The open house held for Pine Island head baseball coach Craig Anderson brought former players, coaches, fans and administrators to Pine Island on Friday night.

Anderson stood in a line and shook the hand of scores of people and received a lot of hugs too. I overheard one former player say, "This is like a Pine Island High School reunion."

In 41 years of coaching at Pine Island, it's obvious Anderson touched a lot of lives.

The open house was held at Trailhead Grill Pool and Pins, formerly The Island Pool and Pins, in Pine Island and the line stretched from halfway into the building to the front door for nearly two hours. After all the handshakes and hugs I asked Anderson how many people he thought came to the event and the reply simply was, "I'm so blessed."

I think every person who waited in line to shake his hand, or give him a hug, or hand him a card would say the same thing, "I am blessed."

I met the former superintendent who hired Anderson after he was turned down initially. He told me he went to Winona State and interviewed Craig right in the locker room after a game. He was superintendent at Lanesboro at the time and Craig turned him down to go to a school in Iowa for a year.

The same man became superintendent at Pine Island the next year where they had a baseball opening and contacted Craig again about that position. This time Anderson said yes and the rest, as they say, is history. That was the bicentennial year of 1976.

I was getting ready for my senior year at Spring Valley High School in the fall of 1976.

Lanesboro was in the same Maple Leaf Conference, so I would have had the opportunity to play against Anderson had he taken the Burros' head coaching position.

I heard so many great stories Friday night I can't share all of them here, and all were not just Anderson-related. It was just a blast visiting with many people I was blessed to get to know through the years.

I stopped by a table where Craig was sitting and saying my goodbye when a man in his late 40s came up and handed him a Pine Island hat with something written under the bill. He gave Craig a big hug and told him how much he meant to him when he played ball all those years ago and how blessed he felt that he was able to have Craig as his coach. After he left Craig looked at me with a tear in his eye and said, "Gordy, it doesn't get any better than that. I guess all those years were worth it."

He showed me what the man wrote on the bill and it congratulated him on his retirement from "honest" and then his name and a date from 1986. Anderson said there was a story behind the "honest" and the date.

His Panthers were playing coach Frank Aunan's Zumbrota Tigers in Zumbrota when a Tiger smashed the ball to the outfield and the umpire said the ball bounced and went over the fence for a ground rule double. Some Zumbrota fans told Aunan the ball cleared the fence on the fly and there was no bounce. Aunan went to the umpire and said are you guys sure that wasn't a home run?

One of the umpires ran to the outfielder and asked him if the ball cleared the fence on the fly and the young man (the guy in his late 40s now) simply lifted his hand up and did the twirling of the finger home run sign. The Panthers lost the game by one run.

Anderson was telling this story with a huge smile on his face and said he had never seen an umpire go out and ask an outfielder if a ball had bounced over the fence or cleared the fence on the fly before. The outfielder could have easily said it bounced and who knows what would have happened after that.

The coach was perplexed by the umpire's decision to put the pressure on the young outfielder but told the young player he was proud of him for telling the truth and being "honest." A life lesson that obviously stuck with the Pine Island graduate and Anderson.

Thanks, Craig, for being you and happy retirement from coaching.

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