AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's sometimes called the Cape Cod of the Midwest. Wisconsin's Door County is a popular tourism spot on the shores of Lake Michigan. But for many locals, the biggest attraction is the county's baseball league. WUWM's Susan Bence brings us along to the final game of the regular season.
SUSAN BENCE, BYLINE: The Door County Baseball League has been around for more than a century. There are eight teams. Two of the biggest rivals are the Washington Islanders and the Sister Bay Bays. On this day, a dozen Bays are out on the field, tossing balls, getting ready for the end of the season. Griffin Cole covers second base.
GRIFFIN COLE: We kind of focus on ourselves more than anything, just hitting, and it's fun, and we're winning.
BENCE: There's some basis for Cole's confidence. Sister Bay has come out on top 7 of the last 10 seasons.
(SOUNDBITE OF FERRY MOTOR RUNNING)
BENCE: Getting to the stadium for the game today means taking the ferry to Washington Island, so the players drive their trucks full of bats, balls and equipment on board. The Bays' youngest member is excited. Hobbs Emerson is about to start his sophomore year in high school. His dad recently retired from the team.
HOBBS EMERSON: Yeah, I mean, it's fun because they all know me since I was a baby and all that. So kind of being the next upcoming guy, it's just fun to be with all of them and learn how to actually play good ball.
BENCE: At the ballpark, lifelong Islanders' fan Shannon Young is waiting. She always sits at the same spot behind first base.
SHANNON YOUNG: My dad played. He started playing in 1967, so he was a sophomore in high school. I was coming to games since my mom's womb. He was coach for a while, and so coming up to practice and games was just, like, my thing.
BENCE: Troy Jorgenson has been with the Islanders for 22 seasons and says half the players on the team are his cousins. And he says the entire island has been looking forward to this game for weeks.
TROY JORGENSON: It's just a great atmosphere. We got really great fans. People up here - they live for baseball. This is, like, the one thing they look forward to in the summertime.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the ballgame. We've got an exciting matchup before you today, between the Sister Bay Bays and your Washington Island Islanders.
(CHEERING)
BENCE: The Bays are up first.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Now up for the Bays, Tom Sawyer.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Go, Tommy.
BENCE: Tom Sawyer is one of Sister Bay's top players. Sawyer hit a single, but the Islanders' Ryan Jorgenson, Troy Jorgenson's 21-year-old cousin, was the star of the game.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Put it in there (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: You call that close (ph)?
BENCE: A plumber when he's not playing baseball, Jorgenson threw an astounding 150 pitches.
(CHEERING)
BENCE: And the final score - the Islanders, 2; the Bays, 1. Islander fan Peter Kordon was practically speechless. He coached Ryan Jorgenson when he was a teenager.
PETER KORDON: This is one of the most natural players I have ever seen. He just had all this natural ability, and he comes from a line of great - I'm sure, in the history of this league, there's probably never not been a Jorgenson in the lineup. So this is great for him.
BENCE: And although Sister Bay lost the game, their fun isn't over. Their season record means they made it into the playoffs. So for the team and Door County locals who love the game, there's still more baseball to come. For NPR News, I'm Susan Bence on Washington Island.
(SOUNDBITE OF CORY WONG'S "TEAM SPORTS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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