Pexa honored at Hollanders’ ‘Fill the Hill’

First of all, he built it, literally, back in 2011. He used his construction know-how, which he learned from his grandfather, to double the concession stand’s size and give it the look of The Shack everyone knows today. And his contributions to The Shack did not stop there.

If you can use the word “culinary” in regard to a concession stand, and I think you can in the case of The Shack, Pexa is its culinary genius. Prior to 2011, for the sake of convenience, the team sold frozen hamburger patties. They were very concession-stand-like, but now, according to President of the Cologne Baseball Association, Jason Kuerschner, the team now uses fresh beef from Ruck’s Meat Processing Center out of Belle Plain. If you sprinkle a little Lowry’s Seasoning Salt on those fresh beef patties, you can create a $9.00 burger basket that field-goers are happy to pay for. And according to Kuerschner, Pexa orchestrated the changes. And once again Pexa’s construction ability played a role – he installed a new ventilation hood to suck out the smoke from the grill.

You don’t just get a hashtag called Best Curds in Baseball without a little trial and error. Kuerschner and Pexa both explained that the cheese curd recipe and process took two years to perfect. At numerous points during this conversation, Pexa’s secret curd recipe was compared to Colonel Sanders’s secret blend of eleven herbs and spices. Few people know how to pull it off, but lots of folks enjoy the taste, and that’s how the Hollanders want to keep it. They’ll tell you – go figure – the cheese comes from Bongard’s, but that’s about it. According to Pexa, the real struggle was figuring out the cheese curds’ batter. At first, it just didn’t taste right, and the cheese kept flaring out. The two years of perseverance, however, paid off.

Now, carried mightily by the burgers and cheese curds, The Shack earns the Hollanders enough money to fund the team on a yearly basis.

Craig Pexa is a very unassuming person, and this next quote illustrates this quality. Pexa said, in regards to Robert G. Fritz Memorial Field, “It’s nice and looks good – it’s like your own yard.” What he didn’t say, until I prodded him, is that he renovated almost the entire place himself. In addition to building to The Shack, he also built the fence, dugouts, and deck. Without Pexa’s countless hours of free labor and ability to instruct other Hollanders how to help, the team probably would not have been able to afford these renovations. In addition, Pexa also built the current pressbox, which has played host to local sports dignitaries like Patrick Reusse and Judd Zulgad, not to mention the Fox 9 Town Ball crew.

And if that’s not enough attention paid to the field, Pexa has also been known to chalk the baselines, maybe a time or two.

Pexa played on the team from 1976 to 1996. He led the team in hitting several of those years. Pexa says one of fondest memories came in 1987 when his wife Kristi told him she was pregnant. Later that day, Craig hit three homeruns for the Hollanders. You could do a lot worse than that in the course of a day.

He also remembers hanging out with the players. Every Sunday, they would go to someone’s house to eat and drink beer. He says these days, the young bucks want to drink beer in the parking lot until 11:00, then go to the bar afterwards. But, he’s too old for that, at least during the week anyway.

In 2000, after managing the team for a stint, he stepped away from The Hollanders to coach his son’s little league team. Fourteen years later, after he had given all he could give to his kids’ activities, he came back to The Hollanders as a manager.

Interest in the team was down for a few years, but by 2016, Pexa said it began picking back up – he didn’t say this, but it was probably because the burgers and cheese curds were so good. In 2019, things got really good. The team qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1972.

Another of Pexa’s fonder memories occurred in 2019. At the end of a game against Spring Hill, Cologne and Spring Hill were tied. Spring Hill had played another game earlier, and they were low on pitching. Instead of playing extra innings, Spring Hill manager Gordon Barten proposed that he and Pexa have a beer drinking contest to decide the winner of the game. Pexa said okay and walked out to homeplate with a Coors Light. Pexa proceeded to defeat Barten in the do-or-die beer drinking match, and thus sealed a victory for The Hollanders. At the end of the beer drinking contest, Pexa remembers Kuerschner getting on the public address system and announcing that Pexa had been inducted into the Minnesota Town Ball Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame or no Hall of Fame, the state tournament awaited. Pexa met Patrick Ruesse there, and Ruesse has visited Robert G. Fritz Field every year since. Lots of Cologne fans followed the team to the tournament, and even though The Hollanders got beat by Bemidji, they managed to become the fans’ favorite, and not just the Cologne fans either, all the fans at the tournament. When Cologne lost, Pexa remebers hearing a collective sigh from all in attendance.

So you can see why the team would want to honor such a person. Before the game at which he was recognized, Pexa threw the ceremonial first pitch to his son Brett. Then, Pexa’s grandson, Colby Rhodes, threw a ceremonial second pitch to Brett. Pexa received a baseball cut-out, which will go on the back of the pressbox, amongst the baseball cut-outs of previous Fill The Hill Honorees.

Pexa also received a cut-out of a baseball jersey. He doesn’t know where he’ll put it. Even though he could put it anywhere he wants – for all practical purposes, he built the entire stadium – he says he’ll let the team decide where they want it displayed.