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

SEARLES – With temperatures climbing to 100 (actually 99 at 3 p.m.) and fanned by 30-mile an hour winds, the finishing touches were being applied Tuesday afternoon to the Searles Ball Park’s new night baseball lighting system.

The lights, purchased via an internet bidand with a little budget over-run, makes Searles the 10th Tomahawk League East park with lights in time for tonight’s league game with the Springfield Tigers, one of the trio of teams who have had lights since the mid 1940’s. Only Gibbon and Essig are not outfitted for night baseball.

Tuesday was a big preparation day and a busy one for lighting project chairman and board president Al Drexler as he checked the final installation lighting ballast so that two final light towers would be ready to turn on for a Searles Grizzlies team practice and walk-through Tuesday night. When the final ballast was installed to culminate a few anxious moments waiting for the shipment, temperature was 99 degrees. Cooler temps were forecast for Wednesday.

The ballast will allow lights on all six towers to be turned on from the ground so no pole climbing will be required to throw switches.

Former Searles catcher Ken Kuck will throw the first light switch and then throw the first ball for the new lighted field as the Grizzlies take on the Tigers from Riverside in Springfield. Kuck has been nominated for the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame this year.

Drexler pointed out the ease of lighting the field was done to keep annual operating costs down. He observed that the lights are affixed to wood poles rather than steel towers, estimating that the original budget of $40,000 might only have covered half of the final expense if steel was used.

Half of the light fixtures came from the school athletic field at Stewart and was arranged by bidding on one of the commercial Internet auction resources after someone spotted the system being advertised for sale. Drexler explained the winning bid utilized present-day technology. Two board members manned the computer bidding site at the Lamplighter in New Ulm. (Searles did not have Internet capabilities at the time). Four other board members were at a Cathedral football game and two were busy with farm work. The cell phones kept them together and allowed for a quick call when it appeared they were to be outbid by an unnamed competitor.

By telephone the board approve adding another $1,000 to its budget so Searles got the lights by upping its bid by $600.

Although he was the point man on the project, Drexler said it was a board decision and effort. The board includes Drexler as president, Dustin Hawkins, vice president; Darv Turbes, treasurer, Al Berg, Secretary, Steve Koeckel, Curt Helget and Dan Kuck. Later, Gerry Grossmann and Steve Hoffmann became board members.

The fund raising committee included Drexler, Ken Kuck, Steve Farasyn and the late Ken Fischer who was replaced after his death by grandson Zach Fischer, one of today’s Grizzlies. Ken was a big booster of the project and had played baseball for Searles early in his life.

After Searles made the deal, it found it would need to double the number of lights. The light fixture clusters were pre-installed on the poles and later registered via a laser guided to an “x” on the field in order to eliminate shadows according to Drexler. The poles are 70-feet high.

Searles park hosted about 80 games annually before installation of the lights lights, a number expected to remain relatively the same.

“But these lights are going to take the stress of the board members because now we can play doubleheaders because of the lights,” pointed out Drexler. That should result in less nights for the same number of games.

In addition to the Grizzlies, the field is home for the Searles Bullheads in Minnesota Senior baseball, three youth baseball teams and three youth softball teams. That’s a good-sized schedule for a community which is somewhere between 100 and 200 strong. This field of dreams setting normally has corn growing behind left, center and right field fences.

The field has been an on-going project of upgrades.

New dugouts were added in 2006, a well was added in 2008 and the grandstand refurbished the same year. Searles Well Drilling Inc. was very instrumental in getting a watering system in place for the new grass infield explained Drexler. Electrical upgrades were needed from REA.

Financing for the project is not yet a done deal cautions Drexler. He still seeks additional support to help offset the over-runs and the "unknown and unforeseen" expenses which cropped up.

After Wednesday night’s opener, Essig comes over to Searles Friday night for another League game. Two Searles wins and a loss by Stark would put Searles into first place in the National division, one of the three league divisions.

That wouldn’t be too hard to take for Searles which up until 2010 had at least five consecutive seasons below .500. In 2010 it had a 16-6 record following three consecutive 11-11 seasons, a 7-15 record in 2006 and 10-12 in 2005.

Another winning season would be more “normal” for Searles which has made it the state amateur baseball tournament five times and finished as high as second in 1951 and always has been a great amateur competitor. Searles played in state tournaments in 1955, 1951, 1969, 1990 and 1997.