FOX 9 Town Ball Tour: River Falls Fighting Fish history

And welcome back to River Falls, Wisconsin. We have an American Legion game going on right now, getting ready for River Falls to take on Hudson at 7 30 tonight. We already have a pretty good crowd out here. It is warm, but we've got ways to deal with that. We've got some nice beverages and good concessions out here. They are taking such good care of us out here. We have, for the first time ever, I'm just going to say, we have a green room. It's air-conditioned, so we thank River Falls for that. It's definitely going to come in handy. It's also a storm shelter, you know, makes sense. Tonight's a green room. Joining us now, we have Greg Peters. He is the River Falls baseball president since 2017, and really, he's been running around all day putting this all together. Yes, and thank you, because without guys like you, this doesn't happen. You also manage and play for the River Falls Groupers. That's the 35 and older baseball team, and you do some of the announcing. You have an early history in our business, so that makes it easy for you, right? Well, yeah, I have fun doing it, so it's fun to do the PA. We have Steve Manfred's up there today, and we also kind of do some of the live stream broadcasts. Yeah, we have a good time doing it. Awesome. You're a big part of getting a $1 million fund. The folks at home probably can't tell, but this field is entirely turf, which is very, very unusual. It's also a great asset for a baseball team, right? Yeah. A big part of putting that here, a unique amenity. Tell us how that all unfolded. Well, so everybody on our River Falls baseball council are like, we're all dirt and grass guys, I guess. I mean, they're all old school, but we would have about 100 games a year because the field, it gets beat up, and we had the fish plate here and the leech end in high school, and that was about it, and I guess the older guys, they'd let us slide in a couple times, but when we had a, there was a guy named Kurt Bruns, and he works for Jostens, and he's from River Falls. He's on the council, and he, one of his Jostens accounts is Major League Baseball, so he was at the Major League Baseball winter meetings, and he just happened to be talking with Dave Winfield. They're both from Minnesota. They're both, you know, they got a baseball background. He played at now Minnesota State, but the old Mankato State, so they're talking baseball, and they just got to be good friends, and Dave's brother Steve got married at his house and stuff, so it was that that level of relationship. Well, Dave's like, hey, I'd like to, you know, I'd really like to help your park out. He heard the story of it. He thought it was awesome, and so we're on a, it was a blizzard, like, excuse me, there were some guys that came in on snowmobiles. It was in the winter, and we were in my office, and we were all listening to having a phone conversation. He's like, guys, you know, what does the park need? We thought he was going to run a camp or something, and he's like, no, think bigger, think bigger, and we, well, if we had a turf, we could have, you know, girls softball and the challenger league, the kids with disabilities, and you, all the park and rec, because you can move the bases and the mound, and it's just so much more inclusive for the community, and he's like, now you're talking, now you're talking, and like, he got excited, and then the next thing you know, you know, you go through all the hoops and stuff of applying for a grant, and we got an $850,000 grant, and that paid for pretty much most of the turf, and there was a story he told us, and that was, honestly, it's so inspirational. Like, I was tearing up when he was telling me, like, it was that good. So, I asked him, we were having lunch downtown after one of our meetings, and he had a big group, but it was, he and I were just kind of off to the side, and I was like, you know, why, why, why River Falls? I mean, you're from St. Paul, and I know we're close and stuff, and he's like, I'll tell you, I'll tell you. He came over here with a buddy his freshman year of college at the University of Minnesota, and he was coming over, they had a date. They both had, they were, it was a double date. Coming to River Falls. Coming to River Falls for a double date. That right there is unusual. Yeah, and so, and they were coming home late at night, and it was a blizzard, and his car got stuck, you know, north of town on Highway 35, and it was about, he said about one in the morning, something like that, and a farmer came out on his tractor and had a shock, and he didn't know what was going on. Well, he ends up towing the car to the barn. His wife makes Dave and his friend breakfast and all that. The farmer fixes the car. He gets home. He said, that's what I'm doing. I'm paying it back. That's a great story. I'm paying it back for what he did for me. You know, and that's, that's a community spirit that we find time and time again with Town Ball as well. Dave Winfield, Major League Baseball, great from St. Paul, and so it's such a neat part of this ballpark that he's taken such a liking to this area, and comes back, and he's still connected. Yeah, he texted me. I had texted him first to see if he wanted to, I was trying to get him on, but I think he's out, but he did tell me to plug his new book coming out in September. Absolutely, what is it? Well, it's go, go, it's not out yet, but in September. Okay, okay, we'll send you the news, and we'll talk about that in September too. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Yes, we are so honored to be here today, and we want to present you with this sign, and we hope you'll hang up in the stadium for a long, long time. It will be, it will be. Thank you very much. We love having you guys out here. Thank you, appreciate that. So fun, so fun. Thank you, you're doing a great job. Yeah, we're looking forward to the rest of the night. All right, Ian Leonard is also running around the ballpark, and it's nice and toasty warm here today. We're getting a little bit of that wildfire smoke and haze too, Ian. Starting to come. You have a feeling. Yeah, yeah. You know what I've always said? Service unto others. It's a fan, it's a battery operated. No, I've got you, I've got you. No, no, no, no, you just sit there. This is fine, I've got you. Hold on, hold on just a minute. My gosh, you look, you look very hot as well, man. There you go. We're going to need more batteries. We're going to need more batteries. Okay, here we go. Here you go. I'll give that back to you. God bless you. So this is the fun part of town ball is just whoever's in the crowd, and on a day like today, obviously a big play happening just now, but on a day like today, it is all about trying to stay cool. Shade is a good start, but as I've said for many, many years, the heat index is calculated in the shade. Right here in River Falls, the heat index right now is right on 100. So that's the way it feels in the shade. I've also mentioned for many, many years that we stream everything. Come on, follow me. We're going to surprise him. We're always online. You can always watch us online. So if you look down at him, look, he's right there and he's watching me and he can't even see that I'm right behind him there. Oh, hi. Hi there. Yeah. Look, look at it. We're on there. Yeah. We're on there live. Isn't that fun? So you're at a baseball game and you're watching Fox nine on stream. Yes. Is he this fun at home? Yeah. It's not a trick question, honey. You can't have two screens. It's only one screen. Hold on a minute. Now I'm, now I'm going to come ready. This is where I come up right behind you right here. Wait, wait for it. Wait for it. Here it comes. Ready? Oh, it takes a while, doesn't it? Yeah, it takes a while. It takes me. I'm glad you're watching us though. I love the fact he's at a baseball game and he's watching us on the live stream. Um, look, it doesn't take much. I'm going to, let's walk this way cause we're in people's Hold on. Hold on. Just a minute here. Okay. Let's show everyone at home. I've got my people. We're working on our campaign. Sorry, Randy. You're out. You're out, Randy. You can take your hair and you get out of here because it's Ian for president. That's right. You are awesome. Give me, give me the presidential kiss. There we go. Perfect. I got it. That is fantastic. But the campaign starts now. Um,