Four years ago Michael Minner organized a Senior Babe Ruth Baseball team (ages 16-18) in Charleston.  That is my home town, population 5,855.

Michael is an interesting man.  After graduating from college four years ago he moved to Charleston from Cape Girardeau to take jobs as an art teacher and head baseball coach at the high school. Although he faced daunting physical challenges Michael played baseball in high school and even pitched for his college team.

Michael organized the team and named them the Fighting Squirrels.  Did I tell you that he also has a sense of humor?  

Michael is a great coach and motivator.  If a players starts slacking off or wants to quit because he says he can’t do it then Michael tells the kid to take a look at his coach.  His response is that he never quit and did it despite of adversity.  That seems to be working pretty well.

The Fighting Squirrels had good seasons their first two years.  Then things really started clicking.  Last year they were Missouri State Champions and got to go to the regional tournament in North Dakota.  That wasn’t really fair because the games were played in some town about 30 miles south of the Canadian border.  Temperatures were around 75 to 80 degrees in July and boys from Southeast Missouri cannot be expected to play baseball is such a hellish climate.

Still they made it all the way to the final game.

This year Charleston repeated as Missouri State Champions and hosted the Midwest Regional Tournament.  The other teams were the Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska State Champions.  Charleston dispatched all three teams pretty handily, but it was a double elimination tournament so the Squirrels had to play Kansas twice.  After defeating them 8-4 in the first game Charleston was pounded 11-2 in the second.  

There is no State that Mizzou fans would rather beat than Kansas.  That goes back to the Missouri-Kansas Border War and the War Between the States when Kansans used to come into Missouri to pillage and plunder.  Missourians started returning the favor and it culminated  with Confederate Col. William C. Quantrill taking an army of Missouri Bushwhackers into Lawrence, Kansas, burning the town to the ground and shooting its male citizens.  Obviously Kansans are not too fond of Missourians either.

This afternoon was the winner-take-all final between Missouri and Kansas.  It was perfect baseball weather for teenagers from Southeast Missouri - 98 degrees and 95 percent humidity.  The weather notwithstanding, the Kansans took the lead in the top of the first inning, but Charleston came back. After six innings Charleston was leading 4-3, but then the bats of the Jayhawkers came alive.  They scored four runs in the top of the seventh for a 7-4 lead.  The only good prospect was that the Charleston players would not have to drive far to get home. But the Fighting Squirrels were not to be denied.  They responded in kind by hammering out four runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh to win the game 8-7.

The Fighting Squirrels are going to the Senior Babe Ruth Baseball World Series in Newark, Ohio.  This is the biggest sporting event in Charleston ever.  Charleston High School has won 10 Missouri State Championships in basketball and has had some very good football and tennis teams, but no team has ever gone to a national tournament.  

Everyone in Charleston is euphoric and Michael Minner could be elected mayor - unanimously.

Sam Story

I would like to tell everyone what a pleasure it is to be back in East Prairie and serving as your Fire Chief. If you need help from the Fire Department, feel free to contact me through the City of East Prairie.

The East Prairie Fire Department wishes to thank everyone who bought fireworks at our stand this year, the sales were a big success.

This year winner of the $500 display was Thomas Guthrie of East Prairie, congratulations.

The East Prairie Fire Department will be holding a Muscular Dystrophy fund-raising car wash on August 2, 2008 beginning at 9 a.m. Donations will be accepted, so come support East Prairie Fire Department’s fight against muscular dystrophy.

Last year we raised over $2000 to help fight for a cure, so please remember to help again this year.