New Ulm HALL OF FAME Member

Lester (Les) Bode

Catcher-Manager

Selected 1991

Lifetime Baseball Batting Stats Page

          Les Bode compiled awesome statistics over 12 seasons, including his 29 career home runs, the highest career total in the first 50 years of New Ulm amateur baseball. The current record is now held by Tom Steinbach of the Kaiserhoff.

          In 1968, Les had seven homers in 20 games, and he homered at least once in nine consecutive seasons. His 1968 homer-to-games ratio would have produced 59 homeruns in a major league schedule.

          In the record books of the first 50 years of New Ulm baseball, Les was third in RBI's, fifth in total bases, sixth in runs scored, seventh in career hits, and tenth in both career doubles and triples. His life-time slugging average was .473.

          In his 12 seasons, Bode played in 264 games. Only eight others had played in more games at the time. He batted 954 official times and had a .305 lifetime batting average, one of only 39 players ever to do so from a list of over 1,200 players in New Ulm history.

          Les hit over .300 in six different seasons, with a high of .378 in 26 games for the 1971 Brewers. He twice hit two homeruns in a game in 1968 (May 12 at Lafayette and July 17 at Searles). He also had two five hit games in his career (at Springfield June 29, 1966 and at Courtland Aug. 8, 1971).

          Bode played for seven years at Courtland in the Tomahawk League before coming to New Ulm.

          Les managed the Brewers for four years from 1970 through 1973, and his 1971 and 1972 teams went to the state tournament. During that span his teams won 79 and lost 27 for a .750 winning percentage.