Brute’s Bleat March 22, 2017

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The latest harbinger of spring at the Brutlag household are the tulips on the south side of the house that are showing about two inches of stems. That’s more than enough fresh food for the neighborhood rabbits to nibble on. This has been an unusual winter for Minnesota with the Central Minnesota lakes opening up March 9th only to freeze up again last week (a first in my lifetime). The Mar. 6 three tornadoes, thunder and lightning, and the March 13th snow adds to the confusion as we head into spring. Local gardener Patrick Lahr figures two lake openings in one year has to be some kind of record (one opening still to come as of March 20) and suggested a new chart for record keeping is in order. A portion of the East Coast wasn’t spared by the Mar. 14 storm either. Phyllis Bowen, friend of mine who lives with her husband, Harry, in Merrimac, MA. (north of Boston) said she had her snow shovel ready anticipating lots of late season snow. They ended up with 10-12 inches crusted with rain. In reality she said the winds (60 plus mph) were more of an issue, knocking down some trees and leaving that area without electricity for several hours. From North Dakota, and a lady who likes shoveling snow, she limited her efforts to the deck, she said.
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Several weeks ago we asked for the boxscores for the 1947 Maple Lake baseball game with Chaska in the Class A State Amateur Tournament and Dale Welter, Chaska, provided them for us. Most of the players were locals in the 1-0 loss.
Maple Lake (0) Chaska (1

y-Two out when winning run scored.
Maple Lake …………………………………………. 000 000 000—0
Chaska ……………………………………………….. 000 000 001—1
Errors: McPherson, Meierhofer, Doherty, Engelhardt. Two base hit: Lano. Sacrificed: Wettergren. Stolen bases: Doherty 2. Left on bases, Maple Lake: 5; Chaska 7. Bases on balls: Garbett 2; Anderson 4. Strikeouts: Anderson 7, Garbett 14, Cooney 1. Hits off Anderson 0 in 8 1/3; Cooney 0 in 2/3. Wild pitch, Garbett. Passed ball, McPherson. Winning pitcher, Cooney. Umpires, Swanson and Pickering. Time, 2:15.
Welter included some 1948 info about Maple Lake’s pitcher, Johnny Garbett, “Maple Lake failed to gain a state tournament berth, but that community figures its pitching ace, Johnny Garbett, is worthy of a ‘pitcher of the year’ award. In 10 games that youngster allowed an average of only nine-tenths of a run per game, an average of 2.48 hits while fanning an average of 13.3. It is claimed not another pitcher in the state can better those marks.” He earned $75 per game and was picked up by Clara City for $550 a month in 1949. He was also a Golden Gopher sophomore, playing for Dick Siebert at the UofM.
Welter also put in a plug for the Mn. High School All-Stars Baseball Series at Chaska to be played June 23-24. The two days include a number of other events, golf, curling, etc. and lots of baseball.

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