SPORTS FLASHBACK 1984: Downpour adds fun to fundraiser donkey baseball game

With Will Reimer offering assistance in the pulling department and Robert Penner handling things at the other end, Brian Schroeder was able to concentrate on his riding skills during a rain-soaked game of donkey baseball, which pitted the Pansy Nationals against the Grunthal Red Wings, following a full day of minor baseball games at Green Valley Park.

The game ended in a tie, but the Grunthal Arena Board and the Grunthal Sports Association were the real winners, as more than 900 fans showed up to provide a boost of more than $1,000 to a growing artificial ice fund for the Grunthal Arena.

The organizers couldn’t have asked for a better day for a donkey baseball game. First, the sun shone all day, while minor baseball teams played before the largest crowds of fans they likely had ever seen, and then just before the evening’s main event got underway, the rain came down in buckets.

When the rain stopped, and before the donkey baseball game started, the master-of-ceremonies for the event outlined a lengthy list of rules. It didn’t matter that neither the ball players nor the donkeys were paying attention, he said, for every one of the rules would be broken anyway. He then told the crowd you could always tell the difference between a donkey and a jackass, because the donkeys were the ones with four feet.

Donkey baseball on a dry field would not have been near as much fun as the ensuing battle between Pansy and Grunthal.

The game was conducted all in good fun and the teams ended up in a tie. Even the tie was expected, because the rules were constantly being bent in favor of the team that was behind. The real winners were, of course, the fellow who provided the donkeys for a piece of the action and the artificial ice fund.

With this kind of community support, it won’t be long before the rest of money is raised to meet Grunthal’s share of the cost of a cement floor and artificial ice plant for the Grunthal Arena.