From rivals to friends: Southeast Tropics and Charleston Fighting Squirrels' final showdown

It’s the end of an era for local baseball fans.

As the Southeast Tropics officially close the book on a historic eight-year history, so too do they part with their war against their archrivals in the Charleston Fighting Squirrels.

After Thursday’s 11-2 victory over the Charleston Fighting Squirrels, the Southeast Tropics wave goodbye to a long, eight-year rivalry that became synonymous with Babe Ruth Baseball.

Since 2017, you couldn’t talk about one without mentioning the other in the same breath. It was the Squirrels and the Tropics, no matter where you went.

That proximity, and the competitive nature of the two squads, fed into a friendly rivalry that resulted in two World Series championships: One in 2018 for the Squirrels, another in 2023 for the Tropics.

“We wanted to beat each other,” Squirrels coach Michael Minner said. “We tried to out-recruit each other. We have to go get guys that will make our programs better.

“It's kept that competitive spirit alive.”

Hosting the World Series for the summers of 2023 and 2024, the two squads helped turn Southeast Missouri into Babe Ruth country.

Home turf at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau made it even sweeter when the Tropics raised their first and eventually only World Series title in August 2023.

That competitive spirit helped breed excellence in the local Babe Ruth scene, and when the two sides matched up in a third-place game on Thursday, you could see the camaraderie on full display.

Following last year’s title, it was released that after the second year of Capaha’s hosting of the Summer Classic the Tropics would fold their program for good.

These kids share classrooms, locker rooms, workouts – and they’ve been separated by no more than a summer ball jersey and a different dugout in August.

Since 2017, the two teams have been at each other’s necks at all times, constantly fighting to get ahead of each another.

Now, the tone is a little bit different as the rivalry enters the rearview mirror.

“A game like this with the Squirrels, it kind of reminds you of why you love the game,” Tropics coach Dustin Schwartz said. “Having fun, both teams cheering for each other, getting to recognize some of the great talent from Southeast Missouri.”

I asked Coach Minner the first thing he thought of when picturing the Squirrels and Tropics together.

After a long day at the ballpark, playing back-to-back games on a heat index peaking around 107 degrees, on turf nonetheless, the veteran Squirrels skipper gave one of the best one-word answers you could imagine.

“Friendship.”

You couldn’t tell there was animosity between any of these guys after the game’s ending in the fifth inning, largely because there wasn’t any.

“Even though you had two teams competing, our kids are friends,” Minner said. “That's the way baseball is supposed to be.”

Minner posed for a picture with rival coach Schwartz, and after the initial handshake line ended, it became a hug line, and it felt like years of rivalry became washed away in the moment.

Though it only lasted seven years on the calendar, the Squirrels and Tropics bred what became one of the area’s greatest rivalries that was annually settled in the postseason.

For the kids, the coaches, the fans and everyone around Babe Ruth Baseball both near and far, it was something of a pride point.

“When you're in between the lines, we hate each other,” Minner said. “I'm not a fan of Dustin Schwartz when I'm inside those lines. I want to beat him, and he wants to beat me.

“But outside of it, we're both there to help each other, and I think our friendships have grown extremely well over the course of this rivalry.”

With as much fire as was shown on the field over the years, Schwartz praised the two teams on how they supported each other even with the constant back-and-forth.

“We always rooted for them, and they always rooted for us.”

“I’d always told myself that when my wife and I decided we were going to have a baby, I was going to be done,” Schwartz said. “I love this, man. I love these guys. They’ve become so much like family to me, these guys I've had over the years.

“When we found out she was pregnant, that was it – I knew I was done. He's five months old now, and I love him more than anything in the world.”

He talked about the rise of the Tropics from their inception to now, growing both as a program and as a man along the way.

“It's been a fun run,” Schwartz said. “I look back at when I started this back when I was a kid in undergrad. Now, you look ahead, I'm a little bit heavier in the waist, married to my girlfriend at the time, now she's my wife.

“We’ve got a baby together, we got married, got into a career – it's incredible how much can change in eight years from when I started this.”

Departing the program, Schwartz’ departure spells the end of a magical short eight seasons for Southeast baseball, helping the Tropics to a world championship a year ago and a bronze in the swan song.

For scheduling purposes, for rivalry means, for everything that relates to the meteoric rise of both of these programs since the Tropics jumped onto the scene, the Squirrels will miss them just as much.

“I wish Dustin the best in raising his child,” Minner said. “But to lose the Tropics is – it's a big loss for Southeast Missouri.”

And yet, life goes on.

The Nuts never stop, and with the departure of the Tropics from the local scene, Charleston has reemerged as the premier stop for talent in the Bootheel.

To get to where he wants the Squirrels to be, Minner will stop at nothing to make sure that Charleston is as prepared as it can be for the 2025 Babe Ruth World Series in Ocala, Florida.