Dorchester Times: Dorchester Baseball Clubs Prepare For League Tourneys

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Dorchester Baseball Clubs Prepare For League Tourneys

The Dorchester baseball clubs are entering the final stretch of their 2012 campaigns, as both teams are sporting winning records this season, we are told.

Toni Ladely reports that the Dorchester PeeWee and American League teams will finish their regular season play on the road in Wilber on Tuesday and Thursday.

The PeeWee team will also squeeze in a makeup game on Wednesday this coming week and move right into league tournament action beginning Friday, June 29, and lasting through July 1 in McCool Junction.

The Dorchester American Team, following the conclusion of their regular season play this week, will begin their tournament action on July 2, 6, 8 and 10 at Friend.

We are told that the Dorchester National League team didn't have enough players to participate this year. Just two seasons ago, in 2010, Dorchester captured the SFS National League championship.

According to our records, Dorchester was a founding member of the Seward-Fillmore-Saline Baseball League in the mid-1950s, and the town has been part of the organization ever since.

Our research also found that the first night game ever played under the lights in Dorchester occurred on July 9, 1938, just north of the co-op elevator. There were three ball fields in Dorchester at that time.

For baseball fans wanting to catch Dorchester versus Wilber this week, the PeeWee game will start at 5:50 p.m. and the American League contest follows immediately after.

Photos are courtesy of Toni Ladely. We thank her for sharing them with readers of the Dorchester Times. (Click on the pictures for an enlarged view.)

6 comments:

AnonymousJune 26, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Go Dorchester!
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AnonymousJune 27, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Both teams look good this year. Wish the middle group had more numbers but they make the best of what they have. I predict both teams will finish in the top 4 of their tournaments.
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DHS Class of '82June 28, 2012 at 3:12 PM
I loved playing ball on Nerud field and the rivalry of the SFS League.

Go Dorchester Go!
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AnonymousJune 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM
The peewee team won their fisrt game of the tournament against Wilber black. They will take on Exeter at 5:30 pm on June 30th in Mccool.
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AnonymousJuly 1, 2012 at 10:18 AM
what is the american leagues record?
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AnonymousJuly 8, 2012 at 11:57 AM
the American Team won their first game of the tournament 8 to 3 against Wilber Black. they play today at 5pm. Their game today will determine whether they play in the championship game or the game to determine 3rd and 4th. Those final 2 games will be played on Tuesday July 10th to determine their final placing in the tournament.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."