It was just a single. Cooper Anderson stood in the batter’s box facing Anoka Bucs’ reliever Austin Lang. The pitch came in and the lefty made solid contact. The sound was quintessential. A crack of the bat, a laser into the outfield and Anderson stood on first base. Nothing particularly remarkable about the at bat except the celebration. Anderson turned to the Centennial Cougars’ dugout and let out a full-throated “LET’S GO!” The surprise from the Anoka Bucs was palpable and Anderson immediately turned to the first baseman and followed up with, “It’s been a while.” That is the understatement of the season, so far.
Cooper Anderson is like much of the Centennial Cougars. He is going into his sophomore season with Bemidji State next year and is playing this summer to prepare for his college team. This is what a lot of the Cougars’ team looks like, college players hoping to stay in shape and keep their timing and skills dialed in during the long off-season. This base of collegiate athletes has been built, over time, by the father-son Cyzewski duo. The elder Cyzewski (Joe) got the team up and running in 2018 in partnership with friend, and current Executive Vice President of the St. Paul Saints, Tom Whaley. They struggled for a few years as Joe and Tom’s sons played on the team and they looked to establish an identity as a “Townball team without a town”. Since that time the team has been adopted by the Circle Pines community where their home field is located but has maintained their Centennial name borrowed from the local high school.
As the initial members of the team graduated from college and began the next phases of their lives fresh talent was added from area high schools and the team got better. Things really took shape, though, when the younger Cyzewski (also Joe) started working for Complete Game, a baseball and softball training academy in Lino Lakes. Suddenly Joe Jr was working with the future of the game in the north metro from a young age. The pipeline to the local high schools, colleges, and eventually townball teams was instantly upgraded. I had a lot of time to talk with Joe Sr. while he coached first base, and he expressed that he has really taken a more executive role with the team to make room for his son to take over managerial duties. Much of this is just a function of age and Jr’s connection with the guys on the team. Joe Sr quickly counted up the guys and with the exception of about 4 vets almost the entire team was trained and recruited by Joe Jr.
So, who are these guys that Joe Jr. has recruited? And, why was a boring single such a big deal for Cooper Anderson? I spoke with a member of another Metro Minny team who told me, “Centennial is unique because if they ever make it to the state tournament I don’t know if they’ll even be able to field a team.” It was clear in the Metro Minny playoffs last season when Centennial had a number of guys that were off with Northwoods teams or back at college. While most townball teams are a solid mix of college athletes and older vets who have been around for years, Centennial skews towards the younger, college athletes. This makes putting a team together a challenge depending on who is available on any given day.
On this day there is a solid contingent with about six guys on the bench ready to pinch hit, run, or pitch out of the bullpen. A week prior there was barely enough to field a team with only a two bench players for a double header in Quamba. This is because many of the guys were still playing with their college teams. In fact, one player is still playing in the NCAA Division 3 World Series this week. In addition they will likely lose a player or two over the course of the season to the Northwoods League.
The Northwoods League is a competitive collegiate summer league that only signs players with remaining college eligibility or graduated seniors (limited to four per side) and is known for being the premier wood-bat summer league in the midwest. There are teams representing Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, and even Thunder Bay in Canada. As the Cougars were preparing to face the Anoka Bucs I had a chance to discuss the Northwoods League and its competition with townball with Taylor Nelson of the Bucs. Taylor has been around the league for a while and he’s seen the changes that have come with Northwoods League expansion. “It used to be you had to be playing division 1 ball to sign with a Northwoods Team. Now that they are at [26] teams they’ll take any D3 talent they can get.” There is a lot of bitterness in Nelson’s words, but it comes from a place of losing pitchers every year to the league. A lot of those guys will head out, play a few weeks with the Northwoods team and then find their way back to their hometown team. Joe Sr even pointed out that, for pitchers in particular, how many innings are you even going to get at a team where you are slotted in behind Division 1 talent? But, this is the world that Townball exists in today and there is no point complaining about it.
Instead, Centennial fields the best team they can on any given day. There are certainly guys who might be looking towards the greener pastures of Northwoods baseball, but it feels like the core this year has their sights firmly set on the Metro Minny. There are guys like Caden Klebba and Benny McDonald who are both still playing college ball but were foundational guys last season and are back with hopes for a deep run in the Metro Minny this year. And Bryson Mohs who plays for Dakota County Technical College and will be sharing time behind the plate this season with Klebba. All of these guys know what it’s like to be overlooked and they appreciate that they have a home with Centennial and their long-time coaches Joe and Joe Cyzewski.
And that brings us back to Cooper Anderson. Like I said, it was just a single. Sure, it was hit hard and it found a gap. But, ultimately, it was just a single. For Anderson it was so much more. You see, Anderson hadn’t played a meaningful game since last townball season. He was injured for the entirety of his freshman year at Bemidji State. He was able to make a few appearances in some inter-squad scrimmages but he hadn’t seen real, competitive pitching in almost a year. During the double-header at Quamba I picked his brain a bit about the experience of stepping back in the batter’s box to face live pitching. “It definitely feels weird. Just the rhythm is off. I think I pounded that first one right into the ground.” Yeah. That’s what the first few games felt and looked like for Anderson. A lot of trying to find his rhythm again. So, when he did hit that ball on the screws it felt REALLY good, and he made sure all of Circle Pines knew it.
As a photographer, one of my disappointments in covering townball is the lack of celebration. Most guys are either older and not nearly as emotional about the game or they have bigger fish to fry and a routine hit isn’t going to raise their blood pressure all that much. But, every once in a while there is an iconic moment and I feel truly blessed to get to capture that moment and share it with you.
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