Lakemen manager steps down
By Greg Seubert
Dave Peterson played his first baseball game for the Waupaca Lakemen shortly after graduating from Waupaca High School in 1965.
He had no way of knowing that he’d be a part of the team for the next 53 years.
Those 53 years include a decade as a player, another decade or so as a player/manager and more than 40 years as manager. Peterson’s final game as manager was a 2-1 loss to Little Falls Sept. 2 in this year’s Grand Championship game of the Badger Amateur Baseball Association (BABA).
“I like baseball, it’s my favorite sport,” he said. ““My father played Lakemen ball. I remember being a bat boy, but not much more than that. It was fun, we were reasonably successful and I kept playing.”
“Reasonably successful” might be the understatement of the year.
Peterson played or managed in 14 of the program’s Grand Championships over the years, including five in a row from 1976-80. Waupaca also won titles in 1972, 1974, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1994, 2010, 2011 and 2017.
“I started playing/managing probably in that ‘76, ‘77 range,” he said. “I was probably playing until the mid-’80s.”
He wasn’t the only player on the team still taking the field in their 30s or 40s.
“That’s what unique about Waupaca,” he said. “We seem to have quite a few of those guys. None of us could really give it up. It was too much fun. We hung on as a group together and I just happened to fall into the leadership position.”
The five championships in a row included an 8-6 win over Monico in 1980, which Peterson said is a game he’ll never forget.
Waupaca trailed 6-2 heading into the ninth inning in Monico, a small town located between Rhinelander and Crandon.
“We came back from four runs down in the top of the ninth against two pitchers that had pitched in the Big 10 (Conference) at least, if not the Minors,” Peterson said. “A lefty and a righty and they tried them both. It was a spectacular finish in a Grand Championship game.”
Another memorable game for him came in the 1974 Grand Championship, as he was named the game’s MVP after driving in four runs in a 10-1 win over Hatley.
The five titles in a row came over Antigo in 1976 and 1977, Birnamwood in 1978 and Monico in 1979 and 1980.
“That was a lot of the same guys,” Peterson said. “The main thing was we had a lot of good players. That group just seemed to get along good together. Just go out and have fun. There seemed to be a ton of that going on in that group.”
Once his playing days ended, Peterson often had to put teams together with teenagers and players in their 40s.
“The trick is to keep it going somehow,” he said. “You have to have infiltration of young ones and somehow make them fit. We never had any trouble getting numbers. We’re one of the bigger teams in the BABA and that’s an advantage.
“I give a lot of credit to the small towns that have kept it going,” he added. “We’ve lost some of them along the way that I played against. I wish they could still be playing, but they couldn’t keep it due to numbers. Waupaca’s been very fortunate.”
The Lakemen compete in the South-Central Division, which recently lost teams in Lanark, Rosholt and Manawa.
Some players were able to join other teams.
“It’s not as easy going somewhere else,” Peterson said. “I know the Christensen boys (Justin and Jeremy) have done it (from Lanark) to Weyauwega, but it’s not easy to fit in with another team. You almost feel like the outsider, but it’s a way to let them play.”
The Lakemen won the South-Central with a 12-0 record and won three playoff games before facing Little Falls for this year’s championship.
“I even gave a talk after practice and said, ‘You’re not going to win it for me, it’s your game,’” Peterson said. “Cam Seidl came up and apologized three times to me that he lost the game for me. I said, ‘You didn’t lose the game for me, you held them to two runs.’ That’s baseball. I lost a lot of games like that.”
Peterson’s predecessor is no stranger to the Lakemen. Like Peterson, Andy Wanty played high school baseball in Waupaca before joining the team in the 1990s.
“Andy Wanty’s going to take over and he’ll be the new manager,” Peterson said. “It’s his team. He has the right to run it without any interference or somebody looking over his shoulder.
“He probably has some of his own ideas he’d like to do, like maybe a different type of game schedule,” he said. “As far as strategy, we’re all similar, but I’m sure there’ll be some differences. He would like to play a little bit, too, but I’m sure he’s going to find out that you can’t do justice to both jobs.”
Peterson plans on watching some of the team’s home games at Lakemen Field.
“I’ll help out as needed, let’s leave it as that,” he said. “I’m still going to be president of the South-Central, which I am now. I’m going to do that for a couple more years, so hopefully I can go watch some of the other teams, too.”
Peterson and the Lakemen organization knew coming into this season that it would be his last as manager.
“I knew this was coming at some point and I was always willing to step away,” he said. “I followed Lee Thompson, who was the manager for 10, 15 years before me. When he couldn’t get there, I’d co-manage with him and then I took it over. My idea was to manage until Lee Thompson would have to leave the concession stand and give it up and then I would be general manager/treasurer until I didn’t want to do it anymore. Lee held on quite a while so I kept hanging on and nobody kicked me out. I almost went a year ago, but there was nobody that I knew that was going to take over.”
Peterson isn’t quite ready to give up sports altogether. He still referees basketball and football games throughout central Wisconsin.
“When I referee football or basketball games, I see guys that I played baseball against,” he said. “It brings up a little chit-chat and you have to say hi.”
Although the 2018 season didn’t end with a record 16th BABA Grand Championship, Peterson said his final season was still a success.
“There’s one goal every year: make the playoffs,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re first, second, third or fourth. Now that you’re in the playoffs, you have a chance. Then you do the best you can from there. I think it’s a great for the community. Not 100 percent of the people follow it or care, but you can give the community something to wrap around.”