Fox 9 Town Ball Tour ends in win-win for Waterville Indians

If you didn’t have a chance to catch the Fox 9 Town Ball Tour presentation Wednesday, July 20 in Waterville you really missed out.

Whether it be attending the festivities in person or watching the telecast throughout the evening, the final Town Ball Tour of the year for Channel 9 was one which highlighted not only the Waterville Indians amateur baseball team., but the long standing history of the team, its field, and its players.

This is what the Town Ball Tour has done for the past couple of years and it was Waterville’s night to shine, and shine they did.

More than 1,000 people attended the event which featured more than 55 Elysian Little League players scrimmaging before the Indians’ game, interviews of former and local Indians players on Fox 9, historical photos of the ball park and its many improvements, a Waterville Lions Club raffle which netted a Mankato man (Geno Rajtar) more than $2,700, free ice cream from Channel 9, a top-notch concession stand manned by numerous friends and family members of Indians players, an Elysian Legion Color Guard presentation before the National Anthem, the Anthem sung by a Naval Commander (Duane Peterson of Mankato), a ceremonial first pitch by a daughter (Julie Fessel) of the man who the field is named after (William J. Grose), and last but not least, a game between the Waterville Indians and the New Prague Orioles, which the Indians won, 5-3.

Fox 9 newscasters Tim Blotz and Pierre Noujaim and Fox 9 meteorologist Jennifer McDermed provided live coverage of the event during their 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts, and then during the 9 p.m. broadcast.

The Fox 9 news team did their due...

To see more on this story pick up the July 28, 2022 print edition of the LifeEnterprise.