Al Woida, kneeling, and his four sons who played ball with him this year. Sam, Scott, Robin and Charlie who just turned 35 so he could play on the Goldtimers team.
Al “Ollie” Woida’s plaque from his induction into the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association Hall of Fame this year.
Betty and Al Woida recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They both have a love of baseball that they passed on to many of their children, but especially their four boys.
Al Woida, kneeling, and his four sons who played ball with him this year. Sam, Scott, Robin and Charlie who just turned 35 so he could play on the Goldtimers team.
Over 50 years in baseball... Woida is voted into Hall of Fame
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by Karin L. Nauber
Al “Ollie” Woida of Eagle Bend has been playing baseball for a few years—56 of them to be exact.
“My brothers were into hunting and fishing, but I wanted to play ball,” said Woida.
When he was too young to join a team—around the age of 12—he went to Urbank and chased foul balls with the other kids and received five cents for each one he recovered.
“When I got older and was married and had kids, then they would chase after the foul balls, just like I’d done,” he said with a smile at the memory.
In Urbank, the ball diamond was in a pasture. Each spring they would chase the cows out and clean up the area so they could play.
With the cows right on the other side of the fence, sometimes the foul ball chasers got a little “foul” themselves as they encountered an occasional manure pile or two in their pursuit. . . .