Rural Route

Carter was asked to play up an age level on the 16U team tonight. Sure, sounds great. Where's the game?

Stetsonville.

Stetsonville? Where the heck is that?

I felt like I should have been looking for a 10-gallon hat to wear to a place with that name. And frankly, that wouldn't have been out of line. But to answer the question where it's at, one needs to look closely -- really, really closely -- at a map of the Abbotsford and Medford area. I can guarantee you it is not on every map. But if you zoom in good online, you see it situated between the two cities on Highway 13.

I had never heard of the town and only knew two things about it... It has 541 people (according to the 2010 census) and a ballpark. (And we actually had to drive 6-7 miles west of town to get to that.)

Oh yeah, and we also knew it was about 2 hours from Iola.

So we left work early and hit the road. When we got to the Abbotsford area, we stopped to eat at Duke's Bar & Bowl, apparently famous for its hotbeef sandwiches... but not famous, we learned, for having french fries or chips available ("We ran out of chips until the order comes in tomorrow".) Also not well-known for its undercooked cheeseburgers, I imagine. Oh well. It was food.

Before we left, we asked our bartender/waiter/cook how far it was to Stetsonville. He said about 15-20 minutes or less. Jim asked if he was familiar with the ballpark we were going to -- the one west of town. The guy looked puzzled and said, "I don't know. And that's weird because I grew up in Stetsonville!"

We were highly amused about that. Wow. 541 people there and we now knew 1.

We found the park -- and only had to pass one Amish buggy to get there. Not kidding. If it wasn't so late at night, I'd be uploading pictures to show you. I will tomorrow. We really were Rural with a capital R.

It was a strange ballpark. The infield was gravel -- like that fine, gray, slate-type gravel -- nothing I'd seen on a baseball field before. But it was a popular place. Lot's of fans showed up to cheer on the Stetsonville Stars, chat with neighbors and enjoy a Pabst Blue Ribbon from the concession stand.

Biting tongue with redneck references.

Oops. I typed that!

The important thing is we won the game and Carter did OK. It was 14-6 margin and it included some solid hitting. I hope Carter gets a chance to play with them again. We'll have to see if they need his spare body.

Now those of us in Wisconsin know it's a courtesy when you leave somewhere at night for people to urge you to "look out for deer" or "have a safe trip home." When people were leaving the ballpark, I overheard someone yell: "Don't hit any Amish your way home!"

Wow. Still biting tongue.

Good thing we stopped at Hawkeye Dairy in Abbotsford on the way home. The scoop of Monster Cookie ice cream numbed my tongue just enough I can keep biting it for awhile.