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Minner set for return of Babe Ruth World Series
The mecca of the Babe Ruth League will once again take center stage in Cape Girardeau next month with the 55th running of the Babe Ruth World Series.
The 2024 19U World Series baseball tournament will be hosted by the Charleston Fighting Squirrels at Capaha Field for the second consecutive season. The highly coveted event will take place August 9-15, with this season marking the largest World Series in history due to the expanded 18-team field.
In what will be his second year spearheading the event, Fighting Squirrels manager Michael Minner is poised to run it back and help ignite the same kind of environment that drew in the community last season.
“I’m a baseball guy and I grew up playing in the Cape for Cape Central, the Legion team, and then in college at SEMO,” Minner said. “I want to host things like this. We hold the state tournament every year, so hosting the World Series was kind of a bucket list item. Babe Ruth (League) really enjoyed the facilities and amenities of Cape Girardeau last season and it’s just a great town.”
This year the World Series will include eight U.S. regional champions, seven international teams (Canada, Aruba, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, The Caribbean), the Mid-County Texas champion, the Missouri state champion, and host Charleston.
The Fighting Squirrels won the Missouri state championship for the second consecutive summer, defeating the defending Babe Ruth World Series champion, the Southeast Tropics, 7-4 on Tuesday in Charleston.
"Honestly, it feels great," said Charleston's Bennett Logan. "We won it last year so it felt great to go back-to-back. We weren't able to finish the goal last year. To go to the World Series and win that, that's the ultimate goal of this season. But right now it's nice to soak it in and enjoy the moment."
As the host, Charleston is not taking the champion berth, it is awarded to the runner-ups. Like last year, both the Squirrels and Tropics will be in the World Series.
With the field being so vast, 54 games (four pool games per day from August 9-13) will take place at both Capaha Field and Cape Central High School and be officiated by 12 umpires who travel in from all over the country.
As one could imagine, a lot of preparation goes into it for Minner and his crew.
“We’re still in the process of fundraising and it’s fifty thousand dollars to host this, so there’s lots of crazy things that we are trying to accomplish,” he said. “We have a streaming company coming in from Mobile, Alabama where we will be showing all 54 games live on pay-per-view. Then there are advertisements, merchandise, etc. It’s unbelievable what the day-to-day process is like.”
But, in the end, the players’ experience will be even more unbelievable.
Minner said that along with the atmosphere and having the opportunity to interact and share cultural differences with the international teams and fans, the most important part of the Babe Ruth World Series is to give the players something that they can look back on forever.
“The main objective is that I want the kids to have an incredible experience and an experience that they deserve,” he said. “I just want to make sure I do my part in trying to provide an awesome time for them and something that they will never forget.”
A player who is looking to cherish more memories at the tournament is Fighting Squirrels second baseman, Owen Osbourne. The Jackson High School grad and College of Ozarks commit competed in the World Series last season, describing it as “the best tournament I’ve ever been in.”
“The atmosphere was just electric every night and there were thousands of fans there watching,” Osbourne said. “The competition was really good and there was some really high-level baseball. It was a great experience, and I am just super excited.”
In the meantime, there’s the matter of boosting the attendance and topping last year’s World Series. Minner knows exactly what he and the thousands of others would like to be a part of three weeks from now.
“Last year people had a really good time,” he said. “Obviously Capaha Park is a great venue for this level of baseball, and it has that small-town feel to it. Opening night, it would be nice to see 2,000-4,000 people there. We’re looking for some record-breaking numbers and memories to be made.”