‘Town Ball Tour’ spotlights St. Joseph

by Dennis Dalman

news@thenewsleaders.com

The City of St. Joseph was spotlighted to great effect July 5 when Fox 9 News presented live coverage of the city, its cultural, collegiate heritage, its people and its passion for baseball during the TV program’s “Town Ball Tour.”

The Town Ball Tour is an annual spring-summer series of broadcasts by the Fox 9 News TV channel to show off Minnesota cities and their baseball programs. This baseball season it featured (besides St. Joseph) Freeport, New Market, Gaylord, Litchfield, Forest Lake and Lonsdale.

The St. Joseph event, dubbed “Pat Schneider Day,” was held in honor of Mr. Baseball himself, Pat Schneider, manager of the Joes, who along with his family and relatives, has had a passion for baseball and for the St. Joseph Joes for 50 years. In 2015, he was inducted into the Minnesota State Baseball Hall of Fame. St. Joseph’s long-time baseball field southwest of downtown was named after the Schneider clan in 2017. (For more on Schneider, see toward end of this story.)

In the sky over St. Joseph a drone hovered, giving bird’s-eye views to TV viewers of the Schneider Field baseball diamond and other parts of the city – a hovering overhead sweep of Kay’s Kitchen, for example.

The game of the day was a match-off between the St. Joseph Joes and the Avon Lakers (the Joes won 2-1).

“Baseball, Schneiders and beer” were virtually the underlying themes of the Fox 9 News broadcast. Roving reporters Pierre Noujaim and Jennifer McDermed (walking her dog Millie) did brief interviews with townspeople gathered for the game at Schneider Field and in places like Sal’s Bar and Kay’s Kitchen. 

At Kay’s Kitchen, McDermed talked with Cole Pilarski, master barbecued ribs griller who served up his specialty to a steady stream of customers, one of which was Pilarski’s former teacher. Then the news camera took in a delicious sight: two long rows of colorful, scrumptious homemade pies laid out on a long table.

McDermed talked briefly with two bashful little girls slurping on ice cream treats at the Wandering Cow mobile ice-cream shop.

McDermed also chatted with customers by the Jaycees’ beer booth near Schneider’s Field, where some noted “baseball and beer” are a long-time St. Joseph tradition.

“This is what it’s all about – baseball and baseball,” a man named Joe said to McDermed while lifting his beer.

 At Sal’s Bar, the bartender told McDermed that college customers tend to prefer rum-and-Cokes, and just about everybody loves Sal’s Lite Beer.

McDermed and fellow reporter Noujaim interviewed numerous St. Joseph Joes players, including former “Joes,” brothers Andy and Jeff Schneider, who are the nephews of Pat Schneider. They remembered fondly what good times they had playing ball. Amateur baseball, they said, is a “very big deal” in central Minnesota, especially in smaller cities like Opole, Sauk Rapids and Avon.

Former “Joes” player Tom Stock said baseball has always been a “family affair.” He, his brothers and son played on the St. Joseph Joes, and son Joe Stock is playing in the minor league for the Boston Red Sox organization.

Another interview was with Michael Hemmesch, associate director of media relations for the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph and St. John’s University in nearby Collegeville. He noted there has always been a “wonderful connection” between the two colleges for more than a century, thanks to many nuns and monks. The two schools have an enrollment of more than 3,000, and there are alumni are all over the world “doing wonderful things.” He added that some college students play for the Joes during summers.

A man named Bud Schneider said during an interview that there are three generations of Schneiders baseball players and fans in St. Joseph.

“When we were children, we’d play all day long. Sunday was game day. We’d go to church, go home to eat and spend the rest of the day right here (ball field). It’s a great tradition, and I hope it goes on forever.”

Pat Schneider

St. Joseph Joes Manager Pat Schneider, the son of Gladys and Don Schneider, grew up by Kraemer Lake near St. Joseph. He remembers hearing stories of how his grandfather (Mike Pfannenstein, whom he never met) helped develop baseball in St. Joseph in the 1920s. Pat’s father took care of the baseball field, and his mother worked the concession stand.

He had a great playing career, reaching a high point in 1982 with a .417 batting average, a trip to the state tournament and being on the All-Tournament Team. He played high-school baseball at Cathedral and amateur ball in St. Joseph from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Starting in the 1980s to the present, Schneider coached and managed the St. Joseph Saints (the Joes team was called the “Saints” for some years). Schneider was also one of the founders of American Legion baseball in St. Joseph, and has been instrumental in field improvements such as the following: the new grandstand, underground sprinkler system, renovation of the infield, a new concession stand, new bathrooms and dugouts. He has also been a board member of the Great Sioux League and the Sauk Valley League and a high-school baseball umpire.

Schneider helped pioneer the Saints Youth Baseball Camp in 1991. The organization has since had more than 1,000 kids, ages 6-14, go through the camp.

In an interview with the Newsleaders right after his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Schneider said this:

“I had uncles – Chuck, Ron, Lloyd and Bubba – who played baseball and I idolized them. They taught me how to grip a baseball and swing a bat . . . but really, it was baseball that had a grip on me.”

Schneider recalled how he would play with his siblings, cousins and other area kids in the sandlots of St. Joseph, playing east versus west in tournaments from morning until dark, when they had to be home.

Anytime you do something for a long period of time, you build relationships, Schneider noted. Some of those relationships he values are with the city, the park board, the Lions and many area businesses. He said they are all there and ready to support baseball, if anybody asks them.

Schneider earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Cloud State University in 1976. He taught science at Sartell Middle School until he retired in 2009 and has since then worked in promotional products and apparel for Quest Marketing Inc.

Schneider and wife Cindi have daughters: Laura, Kim and Carrie. All three girls played softball, and they were often on the baseball field with their father. And Carrie also played baseball for a time, up to the age of 15.