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Harry
Bongard, batboy on a State Amateur championship team from
Chanhassen in the late 1940s, is hanging it up in the
Minnesota Senior Men's Amateur Baseball Association after 10
seasons. This closes another chapter in a storied
career that includes playing state am and coaching legion
and youth baseball in Eden Prairie for many years. Just the
past two years, he has played on the over 59 Roy Hobbs team
from Minnesota that won a national championship.
Harry,
66, already known as Mr. Baseball Eden Prairie,
left a brief message for all his friends and teammates:
"To
all my teammates and many friends on other teams . . . it's
been a blast," he said. "I've been very
lucky in regards to injuries and at my age, I don't want to
do anything stupid."
Harry
left an ode to baseball with a Top 10 Reasons:
Among
them (some were too private):
"Starting
to stop all those bad hop grounders with everything but my
glove.
"Look
the best throwing the ball around the horn and tossing it to
the pitcher.
"Ran
out of Lion's Tap coupons."
"My
lucrative contract interferes with my social security
check."
"With
the movement on Jeff Satzinger's 90 mph fastball, if Pat
(Thompson) puts me in to bat, I'd have a movement somewhere
else."
"Can't
bat lower than 9th."
And,
trumpet music, the No. 1 reason Harry Bongard is retiring:
"Just
too damn old."
No,
like Mastercard: Priceless.
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