J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," explores the phony world of adulthood and the loss of innocence. The main character, Holden Caulfield, grows more cynical and depressed with the passing of time.
Time, and cynicism, have seemingly said 'hold on' at the ball field in Bay City. It's tucked away and hidden off of highway 35, protected by the Mississippi River both geographically and financially. With a wink to the baseball gods and a tip of the cap to town teams everywhere, the mighty Mississippi lets out a sigh of relief and floods the Bay City ball field every spring. No one wanted land silted with river clay. No one except for the catchers in the clay and Captain Jack.
The baseball field in Bay City is named Hortenbach Park and it should be. Paul Hortenbach graduated from Red Wing High School, right across the river, in 1924. He was a catcher for the Minnesota Gophers in the spring and the backstop for the Bay City Bombers every summer for the next 17 years, until 1941. In the early 1930's, the Village of Bay City said the Bombers could no longer charge admission to, at that time, the field located by Lake Pepin on the south end of town. The Bombers needed the admission fees to be able to have a team. Hortenbach bought the current property and the field has been there ever since.
Hortenbach managed the Bombers until the early 1950's. He was at the game when the Bombers lost to Superior in the Wisconsin Baseball Association State Championship later that decade. The winning pitcher for Superior was a guy named Bud Grant. Yes, that Bud Grant; the same NFL Hall of Fame coach who led the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowls.
The Red Wing newspaper interviewed Hortenbach in 1971. He was 68 at the time. When Hortenbach stopped managing the Bombers in the 1950's, town team baseball in southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin was in it's heyday. There were close to 30 town teams in Pierce County alone. Hortenbach's theory of baseball's popularity in our region is tough to argue. He stated most every family farm over 40 acres had 8-10 kids to help out on the farm. There was enough land to build a small baseball field and, faster than Mickey Mantle to first base, town team baseball was the pride of every town.
Hortenbach said local businesses would buy the Bombers a keg of beer after a home win and two kegs after a road win. Wins were a town celebration.
Fast forward to 1971 when Hortenbach was giving his interview to the Red Wing newspaper. With weathered skin, crooked fingers cracked by cowhide baseballs, and a silver mane, Hortenbach seemed disillusioned and cynical about the kids.
Maybe it was the escalating Vietnam War. It was the first war televised for all to see. Maybe the teenagers in the late 1960's and early 1970's, like Holden Caulfield, had lost their innocence at an earlier age. Hortenbach was lucky. He was born in 1903. Too young for WWI, too old for WWII, and an old man for the Vietnam War. He had held on to his innocence inside a baseball time machine. Maybe the kids just didn't have time for baseball, he thought. In 1973, the Pierce-Pepin League folded. There was only one single team remaining, the Bay City Bombers. The Bombers played across the river in Minnesota’s Canon Valley League for a number of years. Bay City's longevity hasn't been green luck to match their uniforms. It does have stats to back up the reason.
According to Richard Schuman from Sabr Analytics (sabr.org), 22% of all Major League Baseball managers from 1903-1981 are former catchers. Catchers are the leader on the field. They take baseball bullets for their team, collecting trophied bruises. They are the team's super hero wearing a mask.
Steve Truttman was a catcher for the Bay City Bombers in 1966 right after graduation from Ellsworth High School.
"I went out for Ellsworth, but they already had a catcher from the cities," Truttman said, "so I went to Bay City and the rest is history."
Truttman met Jack Celt in 1971. Celt was the principal at Prairie View Elementary in Ellsworth at the time.
"He's looking down right here listening to us," said son, Mike, as he pointed to a framed picture of his dad above a slot machine on the wall at Captain Jack's on Highway 63 south of Ellsworth.
Mike Celt owned and operated "Mike's Bay Town Bar & Grill" for 26 years and sold it to retire. He couldn't sit still and bought Bendilly's a year and a half ago, not too long after his dad, Jack passed away at the age of 89. He named his new bar and grill after his dad and called it "Captain Jack’s."
The Mike Foley-carved wooden sign out front has as much character as its namesake.
"Everybody I knew loved Jack," Truttman said. "He was just that kind of a guy."
"My dad always wanted to own a bar," said son, Jim, who was a teacher and principal in Pierce and St. Croix counties for 33 years, "so that's why he helped Mike out."
"He wanted all of us to get in education," Mike argued, "but some of us weren't meant to do that."
What Jack Celt was meant to do was be involved with the Bay City Bombers from 1971 until he passed away in 2023.
"He really did get into baseball after he and I met," said Truttman.
Jack coached American Legion baseball in Bay City in the 1970's and early 80's. The current St. Croix Valley League used to be called the Independent League. Jack Celt was the president and Truttman was the secretary. Both served for decades on the Wisconsin Baseball Association state board of directors.
"It's not necessarily how many players you get to keep a team going," Truttman said. "You need a group like ours to keep it going. Ellsworth has folded and come back three times since I started with the Bombers in '66."
Spring Valley moved to River Falls, but now has a team again. The St. Croix Valley League, like most every town team league, has seen clubs come and go like chalk dust in the wind, with the exception of the Bay City Bombers. The Bombers have lingered longer than the smell of cigarette smoke on car upholstery. The Bay City Bombers have fielded a team every single season since the late 1800's.
"Plum City has been solid and steady for so long and that's because of Tony Garner," Truttman said. "He's such a prince of a guy. He keeps them going."
In the mid 1980's, with Paul Hortenbach in his 80s, Truttman and Jack Celt were concerned what would happen to the field when Hortenbach passed away. They asked him if the Bay City Bombers could buy the land from him. Hortenbach wouldn't have it. It wasn't for sale. The two catchers in the clay had a common currency, Bomber green. Hortenbach made a trust and it states as long as there's a team in Bay City, the Bombers can play there. He gave the land away for free. The ballpark is now called Hortenbach Park.
"I guess I can't speak for Steve," Jim Celt said, "but I know the fruits of the labor for my dad was the continuation of baseball in Bay City. It's well over 100 years of tradition."
Truttman glanced up at the picture of Jack, stayed quiet, scratched his eye and nodded his head in agreement.
"My dad and Steve (Truttman) are the number one heart of the Bay City Bombers," Mike said.
The catcher in the clay and Captain Jack helped a return of innocence back to the St. Croix Valley League. They restarted the league from scratch in the early 1980's and it's absolutely thriving now. The crowds are as big as they've ever been and the level baseball is even better. St. Croix Valley League teams have won more WBA Championships than any other league during the past 15 years.
The Bay City Bombers will be looking for a new manager next year with Derek 'Bump' Ulvenes hanging up his cleats after twenty years.
"I'm not worried at all," Truttman said. "We'll find another great manager. We have to because that's the mindset. We're always going to have a team."
The Mississippi River will wash away any leftover baseball sins from the previous year each spring in Bay City. The catchers in the clay will be there, behind the scenes, to clean it up. Baseball will bloom with the dogwoods.
"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone."- Holden Caulfield, from ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’