A long process of building a baseball program comes to fruition

Watching the blocks-long line of cars escort the Lovell Mustangs through town Monday evening after their state championship win over Cody, I couldn’t help but think about the program building that has taken place over the last 40 years or so.

Lovell has always been solid in baseball, having plenty of good athletes in the area, but consistency in managing and depth in the organization was always an issue. There were certainly some very solid managers, but as longtime coach and team builder Ray Peterson recalls, managers would often move on after their son aged out, leaving the next “dad” to take over.

It’s always dangerous to start listing names, but some of the names I recall as managing are Rich Nelson, John Nickle, Jim Minchow, Ron Osborne, Scott Murphey, Lloyd Edwards and son Chris Edwards.

Minchow and assistant Noel Hoffman started the rebuilding process around 44 years ago and changed the team name from the Farmers to the Mustangs, and the two brought an increased level of professionalism to the program.

In those days the team played at Caboose Park, where the Lovell High School practice field now lies, and Ray tells some funny stories about that field. When he started coaching, there was no outfield fence, and ground rules were something like, “If you hit it over the picnic tables, it’s a foul ball, and if it goes under the cable along the alley between the field and the football stadium, that’s a ground rule double. But if you hit it to right, that’s a fair ball (and the ball could roll all the way to the gym and pool building for an easy inside-the-park home run).”

The next season a temporary fence was put in place, as had been done in other years.

When he took over in around 2000, Peterson realized that the team and organization must be expanded beyond parents, dedicated as they might be, so he formed a baseball committee to provide stability, fundraising and organization. I can remember players before that time showing up in blue jeans, probably after getting off work, so Peterson and his committee ordered better uniforms for the team.

Ray also started looking for land to build a field, and the Town of Cowley stepped forward to offer the land where the field now lies. It took countless hours of volunteer labor and fundraising, and Peterson was able to obtain state grant money. And after years of players “caravanning” to games, a bus was purchased.

When Michael Jameson and Jason Borders took the reins of the program in 2016 as manager and coach, with Peterson still active as general manager, the on-field aspect of the program took another step forward. Jameson is an excellent baseball man, having played in college and leading the Powell Pioneers to back-to-back state titles in 2009-10.

Michael built a winning program, but a state championship for the Mustangs eluded him until this weekend in Sheridan, when the Mustangs put it all together. It was wonderful to see.

One of the great things about American Legion baseball is how it brings communities together. This year’s team is a mixture of players who have competed in other sports against each other at Lovell and Rocky Mountain high schools, but for the Mustangs, they compete as one, and it’s great to see. In Monday’s championship game against Cody, the starting lineup featured players from Lovell, Cowley and Byron who attend LHS and RMHS. Recent teams included players from Greybull, as well.

One thing that has been misreported in recent days is the claim that this is Lovell’s first state Legion baseball title. Not true. The Mustangs won it all in 1986 under coach Ron Osborne. Yes, it was Class B, but that doesn’t mean it was a “B league.” In high school during that time, for instance, the classifications were AA, A, B and C, and Legion baseball was A and B. B was a separate division with its own state tournament, and the only difference was that the Class B champion didn’t move on to a regional tournament but rather played in the A tournament against the big towns a weekend or two later.

So in 1986, playing in Casper, the Mustangs beat Riverton 7-1, Casper 8-5, Northeast (Moorcroft, Upton and Newcastle) 4-3 and Northeast again for the title, 15-5. At the Class A tournament in Worland, the Mustangs beat Torrington 12-2 but fell to Gillette 17-9 and Cheyenne 6-4. The Mustangs finished the season 31-11.

Looking back at all of this rich local baseball history, this old editor couldn’t be prouder of this great group of players who showed such grit and determination and worked so well together to win a championship. When you beat Wheatland, Powell and Cody twice in a culminating tournament, that is a truly legitimate and very special title.

The North Big Horn County boys of summer have made us all proud and have put us on the map as a baseball community, and that is something many have worked on for decades. Hats off to everyone who made it possible.