Growing up in on the Iron Range in Marble, Minn.

Thursday, April 20, 2000

Growing up in on the Iron Range in Marble, Minn., Joe Serratore couldn’t wait to make it big in baseball.

In other words, he couldn’t wait to play for the Mallards.

"I didn’t want to play for the Twins," he said. "I wanted to play for our town team, the Marble Mallards.

"They were drawing 1,500 to 2,000 fans a game. Town team baseball was a big deal."

Serratore started out as the team’s bat boy, then followed his brothers onto the team’s roster. He’s been playing town team baseball for the 22 years since then.

He’ll do so again this year as a player/coach on the Austin Packers, who begin play April 30 at Marcusen Park in a 1 p.m. tilt against the Minneapolis Shell’s Blue Sox.

Joining Serratore as one of the team’s most seasoned veterans will be Troy Holtz.

Like Serratore, Holtz has played on a variety of town teams, including Waseca, which has a rich tradition of town team baseball.

This upcoming 80-game season will be Holtz’s 12th year in the town team game.

"I still love to play baseball," said Holtz, who is the club pro at The Oaks Golf Course in Hayfield and the assistant boys’ hockey coach at Austin High. "That’s why I’m playing. To me, golf is a job."

And baseball his passion, which is why both he and Serratore are looking forward to the game-heavy schedule.

"I’m looking forward to a lot of games," Holtz said. "Joe and myself have played big schedules before. In Waseca, we’d play 45-50 games a year."

"Playing this kind of schedule is not out of the ordinary for the top teams," added Serratore.

Last season, the team – then the Austin Greyhounds – played a 25-game schedule. By the time the team reached its third Minnesota Amateur Baseball Tournament in the 1990s, the team’s roster had dwindled to 10-11 players.

Holtz was among those players. He and Serratore are certain this team – which has a new governing board to go with its new name – will have no trouble fielding a roster complete with a deep bench. Currently, there is a pool of 35 players on the Austin Packers roster.

Clearly, Serratore doesn’t expect everyone to show up for every game. But with such a talent pool to draw from, the team will never have trouble fielding a solid team for its games.

Serratore and Holtz will be among the roster’s oldest players.

"It’s nice to have veterans around, guys who know and love baseball," said Holtz, who proved himself to be a clutch hitter during Austin’s run to state a year ago.

For Holtz and Serratore – the man who resurrected town team baseball in Austin in 1990 by starting the Greyhounds – town team baseball has always been there, a place where the hits just keep on coming.

No matter how seasoned they become.