Fighting Squirrels embark on historic season in 2024

You can’t plan events in life to a great degree. You can have dreams and hopes, but how the story unfolds is often unknown in the beginning.

Thus, was the evolution of the Charleston Fighting Squirrels baseball program two decades ago. Fighting Squirrel founder and manager Michael Minner hoped for the best, but he really didn’t know where this dream would take him.

“We had one team,” Minner said of that auspicious origin. “We went around and took whippings and set the foundation for what is happening today.”

The Fighting Squirrels recently gathered at the Copper Still Lounge in Sikeston for its annual fundraiser, the First Pitch Dinner, and it was the “first pitch” towards the program celebrating its 20th year in existence in 2024.

“We kept on digging, and digging, and digging,” Minner said of the program’s journey, “and finally people have wanted to be a part of this.”

The Fighting Squirrels made history in 2023, as the program hosted the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series in Cape Girardeau for the first time, and the organization was so impressed, that it selected the Squirrels to repeat the task in 2024.

"It was one of the better World Series that we've attended," Minner told Semoball.com recently. "Babe Ruth definitely wanted it back in Cape Girardeau. They know that Southeast Missouri did an incredible job of representing Babe Ruth baseball providing a great atmosphere for kids to play from all over the world."

As for the Fighting Squirrels, the First Pitch Dinner raised funds for all of the costs that are incurred throughout a summer of baseball.

“It gives us a good financial start for next year,” Minner said of the dinner. “This helps with everything. The equipment is expensive, some of the uniforms, some travel, umpires, baseballs, bats, I mean everything.”

Minner has seen the program grow from that one 19-under squad two decades ago to six teams (19-u, 18-u, 16-u, 14-u, 11-u, and 10-u) now, and don’t think that there isn’t talk of growing that number soon.

Minner’s son, Callen Robin Minner, will turn three on May 31, 2024, and Minner already has plans for him on the diamond.

“Now that I have a kid in the program,” Minner said, “I’ve got to make sure that whenever he is there, in like year 2035, that this thing is still rocking.

“Here in a couple of years, there is probably going to be a 6-under team,” Minner laughed. “He is definitely going to grow up in the program.”

Next summer, Minner, who has taught art for a day job at Charleston Schools, and never is shy with his imagination and design of the team’s jerseys, will break out “a couple of special jerseys.”

In addition, he is already working on the planning of the World Series.

“The biggest part of the celebration is that this has sustained itself for 20 years,” Minner said. “When we started this, we didn’t know if it could get to this point, and now that we are here, it is pretty amazing.

“We want to have a great 20th year and set the tone for the next 20 years.”