Reminiscing about baseball Saturday morning led Ron Plath to present himself with a classic "What if?".

Saturday, April 08, 2000

Reminiscing about baseball Saturday morning led Ron Plath to present himself with a classic "What if?"

"What if I’d have stayed in baseball?" he asked aloud before immediately answering: "I’d have been a manager. That’s where I’d be."

Instead, Plath’s life in the game ended decades ago after a short six-week stint with his hometown Austin Blues. Then a salesman in grocery products for Hormel Foods, Plath was "shipped," as he put it, to Los Angeles in 1960.

"I needed the job more than I needed baseball," said Plath, who now finds himself in a position to return to the game.

He’s retired after 35 years with Hormel and he’s ready to help the new Austin Packers make a go of it.

The Packers – formerly the Austin Greyhounds – begin play April 30 at Marcusen Park. Plath is on board as the team’s marketing guru.

"What this club needs is to market itself," said Plath. "All I’m trying to bring to the table is experience and years of being around a successful parent company that did a lot with promoting and marketing its products.

"I want to do the same for the Packers."

The Packers – Austin’s entry in the Southern Minny League alongside the likes of Albert Lea, Faribault, Mankato, Owatonna, Rochester and Waseca – will feature a lineup largely made up of former college baseball players from Austin.

The team reminds Plath of his days as a Blue.

"The Packers (of the 1950s) were the No. 1 team, the semi-pro team," Plath said. "The Blues were the college players who weren’t quite good enough for the Packers.

"These new Packers are really the reorganization, the rebirth of the Blues."

Plath’s brief return to Austin to play for the Blues in 1960 requires a retelling.

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, where he played baseball, Plath signed with the Chicago White Sox.

Plath, an Austin graduate, went to spring training in Hollywood, Fla. A month into his minor league career, however, Blues manager Bob Cummins visited Plath and asked him to return to Austin, where the Blues needed help.

Plath left the minor leagues and, upon his arrival in Austin, applied for work at Hormel and got a job.

"I knew Dick Knowlton," Plath said. "That helped."

Thus began a long baseball layoff for Plath, who is more than happy to return to the game.

"I’ve haven’t been involved in baseball," he said, "but I love the game."

He can still recall Packers manager Emil Schied coaching third base with a trademark lemon in his hand.

Part of Plath’s job will be the insure the Packers don’t become the lemons that the Southern Minny Stars did in their last two seasons using college players.

"The Stars – timing wise – were good for baseball in Austin," Plath said. "We won’t have the overhead the Stars had. We’ll also be playing with local players."

Plath envisions a number of special promotional nights for the Packers.

"Like Seniors Night," said Plath, a senior himself who knows how enjoyable baseball can be.