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I guess I could still talk ball games as the 16-18 Ohio Valley Babe Ruth Tournament ended here Sunday at around 4:00 p.m. with Hammond, Indiana the winner. It was a great weekend (four days to be exact) of weather for the tournament and attendance from those visiting was pretty good. I had great volunteers in the concession stand - in fact there were too many people around to work several times. Thank you to all who helped. It sure made it easier for me to keep things stocked - running back and forst to Piggly Wiggly several times a day. We made a bunch of "Walking Tacos". As a matter of fact, I made my first one ever the second day. We have had them other years, but I had never had the chance to make one! People liked the brats, loved the hamburgers and also ate a bunch of pulled pork and hot dogs. One team ordered 25 brats and 25 hamburgers and took them back to their motel -the Don Q Inn- to eat them. That was the late night game on Saturday -when things ended around midnight!
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A person I went to school with at UW-Platteville, Howard Lenerz, had a grandson playing for the Dodgeville (host) team. Games were also played in Sauk City since two grass infield diamonds are needed for the "pool play" set up the tournament now has. Anyway I got a chance to talk with Howard for a few minutes and later on met his son and also his grandson. They were really impressed with the field at Centennial Park and Ben was very happy to get a chance to play in the tournament and meet some of the players from other states. It is my understanding that next year's tournament will be hosted by Sauk City (like we did this year) and some of the games will be played here (like was done in Sauk City this year). That means we probably will have 14 games in Dodgeville over a Thursday through Saturday span with the finals being in Sauk on Sunday.
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Oh, and above is Leah Johnson singing the National Anthem before one of the Ohio Valley games. Now, don't say I never give any publicity to the Crubaughs!  She's Sheri (Crubaugh) and Jerry Johnson's daughter.
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I surely think the area felt an economical impact with the 15 tournament a week or so ago, the Ohio Valley this past week and the 9 and 11 tournaments still going on. It takes a lot of work on the part of several people for these tournaments to take place here.
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Cousin Jeanette and her husband Jack have been in Wisconsin (from Atlanta) for three weeks now. The first couple of weeks we spent a lot of time together then came the ball tournaments. Now, the month of July is nearly over and they will be heading back to Georgia. They have a lot planned to finish out the month here and when the time comes to leave they too will say the month went by too fast!
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I've got to tell you about the honesty of the kids who were taking part in the Ohio Valley tournament. One player brought a money clip up to the stand that he found on the ground. In looking it over, it could've easily contained $700! When one of the coaches stopped to claim it, he was nearly flabbergasted to find that it was turned in. He went to search out the kid to give him a reward, but I never did hear if he found him or not!