BLOOMING PRAIRIE – In this city of 2,000, where the high school sports team is called the Awesome Blossoms, playing baseball near cornfields seems like a “Field of Dreams” for youth.
But the situation instead has drawn comparisons to “The Sandlot,” the cult 1993 movie in which neighborhood kids continuously lose their baseballs to a large dog they nickname “the Beast.”
The “beast,” according to disgruntled local baseball parents, is a nearby property owner who, fed up over kids entering his property, has kept dozens of baseballs that have landed in his yard over the past year.
And now their dispute has gone viral.
Social media video showing parents arguing with homeowner Jon Peterson blew up late last month as Peterson is accused of hoarding the balls hit into his yard during every game at the city’s baseball fields across the street.
To recoup the cost of some of those balls — up to 10 a game are lost there, and each costs about $10 — local baseball organizers created a fundraiser that they say has generated hundreds of baseballs for the town.
“We’re a community who loves baseball,” said Kelly LaMotte, whose June 30 video showed clips of Peterson and his father, Tom, refusing to give baseballs back to kids and parents during games.
The video also contained some of the parents’ reactions, from profanity to a middle finger as the Petersons stand their ground.