Journal Editorial: BVBA, you knocked it out of the park!

Twelve straight days of baseball. Thirty-seven games in all. Months of planning and preparations. Thousands of chicken strips and tallboy beers sold, foot-long Mr. Freezies consumed, and hundreds of foul balls recovered. A lot of South Dakota late summertime heat and humidity, and more.

All of those elements and more added up to a highly-successful 2025 South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament, and it all began with a years-ago dream of building a top-of-the line stadium dedicated solely to baseball and to bring tournaments like this one to our community. 

We’ve all heard it time and time again how the Brandon Valley Baseball Association “stopped dreaming and started doing” to build the baseball stadium. They followed that same philosophy in gaining the bid to host the days-long tournament.

Kudos to Chris Brown, Torrey Sundall and Stuart Peschel for leading the charge. To the Brandon Valley Baseball Association-member parents and kids for rolling up your sleeves and putting in the work. To the many, many volunteers who gave of your time and your talents. To the announcers, the gatekeepers, the kids who sold 50/50 raffle tickets and Bingo cards. To those who manned the grill and the fryers. To those who plucked ice-cold beers out of the coolers. To the city administration and council for approving the BVBA’s requests to host such an event. To the city parks and maintenance department personnel who answered the call to help when needed. And to the fans who came from all corners of South Dakota to cheer for the team at one or two or even all of their games.

Thank you for all that you did to leave a lasting, positive impression with each and every visitor that passed through the games.

“It’s about community.” That’s a tagline you’ll hear at the ballpark all summer long. But this event truly was all “about community.” And Brandon Valley Baseball, you knocked this one out of the park.