Sports Memories by Tom Jones

 

50 years ago: 1969

• Home Lumber defeated Cabin Bar 22-4 in ladies’ fastpitch softball action to advance to the city championship. Alice Petersen went 4-4 with a home run. Barb Iverson, Deb Rye and Lois Fagerquist all went 3-4 with home runs.

• Tony Oliva belted two home runs as the Minnesota Twins defeated the New York Yankees 6-0. Dave Boswell pitched eight scoreless innings before being hit in the head by a pitch in the eighth inning and left the game.

Boswell said, “I was hit harder in Detroit than I was tonight,” referring to the fight he had with manager Billy Martin the previous week.

• Gene Washington and Chet Anderson caught touchdown passes, Bill Brown and Clint Jones each ran for touchdowns and Gary Larsen had a fumble recovery for a score as the Minnesota Vikings defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 41-13 in their third exhibition game of the year that was played in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

25 years ago: 1994

• Two former Albert Lea Tigers football players were making their jump to play college football. Andy Nyquist was headed to Carleton College and Pete Breitholtz was off to Colgate.

• Elijah Schroeder and Mike Vaale broke the record at the Holiday Park Golf Course in Hayward, playing 153 holes and 17 rounds of golf in one day.

• The Albert Lea girls’ tennis team opened its season with a 7-0 loss to Owatonna. The team was coached by Tom Dyrdal.

 

10 years ago: 2009

• After missing 15 games with a sprained left ankle, Nelson Cruz hit a home run in the Texas Rangers’ 11-1 win over the Minnesota Twins. Delmon Young’s home run was the only run for the Twins.

• The Albert Lea Blue 14U baseball team captured the South Central Youth Baseball League with a 21-6-1 record. The team was coached by Jeff McLaughlin, Garry Abben, Jon Hansen and Gene Arnold.

• Former Albert Lea High School soccer players Jake Thompson, Lukas Deng and Chris Karge were set to play in the inaugural season of men’s soccer at Riverland Community College. The team’s schedule had four games that were being played in Albert Lea.

 

This year

• Former KATE sports director Mike Sullivan is about to embark on his 20th season of doing play-by-play action of Minnesota State University-Mankato sports. He will begin the year announcing Mavericks football and transition to the Mavericks hockey team later in the fall.