Med-City Moonshots kick off season with Local Heroes game
Jun. 10—ROCHESTER — There are a lot of things Nate Sorenson likes about the Med-City Moonshots: Hitting with wood bats and not playing the outfield. As an alternative baseball organization, it's different from the Rochester Flyers softball teams Sorenson played on.
But Saturday, June 10, his favorite thing was the chance to see local police officers and firefighters at the Moonshots second Local Heroes game.
Jeremy Delaney, who manages and coaches the Moonshots, started the Local Heroes game in 2022 as a play off the Celebrity Games alternative baseball teams have in the southeast U.S.
"My wife and I wanted to change it," Delaney said. "There wasn't a lot of getting along for everyone in 2020, and I will say that I wanted to find a game where I could bring in all the people from this area — fire department, law enforcement, the mayor, some of our senators and local politicians — and I wanted (one) where everybody came in, no matter what ideal set or who you were or what your thoughts were at the time. I said, 'We're all going to come together in this one event for everyone,' and it's worked out phenomenally since."
Delaney organized the Moonshots in response to an advertisement he saw from the Alternative Baseball Organization. The organization wanted to expand across the country. Though Delaney has no prior coaching experience, as the father of an almost 12-year-old boy, he knew the importance of having a team like the Moonshots in town.
"There's a lot of different cool adaptive sports out there, but they don't have any that are truly playing the game of Major League Baseball, like you would in high school or college," Delaney said. "I wanted to be able to have guys where we could continue to develop skills and continue to push to get better and better."
When Delaney launched the Moonshots, he didn't think he'd have enough players to field a team. Now, the team is bringing in all types of players with all kinds of different skills and abilities.
"As time goes on, they build and build and build those skills," Delaney said. "It just blows my mind every time I go out and watch."
The Moonshots' success has Delaney thinking about an expansion — mostly so the team has a rival to play each season.
"We are working on trying to put together a team we want to call the Steele County Steelers. My wife and I are starting to put the feelers out in Owatonna to get another one of these teams set up here," he said. "We're looking at trying to extend the entire league here. It's no longer just a mission for one team anymore. It's a mission to build an entire grouping."
After the Owatonna team, Delaney wants to look into teams in Faribault and Mankato. He knows there are people out there who want the challenge that playing on an alternative baseball team brings players.
"Here, they're getting that challenge," he said. "There are moments where you might drop that ball out there 100 times in the outfield when it goes over your head, and then eventually you start getting right underneath it and you're making that catch. It's like, 'Wow, I have not seen this before. I didn't know you could even do that.' It's really rewarding in that way for me."
