 What’s the deal with the black & white saddle shoes?  Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa. Here's looking at life at Simple Serenity Farm  Carla’s sister & brother-in-law Chris and Tony Woods, of Des Moines, were at the farm on Sunday, August 22, helping Carla do the lawn mowing and other yard work that we’ve struggled to keep up with lately, with all our medical appointments. The Woodses brought along their 18-month-old granddaughter Ari, who was a delight watching all the action from the porch with Chuck, catching up on her reading and then getting a moment on the lawn tractor seat! Click here for larger format Earlier photos in this series Iowa Hall of Pride netINS, Inc. Butler House on Grand B&B Sam's Barber Shop Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show'' Barack Obama story & coloring book The Monks of New Melleray Abbey RELATED LINKS About Offenburger.com Biographies Want to Reprint? Want Updates? ARCHIVES Chuck Offenburger's columns Christie Vilsack's columns Carla Offenburger's columns Carla's book reviews Jared Strong's columns Guest Columns The Simple Serenity Farm columns Farm Photos, 2006 - 2008 Our Iowa News Digest Along Our Way 
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 You’re in for a classic night at the ol’ ball park when the Carroll Classics take the home field By CHUCK OFFENBURGER June 3, 2009 CARROLL, IOWA You know it’s going to be a fine night at the ol’ ball park when it begins the way Monday evening started here, at a semi-pro baseball game between the visiting Des Moines Merchants and the hometown Carroll Classics in this western Iowa hub city of 10,100.  “The first couple of years were pretty rocky,” Barta said. “The last couple of years, though, we’ve had a really good ball club.” He told the Carroll Daily Times Herald in late May that he had recruited his best team yet, nearly all of them small-college players, many with roots in the Carroll area. He also said the level of competition they’re playing this summer is the best yet, with several outstanding teams from Omaha, Des Moines, Clarinda and beyond coming into Carroll. And they’re off to a great start, now 6-1, after losing a heartbreaker to the Des Moines Merchants Monday night, 5-2 in 13 innings.
“This will be a whole different level from high school,” he told the Daily Times Herald’s Larry Devine. “The pitchers throw five to 10 miles per hour harder,” some throwing in the 90 mph range, “and the hitters are fundamentally sound.” Meanwhile, it seems everybody in Carroll knows Michael Barta. There’s even a sandwich named after him at downtown Carroll’s favorite café, Sam’s Sodas & Sandwiches, “Michael’s Paddy Melt.” It’s a delicious third-of-a-pound hamburger topped with both Swiss and American cheese, served on Texas toast. O.K., full disclosure here: The restaurant happens to be owned by his parents, Sam and Marilyn Barta. “Michael grew up working here, and the paddy melt was always one of his favorites,” Sam Barta said. But, still, it does seem true that everybody in Carroll knows Michael Barta, and vice-versa. He was a gritty, tough little dynamo of an athlete and student at Kuemper Catholic High School before he graduated in 2003. He went on to play baseball for four years at Buena Vista University up the road in Storm Lake, and it was during his college summers that he founded the Classics baseball program here in his hometown, serving as the team’s administrator, on-field manager and player, too. After graduating from BV in 2008, he spent the past year teaching business at Kuemper High. He’s getting married July 25, and he and his new bride Stacey Ginapp, of Marshalltown, are moving to Johnston, the northwest Des Moines suburb where both will have teaching jobs in the burgeoning Johnston Schools. So, the young guy does get around. In recent years, he has recruited the heart of the ball club’s roster from the BVU Beavers baseball program, which operates in the spring and has becoming increasingly successful. Then he completes the squad by tapping former high school stars from the immediate area, many of them having played for Carroll High, Kuemper, Coon Rapids-Bayard and other schools.  He indeed does know how to recruit – including umpires, concession stand workers, ticket sellers, scoreboard operators and all the other positions that the manager of a semi-pro baseball team winds up having to find. Handling all those chores “is a giant pain in the butt,” the skipper said, “and there’s always the issue of finances, which is a real headache. We get good support from a number of Carroll businesses. We keep the ticket prices way down – $2 for adults and a buck for kids this year, and we’d like to find a way to just make it a buck a head, but that extra dollar is helping us just meet our budget. The newspaper and the radio stations have been so good to us, helping to promote our games.” Ooops, almost forgot about recruiting the PA person, too. “Michael’s mom is also a grade school teacher, and she was our play director at Kuemper High,” young Nick Brincks told me. “When Michael started trying to find a PA man this year, he asked his mom who was pretty good in plays. She gave him my name. I’d played the lead character of Emile de Becque, the Frenchman, in our production of ‘South Pacific,’ and I made the All-State Chorus last fall. I’ve done the National Anthem a whole bunch of times at Kuemper basketball games. So I’m used to being up in front of people and on a microphone.” Barta also told Brincks that doing the PA work at the games “would fit right in with the broadcasting work I’m doing as an intern at the radio stations, and he was right about that. I jumped at the chance he gave me, and I’m having a blast doing it.” Singing the Anthem from the public address booth seemed a nice extra touch Brincks could add, and it’s met with enthusiastic approval from Barta. “Nick does a great job on that Anthem, doesn’t he?” Barta said. “Everybody loves it. When fans hear him for the first time at our games, they’re really surprised.” There’s one thing Barta is not happy with about the Carroll Classics program. He knows his team’s games are a quality entertainment product, offered at very affordable prices. He knows he’s providing a real service to his players, who are trying to get better at the college level and need to be playing in good summer baseball programs. He knows that having 21 young guys, their wives or girlfriends, their parents – and ditto for the family and friends following opposing players – having all those people coming to Carroll for ball games, meals, overnight rooms and more, well, that is delivering a very positive economic impact. So, why don’t more fans come to the games? “That’s the one thing we’ve not yet been successful at,” Barta said. “I just haven’t figured out yet what will get them here. People around here do love baseball. You go to the Carroll High or Kuemper games, and the stadium is pretty well filled. But we really struggle to get people to come out for the Classics games. With our sponsors’ help, we’re able to make the finances work and give the players some gas money and an occasional meal. But I feel bad because our guys really want to play in front of a good crowd – any ball player does – and we’re just not getting a good turnout yet on a regular basis.” Some think joining the MINK League, which has teams in several cities in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, might be the answer. Barta doubts that. “Those teams are really good, with a lot of their players coming from Division I college programs,” Barta said. “But the costs of all that travel would be too much for us, the way our operation here is now. We’ll play several of those teams, during the season, and we can hold our own with them. But we’re probably better off playing an independent schedule like we do. We have such an excellent facility with our stadium in Carroll, everybody wants to come here to play, and that helps us hold down our team’s traveling expenses.”  Barta says this will probably be his last summer, heading the Carroll Classics, after he and his bride are both settled in Johnston and the Des Moines area. “I hope Carroll can find a way too keep the program going,” he said. “I think it’s got a whole lot of potential.” If Carroll community leaders let this young leader get away from them, they’re squandering a natural resource. They ought to be after him in a flash with a summer contract for future years, some additional support staff, and some marketing money. Barta has a rare combination of talents that could turn the Carroll Classics into a very steady, strong magnet for young people and baseball fans from a wide area. You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.
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