Dueling Duo booked to raise money for baseball diamond improvements

Brenda Wade Schmidt
Enterprise

Baseball enthusiasts in Flandreau hope a combination of interactive entertainment and a desire to have a better baseball field will inspire the local community to donate to a fundraiser to install artificial turf on part of the main diamond.
The Flandreau Baseball Association is bringing the dueling piano group Dueling Duo based in Sioux Falls to town Feb. 8, with ticket and beverage sales going to pay for the project at the largest field at the city park.
“Other communities are starting to do this for a few different reasons. It actually enhances the playability of the field,” said Chris Wiese, president of the FBA. “It’s going to benefit our Flandreau area youth baseball community from the ages of 13 years of age all the way up to amateur.”
Doors open at 7 p.m. for the fundraiser at the William J. Janklow Community Center with entertainment by Dueling Duo from 8 to 10:30 p.m. The music typically comes from audience requests, and it is accompanied with a good dose of comedy.
“We don’t pick any of the songs. We go into a show not knowing what we’re going to play,” said Andy Gibson with the duo that has been performing for 10 years and travels to eight states. “It’s just a night to cut loose kind of. Being in charge of the show maybe is one of the fun parts about it for other people. We’re not in charge.”
While the duo has two pianos, the musicians also are joined on stage by a fiddle player. “There’s always three people in the duo. It makes perfect sense,” Gibson said. Ryno, who doesn’t use a last name, plays the other piano, and Dan Witte is on the fiddle.

General admission tickets are $20 at the door or in advance of the show at Maynard’s Food Center and Ramsdell F&M. Reserved tables for eight are available for $200. So far, more than 200 tickets have been sold.
Beer, pop and water will be available for sale at the show.
Wiese said money raised during the evening will go to pay for the turf which the FBA wants to install on the pitcher’s mound, at the batter’s box and on the first and third baselines. The turf will be a significant benefit to the city, he said.
The FBA is estimating it can install the turf, if it uses some volunteer labor, for about half or $7,000, he said.
Turf will help get games going again more quickly after a rain storm, will require less maintenance and will be an incentive for young ball players to stick with baseball in order to get to play on the enhanced field when they get older, he said.
“For us, it was another way to keep engaging the interest of our area youth by giving them something extra to look forward to,” he said.
If the areas are Agri-lime like they have been, it takes longer to dry out and requires significant upkeep between games, for example. Dozens of games are played on the field each summer, roughly two or three a week, Wiese said.
If money is raised for the project, turf wouldn’t be installed until fall, said Randy Wilts, city parks manager. “We’re going to try to do it ourselves to cut the cost quite a bit,” he said. “This stuff is really expensive.”
Without volunteer labor, the cost would be about $15,000, he said.
Several communities have installed the turf, he said, including Salem, Lennox, Renner and Alexandria.
The change will make a difference in field preparation time, Wilts said.
“We’re still going to have to be there. I think it’s just the ability to get the field ready faster,” he said. “There’s going to be some savings during weekdays when I don’t have to work on home plate and the pitcher’s mound every day. It’s a constant battle.”
Rather than pay with city taxpayer money, the FBA decided to try and raise the amount needed to pay for the project.
“We’re constantly working on ball diamonds from May through August. They (the city) puts a lot of money into those fields,” Wilts said.