Ben Ernst is doing his part to make sure Aberdeen’s baseball past isn’t forgotten.
Through the Society of American Baseball Research, he’s procured a historical marker to commemorate the story of the Aberdeen Pheasants.
That would be the old Pheasants — a Major League Baseball farm club — not the 1990s Pheasants.
The marker should be delivered yet this month, Ernst said. A dedication ceremony is tentatively planned for 10 a.m. Saturday, June 8. The date has significance. It will mark the 60th anniversary of the day the Pheasants played the Orioles Major League team in Aberdeen at Municipal Stadium.
Baltimore won the game, played on an off day as the Orioles were traveling through the Midwest, 6-3. Six decades later, it remains the biggest baseball game played in town by almost all accounts.
Municipal Stadium had a capacity of 5,130 and was sold out with many more people watching from outside the stadium, according to accounts of the game. A local sportswriter estimated 6,300 fans saw the game, suggesting it was the biggest crowd for a baseball game in South Dakota.
It’s the only known game played by a Major League Baseball team in the state.
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Ernst said the historical marker will be at the site of the old stadium. Exactly where has yet to be determined, but in the entrance of the Barnett Center or outside of the arena along South State Street are the prime options, he said.
He said he’s been working with Northern State officials to pin down the details.
It would be great, Ernst said, to get at least one old Pheasant to return for the ceremony. He’s written to a handful of players to extend invitations.
He doesn’t want local residents to forget the history of the Pheasants and the 26 seasons they played at the stadium.
“I think it’s kind of like hallowed, sacred ground,” Ernst said.
Ernst’s baseball fandom started with ’90s Aberdeen Pheasants
Ernst played baseball into his early teens, but didn’t play for the Aberdeen Smittys Legion team.
He said the 1990s Pheasants helped spark his love for baseball.
They were an independent team that played at Fossum Field from 1995 through 1997. Aberdeen was a member of the Prairie League.
Ernst remembers sitting along the first base line while attending his first game. He was hoping for a foul ball and got one. But it wasn’t exactly what he planned. He said he was struck by a foul ball in the chest with the incident leaving him bruised.
Between two of the biggest annual events in Aberdeen — the State B basketball tournament and the Brown County Fair — it would be nice to have a minor league team in town, he said.
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The return of the Pheasants as a Northwoods League team would make sense geographically, Ernst said.
With teams in Bismarck, Minot and Dickinson, N.D., and Mankato, St. Cloud and Willmar, Minn., the Great Plains West Division would be a good fit. The Northwoods League is a college wood bat league.
Quite a collection of paraphernalia
Ernst, 34, works in sales and has accumulated quite a collection of Pheasants paraphernalia.
He has Major League Baseball cards of many who played in Aberdeen, old scorecards, photos, baseballs — including one signed by Don Larson during his 1948 season with the Pheasants — correspondence, letters, a collage made by artist Lindsay Frost and more.
Earnst can even make a connection between Frost, who lives in upstate New York, and Aberdeen. Frost’s son is Lucas Giolito, who now pitches for the Boston Red Sox, though he’s out for the season with an injury.
Last year, Giolito pitched for the Cleveland Guardians. He started the last game of the season, which was also the last game for manager Terry Francona, who was born in Aberdeen while his father, Tito, played for the Pheasants.
Both father and son played in the Major Leagues.
Ernst can make many such connections. Lou Brock’s last minor league game was in Aberdeen. He played for the St. Cloud Rox. Pitcher Don Larson played for the Pheasants and is the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in the World Series, doing so for the New York Yankees in 1956. Bo Belinski was another Pheasants pitcher who went on to throw the first no-hitter in franchise history for the then-California Angels in 1962.
Some of the connections are better known, including that Cal Ripken, Jr. lived in Aberdeen when his father, Cal senior, managed the Pheasants.
Longtime Orioles manager Earl Weaver and pitcher Jim Palmer also have a history in Aberdeen. They are the only former Pheasants in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Henry Aaron played at Aberdeen Municipal Stadium in 1952 as a member of the Eau Claire Bears.
During the 1920 season, Hall-of-Famer Al Simmons played ball for Aberdeen’s  first team, which played in the Dakota League from 1920 through 1922.
That team was first known as the Aberdeen Boosters, then the Aberdeen Grays.
The Pheasants first season was in 1947. At the time, they were a farm club for the St. Louis Browns. After the 1953 season, the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.
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It’s believed the arrangement between the Browns/Orioles and Aberdeen is the longest working agreement between Major League teams and a minor league squad.
Ernst said he likes to take a walk past the former homes of Pheasant players. Larson spent his first night in Aberdeen at what are now the Sherman Apartments downtown, Ernst said, before moving to the 900 block of South Lincoln Street. The Ripkens lived in the 900 block of North Lloyd Street, he said.
Remembering Aberdeen’s rich baseball history
It would be a shame if future generations didn’t know about Aberdeen’s baseball history, Ernst said. It should be a source of community pride, he said.
He stumbled across The Society of American Baseball Research about two years ago. There isn’t a South Dakota chapter, so he joined the Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter.
In September, he learned the society offers grants to commemorate the history of the game and knew immediately he wanted to apply for one for Aberdeen. With help from the head of the Baltimore chapter, he did that in January.
Ernst wrote a story about the Pheasants and submitted information about the team’s history, and when the grants were announced in March, Aberdeen received one of six.
He’s happy to have a hand in keeping the team’s history alive.
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While some people think baseball moves too slow, Ernst feels like if they ever had the chance to step in the batter’s box and try to even tick a 90-mph fastball they would appreciate how difficult it is.
Ernst loves the aesthetics of baseball — the smell of freshly mowed grass, the sound of the ball hitting a bat or glove.
“It’s the simplicity of the game, the sounds that you fall in love with,” he said.