Greg Tofte tells a story about his family and the Netland family getting together to play baseball.
“We had nine kids in our family and the Netlands had ten kids in their family, so we had enough players to make teams,” he said.
Growing up in Tofte in the 1960s, kids had to make their own fun, and Greg said there was no end of playing outside with siblings and friends.
On this summer day, the two families met on a makeshift diamond, and Danny Netland got up to bat.
Who was pitching to him?
Greg doesn’t remember, but Danny, the oldest of the Netland siblings, swung from his heels, hitting the ball in its sweet spot, and drove it over the road where it landed in the back of a moving pickup truck. The truck was headed to Grand Marais, and Danny has long since bragged, “I hit a home run that traveled from Tofte all of the way to Grand Marais!”
Not even the mighty Babe Ruth could claim he hit a baseball that far.
As for the game?
“We only had one baseball, so we had to quit playing until we could scrounge up money to buy another ball,” Greg said with a laugh.
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