Thanks to a donation from Barb and Mark Spaeth, the Jackson American Legion Post 130 baseball team has new uniforms.
The new uniforms arrived in time for the team’s regular season finale last week and will be worn throughout its postseason run that starts tonight (Thursday) in Springfield.
“We were sitting at a game, and I was thinking ‘those shirts need to be changed,’ Barb said at a brief gathering to unveil the new look before a game vs, Wabasso. “My mom and dad (John and Donna Voss) were so involved in the Sioux Valley Legion and Auxiliary and I thought that it would be a good memorial for them if we could buy the guys some new shirts because they needed them.”
The Spaeths have had two grandsons play baseball for Post 130. Darrius Johnson played a few years ago and Ben Spaeth has been on the team the past couple of seasons.
“We had grandkids involved in Darius and now Ben,” Mark said. “It had been quite a few years for those uniforms. It was time for a change.
“(Barb) said to me, ‘you know what I want to do?” said Mark. “I want to get uniforms for the boys, so I said you better get a hold of Scott (Bahr). He originally told us we probably wouldn’t get them for this year and I said, ‘let’s get the ball rolling and get them for next year.’”
But the ball was indeed rolling at that point. And mighty fast.
“Barb said to me ‘hey what do you think, do we need some new uniforms,’ Bahr explained. “And I said we do. I’ve been saving some money on the side, and we’ll get there, I just don’t know when.
“And she said, ‘no, you misunderstood. I want to buy them. And our Legion was wonderful too and said they might be able to help. And Barb said, ‘no, you guys are not understanding. I want to take care of this.
“I know the Legion is appreciative and our association that runs summer baseball really appreciates it because now we have some money that we can use for other tournaments and if we do make a state tournament, we can buy meals for them and provide them some money for guys and things like that.”
Bahr repeated that everyone involved in summer baseball in Jackson is grateful.
“What a great gesture by the Spaeth family,” said Bahr. “We owe them a big thank you.
“We’ve done a good job,” he continued. “The uniforms we have were here a long time. Most teams get new uniforms every four or five years. Tyrone (Wacker) taught me a long time ago that we don’t need to be asking parents for money all the time and we don’t need to be asking businesses for money all the time and we’re really proud of how we do that. So, we kind of skimp and make sure we take care of stuff and these uniforms have been around a while.
The old jerseys will continue to be used by the Jackson Junior Legion team.
Barb’s lone request for the uniforms was the color.
“I wanted the red, white and blue,” Barb said. “Scott and Blaise (Jacobsen) came up with the design.”
The jerseys have an old-school Minnesota Twins look with a baby blue colored jersey with red lettering and white striping.
“We were very happy to do this for them and they turned out great,” Barb said. “I love them. They’re awesome.”