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Renner Monarchs were state champions in 1963.

Renner’s baseball historians: Steve McGee, Stu Brende and Ed Powers. The wall behind them is covered in memorabilia from Renner’s rich baseball history.

A Renner team from the early 1920s. The Renner ballpark in the 1920s.

away and their families contact us with items or scrapbooks put together that they don’t want thrown away and we end up getting them,” explains Steve. There is no shortage of items and it's always interesting to see the collection grow and evolve.

The South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association as an official organization dates back to its formation in 1933. However, baseball history in Renner baseball goes back well before then. An exact date hasn’t been identified, but pioneer accounts say that back in the 1890’s area farm boys would gather at Nessan pasture, just east of Renner Lutheran Church on Sunday afternoons to play Baltic, Ellis, Brandon or Colton. “Such names as Flamo, Peterson, Nessan, Powers, Oien, Berg and Helgerson were in the lineup sometimes wearing straw hats and overalls with gloves with little or no padding and homemade bats to powder the opposing pitcher’s fastballs,” as documented by a book put together by Steve McGee and others recording Renner baseball history. Renner baseball has seen a great deal of success in recent years with the Monarchs winning 16 State A Championships since 2003. This winning era isn’t the first time the community has had a great group of players. Dating back to 1939, the Renner amateur team became the smallest town ever to qualify for national playoffs. That year the Renner team travelled to Battle Creek, Mich., to play in the Amateur World Series and played the longest game in history of the tournament at the time vs. Chicago Heights, IL in a 17-inning 6-5 loss.

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