Just blocks from their neighborhood in White Bear Lake where six boys grew up together lies West Park, and in it, nestled beyond the bushy trees, a baseball field. It’s here that Elliott Engen, Theo Bartolomeo, John and JD Ogden, and Josiah and Adam Nash spent their summers playing baseball for hours on end. Nearly a decade has passed since they played their first game—now they’ve all grown up and attend different schools. But what brings them back together summer after summer is a devoted love for baseball.
“We were just little tykes when we first met,” says Elliott, a junior at White Bear Lake Area High School-South Campus. “Our big thing back then was Star Wars, but it has since evolved to something more mature—baseball.”
Growing up within blocks of each other, the boys started playing baseball together in kindergarten. Since then, they’ve logged countless hours at the field, taking turns playing positions—often covering two—and only taking breaks for lunch or when they’re called home for dinner.
“Every time we go down there it’s a memory,” says Theo, a sophomore at White Bear Lake High School-North Campus. “Every summer, we spend so much time playing baseball, going to the beach and heading back to the field. Baseball has really held us together.”
Now that they’re older, and more skilled, baseball has at times been replaced with whiffle ball to avoid breaking windows or hitting cars with home runs. And when they don’t make it down to West Park for a game, they head to a certain neighbor’s lawn.
“We’re on the corner lot, and years ago we thought about fencing it in, but it’s much better to have the kids play here,” says Doug Bartolomeo, Theo’s dad. “There’s a quote by Harmon Killebrew—his mom said to him and his brother, ‘You’re tearing up the yard!’ And his dad says, ‘We’re not raising grass, we’re raising boys.’ ”
When Doug and his wife, Jan, first moved to the neighborhood in 1995, he remembers taking Theo door to door, hauling a wagon full of baseballs, bats and gloves, to ask dads and their sons to come play at West Park. What started as a casual game every Saturday soon evolved into a summer ritual, and the boys began playing three or four times per week.
“Nowadays, kids are expected to think about things more seriously,” says Felecia Engen, Elliott’s mom. “They don’t need to worry about girls, college, tests or finals when they’re playing baseball; this allows them that break.”
But that doesn’t mean they don’t take the game seriously. Typically at the baseball field, the boys would make up a scenario—like pretending they were in the World Series. But, as Elliott recalls, every day ended up being the World Series for them.
“I saved a ticket that Theo once gave me to come to a game,” says Doug. “It captures the essence of their love for baseball and just being a part of the neighborhood.”
They may go days, weeks and sometimes months without seeing each other—the oldest of the group, Josiah Nash, is a sophomore at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.—but when the boys get back together to play a game, they pick up right where they left off.
“It hasn’t really changed anything,” says John Ogden, a junior at Mounds Park Academy. “We all went our separate ways, but that hasn’t changed our relationship in any way or the amount of time we hang out at the park.”
What makes this park so special? For Adam Nash, a junior at St. Croix Preparatory Academy in Stillwater, it’s the size of the baseball field—and its similarities to a classic film.
“It’s wide open, so we can still keep it in the park when we hit it,” says Nash. “It’s perfect, like the field from The Sandlot.” For others, it’s the endless memories made at the park that makes it unique.
“One of my favorite memories at the park was John’s birthday,” says JD Ogden, an eighth-grader at Mounds Park Academy. “He had a lot of friends from school coming down to the park, and because not all of us had gloves, we took our bats and played with tennis balls; we played for hours.”
And for nearly a decade, West Park has given the six neighbors a place to grow up, a place to bond, and a place to practice the skills necessary to maybe, someday, make it in the big leagues.
“If it wasn’t for the park, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today for baseball,” says Elliott. “Baseball was something fun, but now it’s something I do, something I love, and I plan to play in college. I think that park means everything to how I’ve grown as a baseball player.”
