Fifty years later, Albany pitcher's long-distance title game feat still stands and he's not done

Among his many long-distance athletic achievements, Dick Glatzmaier has run in 35 consecutive Grandma's Marathons and ridden his bicycle coast to coast across the U.S.

But 50 years ago, as an 18-year-old pitcher, Glatzmaier achieved a distance feat for the Albany High baseball team that had never been done and won't ever be replicated.

After leading Albany to its first state tournament in school history, Glatzmaier took the mound against New Ulm in the 1970 championship game at Midway Stadium in St. Paul. He went all 12 innings, gave up only five hits, struck out 17 and never allowed a runner past second base as the Huskies prevailed 1-0 to win the program's only state title.

"That is still my greatest accomplishment," Glatzmaier said. "I was just glad we won the region championship and got to the state tournament for the first time."

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"Dick was super all year long," said then-Albany coach John Nett (no relation to the longtime former Winona Cotter basketball coach of the same name), whose squad finished 17-3. "It's still amazing to this day that we could win the state championship with basically one pitcher."

No help needed

Glatzmaier went 14-0 with a 0.12 ERA while throwing 101 of the Huskies' 137 innings that season. He gave up only 55 hits while striking out 128 and walking just 13.

"Dick had excellent control," Nett said. "He looked easy to hit when he was warming up, but he wasn't easy to hit at all."

Pitching regulations at the time allowed Glatzmaier to throw only 14 innings every three days. The Huskies' schedule consisted mostly of Monday and Thursday games.

"Whenever we could use Dick, we did," Nett said.

A rainout here and there, along with a school's graduation, played into Albany's hands.

"I never got tired when I was pitching," said Glatzmaier, whose brother Don, a sophomore, was also a pitcher on the team but never got a chance to play. Another brother, Jim, was a junior and the starting shortstop. "Everything worked out perfect for us that year."

Rare off day

Dick was the starting pitcher in both Region V games, a 2-0 victory over Minneapolis Edison and a 2-1 triumph over favored Minnetonka in the final. The latter victory followed the Skippers pushing the game back a day for graduation, so Dick didn't have to pitch on back-to-back days.

Albany was an underdog heading into the state tourney.

"Austin and New Ulm were the big favorites," Nett said.

The skipper would have Glatzmaier for two of the three games. But in the semifinals against Austin, the Huskies turned to senior Mike Stoulil, the team's first baseman who hadn't pitched in over a month.

"The first pitch he threw was way over the catcher's head to the backstop," Nett said. "I said to myself, 'Oh boy, what are we in for here?' "

Stoulil used his knuckleball and curveball to keep the Packers off balance, throwing a four-hit shutout in a 7-0 win.

"That was a big surprise," Nett said. "It was unbelievable."

Beneficial raindrops

Dick Glatzmaier, who was the winning pitcher in beating Windom 7-5 in the quarterfinals, was primed to pitch against New Ulm in the final. Rain postponed the Friday matchup to Saturday, which turned out to benefit the Huskies when the game went extra innings.

"Dick would have had to come out after the seventh inning because he would have had his 14 innings in," Nett said. "By having the game pushed back to Saturday, his inning count started all over."

Dick faced the minimum number of batters (12) over the final four innings.

The Huskies squandered a few good scoring opportunities early and had two players picked off third base.

"It's a good thing we won," said Nett, who also coached third base. "If we wouldn't have won, I would have been run out of town."

Freshman Jeff Neutzling was thrown out at the plate in the ninth trying to score from second on Tim Terres' single.

"I was stumbling and bumbling around third base," Neutzling said. "I almost fell flat on my nose."

Three innings later, the Huskies loaded the bases on an error, hit batsman and walk. Jack Hasbrouck — selected in the third round by the Twins in the regular phase of the June draft earlier in the month — bounced a two-out single up the middle to score Terres with the game-winning run.

"We had the best athletes from a little agriculture community that could be assembled," Neutzling said of Albany, located 20 miles northwest of St. Cloud. "We were a small school beating the big schools. It was a big deal for our community."

Hitting the road

Not long after their collegiate playing days, Dick and Jim took to cycling and running to stay in shape. Dick was a special education teacher in Stillwater and Jim worked for Travelers Insurance in St. Paul.

"I started putting on weight," Jim said. "I had to find something to do to get in shape."

He ran Grandma's Marathon in 1981. Dick joined him a year later, along with brothers Jerry, Joe and Tom. The five of them ran the event for 20 consecutive years.

"We're a very competitive family," said Jim of his five brothers and four sisters. "Once one of us does something, somebody else in the family thinks they can do it better."

They grew up in an Albany hotel above the family restaurant. Their parents, Joe and Marie, owned both businesses.

Dick's initial biking excursion was from Eugene, Ore., to Little Falls. His sister Jackie rode with him on the 1,900-mile trek.

His journey across the United States from San Francisco to Yorktown, Va., last year took 55 days, 52 on the road. Jim caught up with him in Kansas City, Mo., and finished the trip with his brother after they took in a couple of Twins-Royals games at Kauffman Stadium.

Other ventures have included New Orleans to Lake Itasca (1,810 miles in three weeks), St. Paul to New York City in 2008 to catch a Twins game at Yankee Stadium, and St. Paul to Detroit to watch the Twins at Tiger Stadium. Another went from the brothers' home in Avon to Chicago and back to Milwaukee, where they watched the Twins lose five games to the White Sox and Brewers.

"Maybe the Twins should pay us to stay away," Jim joked.

Jim runs 4.5 miles three days a week in the morning. Dick jogs a mile for rehabilitation while recovering from a groin injury.

Both also can be found biking the Lake Wobegon Trail, usually in the afternoon. They ride 5,000 to 6,000 miles a year.

"We've always been bachelors, so we've had time to get out and experience different things," Jim said. "We've always been active, and want to stay that way."

See the boxscore from Albany High School's 1970 state championship victory over New Ulm at startribune.com