Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski The Shawano County Historical Society’s 2017 fair display features a number of old baseball uniforms, photos, news clippings and more.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Lucas Gracyalny walks his pig, Peppa, around the arena in the Coliseum on Thursday during the pig judging. Gracyalny, a member of the Maple Grove Countryside 4-H Club, won a first place ribbon for Peppa.
Local historical societies put together displays annually for the Shawano County Fair, but this year’s might be a home run.
The Shawano, Bowler and Pulaski historical societies are showcasing images and memorabilia from the county’s baseball history, focusing mostly on the Badger Amateur Baseball Association (BABA) but also including other baseball teams and a softball team.
Bowler’s display features photographs and news clippings showcasing Bowler and Tilleda teams between the 1930s and 2014.
The Pulaski Historical Society kept the focus to only a few decades — the 1950s to the 1980s. Its display includes several uniforms, bats, gloves and an old catcher’s mask.
Shawano’s is the biggest and most diverse display. The exhibit has two mannequins in uniform, along with several other uniforms on display. There was also a drawing from 1910 showing people going into a ballpark with the words “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
The only thing missing from the baseball exhibits were some peanuts and Cracker Jack boxes.
No fair shakes, but floats take their place
The Shawano County Dairy Promotions Board moved its ice cream stand from the commercial building to the new junior fair building this year, but there are a few other changes, as well.
The stand will not feature malts or shakes anymore. Instead, volunteers will make root beer floats for fair visitors. Twig’s Beverage is providing the soda, and besides root beer, float purchasers can also choose regular Sun Drop or Twig’s blue raspberry and black cherry sodas.
The ice cream flavors are black cherry, blue moon, maple nut, caramel collision, Mackinac Island fudge, mint chocolate chip, and the standard vanilla and chocolate. The dairy board also has waffle cones.
Marketing coordinator on the move at fair
The fair has a variety of contests each year, and one more has been added to get fair lovers excited.
“Luepke on the Loose” follows Brad Luepke, the fairground’s marketing coordinator, as he makes his rounds around the fairgrounds. He is wearing a fitness tracker that determines how many steps he travels in a given day, and people can go onto the fair’s Facebook page to give their guesses. The one who is closest without going over at the end of the day receives a prize, Luepke said.
“It was just something to do,” Luepke said.
His tally at the end of the first day of the fair was 24,795 steps, but he noted that his daily steps will increase as the fair goes into the weekend and more activities take place. Luepke said people guessed anywhere from 3,000 to 39,000 steps Wednesday.
Luepke noted that he walked the equivalent of 77 miles in six days during the 2016 fair.
Weather might impact final speedway races
As of Thursday, the forecast was for mild weather for the duration of the fair with one exception — Saturday afternoon.
That could impact the final race night of the Shawano Speedway season. If too much rain falls on the half-mile dirt track, the race will be cancelled, with those atop the point standings being crowned the season winners, according to Brad Luepke, fairgrounds marketing coordinator.
The points leaders are Jerry Wilinski (IMCA Modifieds), Jordan Barkholtz (IMCA Sport Modifieds), Ron Berna (Late Models), Travis VanStratten (IMCA Stock Cars) and Calvin Stueck (Mighty Fours).