All spring and summer, players on the Mankato American Legion baseball team saw their friends at Mankato West get plenty of well-deserved attention.

The Free Press

MANKATO — Leo Gellert felt like he was going to play well last week when he arrived at Mankato Golf Club for a late afternoon round with his buddies.

Like many graduating seniors, Minnesota State men’s hockey player Riese Zmolek found himself facing a big decision this spring after the semifinal loss at the Frozen Four.

That Nelson Cruz was traded was no surprise.

Waterfowl hunters are an opinionated bunch.

As Minnesota State men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings stood at the 16th tee at the annual Dan Meyer Blue Line Club Golf Classic on Monday, there was a certain peace.

Last week’s discussion about the “Mount Rushmore” of Minnesota high-school athletes was interesting and engaging.

Baseball sometimes gets pegged as “boring,” and while I’ve never felt that way, it’s easy to understand that line of thinking.

MANKATO — Blake Reilly met with the manager, who told him Tuesday that he would be the starting pitcher for the Great Plains team at the Northwoods League All-Star Game.

MANKATO — Adam Thielen confidently walked to the pitcher’s mound, glove in one hand and a baseball in the other.

MANKATO — Leading up to the Northwoods League Home Run Challenge on Monday, there weren’t players on the Great Plains’ side lining up to hit last.

Shohei Ohtani has pretty much been granted the MVP Award by acclamation, and it’s hard to argue.

Matthew Higgins, Nolan Pender and Blake Reilly didn’t come to Mankato with the goal of playing in the Northwoods League All-Star baseball game.

My pal Paul resides on a hobby farm that, among other things, provides a heap of open pasture space to train my dogs, shoot our hunting bows at 3-dimensional targets set-up against a wooded backdrop, and view myriad wildlife.

Like many Americans, Matt Mangulis and Coley Ries will generally be pulling for Team USA when the Olympics kickoff in Tokyo later this month.

Last week, Twitter posed an interesting question: Who is on the Mount Rushmore of Minnesota high-school athletics?

After rampant speculation all spring and summer, college athletes finally got the news they were hoping for.

Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman was recently looking through his notes and meeting agendas from last June and July, and as you can assume, they weren’t very uplifting.

Through 18 home games this season, the Mankato MoonDogs had won 17.

Catcher is a weird position.

MANKATO — Jack Pexa knew the plan.

For years, Minnesota State associate athletic director/compliance & student services officer Shane Drahota has had to tell student-athletes the same thing over and over.

Mortality and inevitability are a pair of terms man has wrestled with for time eternal.

Cheyenne Rova has competed in the Commonwealth Games and Pacific Games, both highly prestigious international events.

Kinda cool to think that just a few years ago, we all had the opportunity to watch Olympic-level athletes competing at high school track and field meets in southern Minnesota.

Kaylee Eykyn and Mankato East/Loyola girls hockey coach Amber Prange each remember the conversation well.

If Wednesday’s Northwoods League doubleheader between the Mankato MoonDogs and Waterloo Bucks is any indication, runs may be a bit more difficult to come by in the second half of the season than in the first.

Minnesota Duluth was No. 1 on Jacob Eggert’s list of football programs that had recruited him.

George Allen, a prominent football coach about a half-century ago, once proclaimed: The future is now.

If you are an avid waterfowler or upland bird hunter, our continuing drought will have drastic impact on hunting success this fall.

It was nice that local baseball players got to have something last summer, but “18U West” and “18U East/Loyola” just don’t have the same ring as “National” and “American.”

Ten more feet?

The days were passing and it was getting late in the process.

Come late September, local soccer officials and fans hope to be sitting in new bleachers, cheering for Mankato West or Mankato East soccer teams in the annual Pack The Stands game on a new artificial field surface under upgraded stadium lights.

With things mostly back to normal, you may not find yourself with as much free time as you did last summer.

Aaron Rozek was just hoping to have fun this summer, playing baseball for an independent-league team in Illinois.

Lipscomb’s Shane Streich wasn’t trying to hustle a track meet at the Virginia Grand Prix on May 1.

By this time next month, the Minnesota Twins will be auctioning off veterans.