into the outfield even when he does-
n't get the barrel on the bat,'" Fong
said.
Early on, that wasn't the case.
"It looked to me like he was
swinging out of his shoes at every
pitch," Fong said. "(But) he's really
turned out to be a lot more disci-
plined at the plate than first expect-
ed. He steps to the plate looking to
hit line drives, not home runs.'"
Along with his hitting prowess,
Tescher can be relied on for comic
relief. Though most of the time. he's
not trying to be funny.
A running gag on the team is
Tescher's desire to steal third base,
which the team has a sign for that
can be signaled back to Fong, ask-
ing for permission while on second.
"He's always itching to steal
third ... I always shake my head no
at him." Fong said. "'Of course, it's
rare to call on anybody to try and
steal third base. but we do have that
signal.
"He loves to give me the signal
and give me that same grin.'"
Tescher is still waiting for the
OK.
"1 think (he) will when we really
need it," Tescher said. "'The time
will come.'"
But per has the fut part of
the comedy'Tescher i,{'s'ponsible
for is his appearance. With a big
frame and sporting a beard.
Tescher looks like someone more
the age of the Roughriders ( 17-18
rather than the younger Volunteers
(15-16). That has led to the nick-
name fiasco.
"'With Jordan's size and him
being new to the team, we really
searched for a nickname." Fong
said. "Coach (Jeremy) Burgard calls
him 'The Beast' or 'Man-child".
Most of the players call him 'Griz"
because he's about the only guy on
the team that can grow a full beard.
"And that includes the coaching
staff."
i
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