New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

SLEEPY EYE -- Tomahawk East baseball league voted 10-0 Monday night to allow the New Ulm Brewers to remain in the league for the 2011 regular season. St. James did not attend the meeting.

The Brewers recently were reclassified as a Class B team by the Minnesota Baseball Association (MBA) board of directors and would not be able to participate in Tomahawk East League playoffs since the Tomahawk East is a Class C league.

The League will re-evaluate its decision for 2012. The actions taken by the Tomahawk East League mirror what was used last year to keep Hanska in its regular season league play when the MBA reclassified Hanska to Class B because of its success in the 2009 State Amateur Baseball Tournament. That classification was based on an existing MBA rule.

New Ulm was reclassified when seven Kaiserhoff players obtained their releases and then signed to play with the Brewers. The State appeared to make its ruling based on the assumption that the addition of these seven players would create an imbalance to the league by creating a superiority for the Brewer team.

The Brewers had a lack-luster season in 2009, but won the league division championship in 2010 and was one of two Tomahawk League East teams to qualify for the 2010 state tournament.

Since the Brewers will not be in the Tomahawk East playoffs in 2011, thus creating an 11-team playoff structure like 2010, the League will still keep the three division playoff schedule it had last year to qualify five teams for Region 2C play which will ultimately send two teams to the state tournament. The Brewers will be involved in a Class B playoff regional.