BABBITT—50 years ago, the Babbitt High School baseball team made history.
The Knights captured the only state title in school history with a come-frombehind victory over Sleepy Eye, 6-5.
Last weekend, members from that historic 1976 team reunited in Babbitt to celebrate the 50year anniversary of their historic achievement.
At the helm of that team was first-year head coach Greg Rajanen. Then only 23 years of age, Rajanen took an already talented group of high schoolers and helped push them over the edge to contend for a state title.
“I tell some of the players that a few of them were more mature than I was at that point,” Rajanen said recently in a telephone interview. I grew up in Superior, Wisconsin and in my era, we all played two or three sports and that’s just what happens at these smaller schools like Babbitt.
“Baseball wasn’t the first sport for many of these guys but there were a couple where their best sport was baseball. If you have good athletes like that, have the instincts for strategy, know how to compete and don’t back down from a challenge, then you can go quite a ways.”
Centerfielder Joe Boffa was one of six seniors on the state championship team and Boffa said Rajanen was a nice fit for the program, with many of the players already knowing him as a hockey coach.
“He brought great energy and knowledge and youth to us,” Boffa said. “He showed us how to do things properly and we were happy to have him as our coach.”
And, Boffa said, Rajanen’s coaching style had them prepared for anything.
“Hegaveusamanualandwehad never had a manual before. We had plays and we knew what we were doing in every scenario, when to lay down a bunt. He covered it all.
“He laid out the season, definitively, with great attention to detail and we were fortunate enough to live it.”
Heading into the state tournament with a record of 18-3, the Knights had little issue when it came to the regular season. While there were a few close wins throughout, a number of their contests were just pure domination—like their 30-5 victory over the Gilbert Buccaneers.
“It’s pretty tough as a coach when things like that happen,” Rajanen said. “It’s hard to tell the players not to get a hit or throw the ball right down the middle. I’m a little sheepish about that looking back but that may have been one of the reasons they came up with a 10run rule. Our guys just wanted to compete in every game and it showed.”
“We were aggressive,” Boffa said. “We stole a lot of bases. We made people play with the ball. We even had a couple really good ball players that didn’t come out that year because they didn’t think they would play so we had a few freshmen on the team. The beauty was everyone contributed. That’s what Babbitt was great for. You could always find a game to play.”
After taking down McGregor and Moose Lake in the regional tournament, Babbitt locked up a state quarterfinal spot where they matched up with Roseau in a game to be played in Grand Rapids.
A number of memories from the day of that game came to mind for Rajanen and Boffa, the first being when the team’s bus broke down on the way to the field.
“We had parents picking up kids on the side of the road,” Boffa said. “If they hadn’t done that, we probably wouldn’t have made it to the game.”
For the game itself, Rajanen’s first thought was when the team’s ace on the mound, Curt Koivisto, broke his wrist after a comebacker made contact with his throwing hand.
“We had really good depth in our pitching staff,” Rajanen said. “He was out and we had to turn to someone else so our No. 2 guy Randy Rosett jumped in there and we were able to complete the game and move on in the state tournament.”
“He was a great support for us even when injured.”
Boffa said of Koivisto. “He was with us every bit of the way but we all felt bad for him. He got us there. He was our ace so that was a big hurdle and it brought us closer together I think.”
The junior Rosett would go on to pitch the team to victory in the state semifinal with fellow junior Chuck Evancevich getting the nod to start the state final against Sleepy Eye. While Evancevich was normally a pitcher to be counted on, the Indians had his number, putting up five runs on him in the first two innings.
“He threw the ball extremely hard,” Rajanen said. “But Sleepy Eye was a fastball hitting team. My assistant coach Dan Zubich and I knew we had to make a change. We didn’t want to fall further behind if we wanted a chance to win.”
From there, junior Bob Demaris took over on the hill and Sleepy Eye couldn’t hit him.
“We brought in the old timer and he threw knuckleballs and a slow curve ball. They were just flummoxed by him. We rode him for the next three-and-two-thirds innings until we found a way to get into the game.”
The Knights worked their way into the game, scoring one run in the fourth and another in the fifth to trail by three heading into the bottom of the seventh. The Knights took some walks early in the inning to set up the dramatic finale and one run came in off a fortuitous hit courtesy of Rosett.
“He hit a hard ground ball to first,” Boffa said. “And I swear there were no blemishes on that field but it must have hit the only rock around and it took a bounce up and went way over the first baseman’s head so we had a little bit of luck going our way.”
Trailing by two, the Knights tied the game with a double to the gap from Evancevich and it started to feel like things were going to end in favor of Babbitt.
With senior catcher Grant Boisner on third, another hit would end the game but the finish had a bit of its own flair as the Sleepy Eye pitcher issued a wild pitch. Boisner got the signal to head home and the rest was history.
While the Knights had climbed to the top of the mountain, one thing the players and coaches took pride in was bringing the trophy back to Babbitt.
“That was the thing,” Boffa said. “Being able to share it with the community was the coolest part. There were cars following us all the way home. We had this great reception. We just felt pride. Pride to be from Babbitt and to be able to celebrate with all the townsfolk.”
“The people were going crazy,” Rajanen said. “They had the police escort waiting for us when we turned the corner into Babbitt. We knew it was something special. For a small town to do something like that, it starts when you’re young from good coaching in Little League to good Babe Ruth coaching. All those coaches throughout the years prepared these kids to be good athletes and they stepped up and made it happen.”
And while that entire season felt perfect, it couldn’t be replicated.
Rajanen lost his job as a teacher due to budget cuts the next year and moved back to his hometown of Superior, WI. He’d go on to coach hockey and baseball throughout Minnesota at schools in Austin, Fridley and Anoka.
After that, he had a lengthy scouting career with the Calgary Flames in the NHL. Rajanen credits one of his high school coaches— RonOrlandi—forhelpingmakehim the kind of coach he wanted to be.
“He taught us well and I basically copied everything he taught us and tried to share it with my team because of my lack of experience. It paid off. You learn to keep your cool. We had all these three-sport athletes that have been on the short end of the score at times but they knew how to pull it together and win when it counted.”
Boffa, who currently resides in Palm Springs, California, looks back fondly on the historic season and perhaps even more fondly on Babbitt as a whole.
“We had an idyllic childhood,” Boffa said. “What more could you want when it comes to nature and things to do? We played outside every day. Being this mining town, they took really good care of us. We had fields everywhere and great ice to skate on. We were pretty spoiled in that regard.
“That state tournament run, we took things game by game. We had been to state as a VFW team and I look back at our Little League program and how wonderful that was. Our youth hockey program was wonderful. We were just blessed.”
In the end, the pressure didn’t prove to be too much and the Knights still remember that feeling of winning it all.
“It stands the test of time,” Boffa finished. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a reunion for it. We just walked away so this is a pretty special time for us to get together.”
Of the 14 team members still living, 10 were in attendance at the reunion.
Players from the team include seniors Terry Podlogar (LF), Grant Boisner (C), Joe Boffa (CF), Jeff Krensing (2B), Mike Eide (SS), Ron Grossman (RF) and Curt Koivisto (1BP); juniors Tim Pastika (3B), Randy Rosett (1B-P), Chuck Evancevich (3B-P), Bob Demaris (P) and Jeff Thiel (OF); sophomore Dan Grossman(1B)andfreshmenBrandon Von Wald (RF), Mike Krensing (2b) and Dan Stackowski (OF).
Head coach Greg Rajanen was assisted by Dan Zubich. Mike Kuschec was the student manager.
