View from the cheap seats

Casey Krautkramer, Reporter, The Record-Review

I had a great time at the Krautkramer Family Reunion on Saturday inside my family’s town of Marathon barn.

My father, uncle and cousin gave hay rides for family members in attendance. There was also a root beer race for the children, and an egg toss and gunny sack race for the adults.

I asked my father, Jerome Krautkramer, what the antique piece of farm equipment, which I chose as the above Without Words picture, is lying up against the old barn silo. He told me my late uncle, Lloyd Krautkramer, had found this machinery part and he placed it up against the silo.

Maybe someone who reads this column will know what this piece of equipment was used for back in the day?

It’s fitting Marathon’s baseball team was just in the state tournament again this year, considering I was chatting with my first cousins on Saturday who played on the Red Raiders’ 2008 and 2010 state baseball championship squads.

I remember watching my cousins, Ben Krautkramer and Brent Krautkramer, play in the state baseball championship game against La Crosse Aquinas on June 13, 2008, at Fox Cities Stadium by Appleton. Ben Krautkramer was a pinch runner and Brent Krautkramer was Marathon’s starting catcher in the state championship game.

The late Andy Kaldunski was also a pivotal member on the 2008 state title team. Marathon beat Aquinas, 3-2, to finish the 2008 season with a 23-3 record. Brothers Bobby Blume and Nick Blume were also members of Marathon’s 2008 state championshkip squad. I remember going to their parent’s house in the spring of 2015 to write a story on how Bobby, Nick and their youngest brother, Alex Blume, all played on Marathon baseball teams that advanced to the state tournament. I began working at The Record-Review on April 13, 2015, just in time to cover the Marathon baseball squad’s journey to the state tournament.

Alex Blume is engaged to Dana Heidmann of Edgar, who I covered on great Edgar girls track relay teams in the spring of 2015. I find it fascinating that three women graduates in the Class of 2015, two from Edgar and one from Athens, graduated from college and returned to this area to become teachers in Athens.

Edgar 2015 track relay team members Tianna Borchardt and Heidmann are both teaching in Athens. Borchardt teaches at Athens Elementary School and Heidmann teaches at St. Anthony de Padua Catholic School. Athens 2015 graduate Kaylyn (Schreiner) Halopka will begin teaching at St. Anthony de Padua Catholic School this fall. She graduated from my alma mater, UW-Stevens Point, this spring and she recently got married to Ty Halopka of Athens.

OK, so I got a bit sidetracked, but now back to my cousins playing state baseball. My cousin, Ryan Krautkramer, was the designated hitter in the Marathon baseball team’s 15-7 state championship victory against Aquinas in the 2010 season. Ben Krautkramer was the starting leftfi elder. This was Marathon’s third state baseball championship in school history and its second state title under head coach Steve Warren.