by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Dennis Kenning, 68, has a goal. He wants to keep playing baseball until he’s 70.
It’s a modest goal because, for his age, he’s fit as a fiddle.
But even if he can’t play ball at 70 or 71, you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll be at the four fields in Bob Cross Park, hanging out and probably still working alongside his son, Brad. For many years, both men’s lives have revolved around baseball and softball and the Bob Cross fields, which they have tended and nurtured like precious babies.
Using city equipment, the two men drag the fields, mow the fields, aerate the fields, paint in the fields’ foul lines, maintain the concessions building and take care of any glitches or odds-and-ends that might pop up.
“It wouldn’t be possible,” Dennis said, “without the great cooperation from the City of Sauk Rapids. The citizens of Sauk Rapids just do not realize how much goes into these fields. It’s really a full-time job. I really enjoy coming up here to these fields. Since I’m semi-retired, it gives me something to do.”
Dennis also works part-time as assistant funeral director at the Williams Dingmann Funeral Home in Sauk Rapids.
Besides their maintenance duties, the Kennings, father and son, are also active in the Sauk Rapids Softball Association. Dennis is its president, Brad the vice president, along with treasurer Dan Lynch and secretary Tara Lynch (Dan’s wife). There are six board-of-directors members.
Brad is a window postal clerk for the U.S Postal Service.
Dennis
Dennis Kenning grew up in a large farm family near Luxemburg between St. Cloud and Kimball.
He was an avid baseball fan, usually a first-baseman.
After graduating from Tech High School in 1965, he joined the military and spent three years serving his country, two of them in Korea. Upon returning home, he landed a job with the Sauk Rapids Post Office where he worked for 38 years.
In Sauk Rapids, Dennis quickly felt the lack of an amateur baseball team there, so he decided to start one in 1975 with the help of Jim Lynch, then-owner of Jimmy’s Pour House bar and restaurant. Jim’s son is Dan Lynch, the SRSA treasurer.
The team the two men formed was the Sauk Rapids Cyclones, which won the state tournament in 1995, with Brad Kenning pitching and playing right field.
In 1975, Dennis and Jim Lynch met with the city council with a big request – to build two more fields at Bob Cross Park, in addition to the two already there. The city not only agreed, but it also decided a two-story concession stand, built to Dennis’s specifications, should be funded, too. And so it was.
Since then, year after year, Dennis has happily dedicated almost all of his spare time to those fields, with help from son Brad. Dennis is also league director of the “Over 50” softball league, which has six teams.
Dennis’ wife is Bea, who works for a group home. Brad is their only offspring.
Brad
Like his father, Brad Kenning, 43, has a deeply rooted passion for baseball/softball.
He and his post-office colleagues play in the fall league with their team dubbed “Goin’ Postal.”
On a breezy summer day recently, Dennis and Brad sat at a table by the fields at Bob Cross Park and talked about their lives.
They enjoy working together.
Do they get along?
“Yup, mostly,” said Brad, both men chuckling.
The Bob Cross fields are busy all summer and even in the fall. During tournaments, as many as 3,000 people come to the fields – players, family members, fans – from cities throughout Minnesota. Dennis even works with area motels to get cheaper group rates so out-of-towners can stay overnight on tournament weekends.
Like athletic facilities everywhere, the fields at Bob Cross Park bring people – and money – into the city and the area.
Brad loves baseball so much he even met his wife-to-be, Amy Pappenfus of Gilman, while on a bus ride to a Minnesota Twins game in 1991. Amy and her sister, Lori, were on the bus. Brad, who didn’t know them, said they could drink some beers from his cooler. Everybody had a lot of fun on the bus ride. Amy and Brad, a bit bashful but intrigued, seemed to cotton up to each other.
Later, when Brad was playing a baseball game, Amy decided to go watch him play a game in Sauk Rapids. Little did she know at the time, as she cheered the team and the man she had a crush on, that the woman standing next to her, also cheering, was Brad’s mother. After Brad found out Amy was at the game, he was thrilled, of course, and asked her for a date. They later married and now have two children – Lance, 24, and Levi, 17. Levi, too, helps at the Bob Cross fields.
The fields
The Kennings are rightfully proud of the fields they tend because of all the baseball-softball fun they make possible every year.
Years ago, to help raise money for the fields’ needs, companies were contacted. For $35,000 any company could have naming rights for a 10-year period. Thus, there is a Bernick’s Field (for Bernick’s Pepsi), a Coborn’s Field (for Coborn grocery stores) and a Phil’s Field, named after Phil Henkemeyer, who died in his 40s of cancer and whose brother, Jerry, sponsored the field in his memory. The fourth field, at this point, remains unnamed, unsponsored.
Companies renewed their naming rights after 10 years by purchasing large scoreboards for the fields.
In the middle of the park, where the fields meet, is a large stonework concession-stand building. Its second story contains storage area, including one side crammed full of boxes of baseballs and softballs. Huge horizontal windows overlook the four fields, and there is a P.A. system that can be used.
Downstairs is where snack foods, popcorn, pop and beer are served to spectators. One of the concession workers is Lori Pappenfus, Brad’s sister-in-law, who was on the bus with sister Amy years ago when Brad developed a rapid crush on his future wife.
Play ball!
It takes intricate planning to schedule the many games, playoffs and tournaments at Bob Cross Park.
Mitch Eichkoff is the league director for co-rec and men’s leagues, and the league director-scheduler for Tuesday and Wednesday games is Mike Miller.
There are five tournaments each year, three of them from the Minnesota Sports Foundation. From Monday-Thursday, typically there are 120 teams at play, in addition to 40 fall-league teams.
Some of the upcoming events at Bob Cross Fields include:
- Over 50 team playoffs. From 6:15 p.m. to about 10:15 p.m. on Mondays (Aug. 17 and Aug. 24).
- Class D State Men’s Tournament: starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, ending about 5 p.m. Play resumes Sunday from 10 a.m. until about 3 p.m.
- Fallen Firefighters Tournament. Starting at 9 a.m. and ending about 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 12 and Sunday, Sept. 13.
- Fall State Men’s and Co-Rec Tournament, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 and Sunday, Sept. 20.
- Men’s Fall State Tournament. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Sept. 27.
Dennis (right) and Brad Kenning touch up one of the fields at Bob Cross Park.
Concessions workers Lori Pfannenstein (left) and Sue Colgrove offer refreshments at Bob Cross Park. The two women have worked the stand for about 10 years.
Dennis Kenning (left) and Brad Kenning spend countless hours maintaining the four fields at the park, not to mention many other tasks related to baseball/softball at the park.
Baseballs galore – boxes and boxes of them – are stored in the second story of the concessions building at Bob Cross Park in Sauk Rapids.
A batter gets ready to connect with a ball at Bob Cross Park Aug. 10.
Fans watch a game Aug. 10 at Bob Cross Park between the Blast, St. Cloud, and the Barking Bad Ducks, Cold Spring.
