EMBARRASS- They took to the field, seven on a team. Many in bare feet, all with bare hands. The rules were simple. The backstop, with an inset piece of sheet metal in the strikeout zone, acted as its own umpire. If the ball hit the wood, it was a called ball, if it zinged on the metal, a strike. The uniforms were casual, though some teams were in matching-colored t-shirts or caps. Players ranged in age from 12 on up, and teams needed to have at least two female members on the field.

It all started, said tournament host and organizer Marlin Bjornrud, when their youngest son, Brett, was graduating from high school.

“The kids wanted to make a wiffle ball field in the front yard,” he said. “I told them to go ahead.”

Little did Marlin realize that his boys were serious.

“They put together a real field,” he said. “And they ended up playing on it all day during our open house.”

Afterwards, he said, he and his wife Jeannine left up the back field fence, a length of snow fence, and he kept the area mowed.

“The next summer,” he said, “they decided to have a tournament.”

As the years went by, the field became more elaborate. The family collected old business signs to line the backfield fence. Now the entire backfield is covered with old signs from local businesses, some still around, but others reminders of earlier times.

To Marlin’s surprise, Jeannine let him keep the field, as a permanent part of their large front yard, which sits at the end of a dead end gravel road in Embarrass.

The annual tournament has become a family tradition. This year’s tournament, the eighth annual, held on July 30, drew seven teams who spent the day playing ball, visiting with family and friends, and staying well fed, thanks to the potluck picnic spread. Jeannine was busy grilling hot dogs. Last year, she said, she had grilled 200, but ran out. This year, she had upped her count.

A concession-stand style machine was churning out popcorn, further adding to the baseball game experience.

The tournament can handle as many as eight teams, drawing players from across the state. Most teams include friends of the couple’s six children, all of whom play. This year, some grandchildren are old enough to join in on the fun, Marlin said.

The winner each year is awarded a travelling trophy, which features a golden wiffle ball on top. The trophy was created by a friend who attends the Embarrass Evangelical Free Church, where Marlin is the pastor.

“We usually get around 150 or so people out to the house during the day,” Marlin said.

Attendance at the tournament, for the Bjornrud kids, is pretty much mandatory, said daughter-in-law Sonya.

All six of the Bjornrud kids, along with 10 grandchildren, were up for the weekend.

A special kids-only wiffle ball game was played Friday night, so all the youngsters who weren’t old enough to play with the adults could get in on the action.

“It’s non-negotiable,” Sonya said with a smile. “We have to come.”

The Bjornrud house is filled to the seams for the weekend, with tents and small campers dotting the backyard, and the family sauna hot all weekend, to supply enough hot water to keep everyone clean.

Three of the teams this year were new to the tournament, recruited by Bjornrud family friends.

The action was friendly, but mildly competitive. The strategy mainly focused on hitting, since the plastic bat hitting the patterned ball tended to make for easy fly ball catches. Ground hits seemed to grant the most advantage. Even with the shortened distance to the back fence, home runs were not common, making for lots of action in the infield.

Matt Tuchel, of Tower, was playing for a local team with players from Babbitt, Embarrass, Tower, and Soudan.

“This is my first year playing,” he said. “It’s really fun.”

Tuchel rounded the bases, barefoot, after hitting a nice grounder. His team won their first game by a lop-sided score, but didn’t take home this year’s trophy, an honor that went to the City Kids team from New Brighton, who beat a Babbitt-based team called “APB” by a score of 15-10.

Tuchel’s two children had joined the many other family members on the sidelines, cheering. His wife was set to join them later in the afternoon.

From Wikipedia

Miniature versions of baseball have been played for decades, including stickball, improvised by children, using everything from rolled up socks to tennis balls. The ball most commonly used in the game was invented by David N. Mullany at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1953 when he designed a ball that curved easily for his 12-year-old son. It was named when his son and his friends would refer to a strikeout as a “whiff”. The classic trademarked Wiffle Ball is about the same size as a regulation baseball, but is hollow, lightweight, of resilient plastic, no more than 1/8-inch thick. One half is perforated with eight .75-inch oblong holes; the other half is non-perforated. This construction allows pitchers to throw a tremendous variety of curveballs and risers. Wiffle balls are typically packaged with a hollow, hard plastic, yellow bat that measures 32 inches in length and about 1.25 inches in diameter.