By Rodney Haas 

605 Sports 

SIOUX FALLS — It began as a COVID restriction during the 2020 state amateur baseball tournament, it ended with Allen “Al” Olson being introduced to a new generation of South Dakota baseball fans. 

For the past three tournaments, Olson has been a fixture at Mitchell’s Cadwell Park where fans, players and his fellow umpires admired his work ethic; at chasing foul balls down the lines, up against the netting, or the few passed balls and wild pitches that escaped a catcher’s mitt or a pitcher’s arm. 

Olson died on April 28 at his home in Sioux Falls — one week before he would’ve been directing teams and workers where to park at this weekend’s Howard Wood Relays, and a week before he would’ve turned 76. 

During the winter months, Olson was a fixture for countless officials, players, coaches and members of the media who had games to play, officiate, coach or cover in the Sioux Falls area — especially at the Sanford Pentagon and at Howard Wood Field.

He loved being around people, he loved baseball and he loved both and never complained. 

At 75, Olson would spend the 12 days during the amateur baseball tournament driving back-and-forth from Mitchell to his home in Sioux Falls.

It was the last at-bat for a man who lived a baseball life in South Dakota. 

“He was one of the top friends of amateur baseball. He’s one of the top friends of a lot of people,” South Dakota Amateur Baseball President Dale Weber said. “Everyone who knew Al liked the guy. That’s for sure. 

“He never said one bad word against anyone and he was always available to help. He did a great job with the amateur baseball tournament in Mitchell being a ballboy sort of speak. He was there early in the morning until late at night. You could always depend upon Al to be there. He was always on the ball.”

From being an umpire at 15 to a ball boy at 73 

Allen Olson sits along the first base side during the state amateur baseball tournament last year at Cadwell Park. Olson, served as an umpire for 60 years before becoming a ball boy at the tournament at 73. (Rodney Haas/605 Sports)
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For the longest time, the Mitchell Baseball Association would have youth teams serve as ball boys for the amateur tournament, but that all changed in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Because of restrictions, the Mitchell Baseball Association decided against having 12-year-olds on the field. 

Seeing the need, Olson once again stepped to the plate and took a job that was probably best suited for someone 60 years younger.  

“It’s pretty amazing for a guy who umpired a state tournament, to agree to be a ball shagger at a state tournament,” said tournament director Jim “Jocko” Johnston. “That’s pretty unusual. You are not going to find that with any other guys. I think that just shows his love of the game of baseball and his love of being around people.”

Through the gauntlet of games that marked the tournament’s first four days, the 102-degree afternoon sessions or rain delays that turn evening sessions into early morning baseball, Olson never complained. But for Johnston, the biggest thing he didn’t have to worry about was if he was still going to have a ball boy when play resumed at midnight. 

“I didn’t have to worry about a ball boy still being there because Allen was going to be there. He was dependable. You don’t find that too often, Johnston said. “People that are (at the tournament) are baseball people and they’ve been to games where a passed ball goes to the backstop until the umpire gets it himself. So they know how important that position is and they recognize how hard he worked out there and most of them were people who didn’t know who he was and I had to explain. They didn’t know of him as an umpire but they knew how hard he worked.”

Prior to becoming a ball boy, Olson spent 60 years as an umpire where he became legendary throughout ballparks for how active and animated he was when umpiring a game.

“We would have people come to the ballgame just to watch him umpire, just as much as they would watch the game,” Weber recalled. “They would come to the game if they knew that Al was umpiring because he was so animated. It was hilarious at times. He would have a great following. 

“He was a legend in his own right that’s for sure. He’s going to be missed by a lot of people, that’s for sure.”

With Olson behind the plate, the fans, and players would definitely know what the count was. He would start by putting one finger up on each hand up to signify a 1 ball and 1 strike above his head then move it slightly away from his head and down and then outstretched his arms by his waist. All the while turning his body to let every infielder know what the count was.  

“He was pretty adamant about that,” said Johnston, who once umpired Triple-A baseball. “A lot of umpires are not that way anymore because we have a scoreboard, but Al would umpire the plate like we didn’t have a scoreboard. That’s something that a lot of umpires don’t do anymore.” 

Olson wasn’t shy when it came to not being afraid of getting in the middle of things on a baseball field. When a player was hit-by-a-pitch, Olson would immediately jump out in the middle of the pitcher and batter to make sure neither had intentions to start trouble.   

“Allen, in regards as an umpire, you knew when he was behind home plate,” Johnston said. “He was very much a take-charge kind of guy. He was very professional about it.”

Throughout his umpire career Olson would travel to ballparks with his mother Nadine, who would mostly sit in the car and watch or find a spot behind home plate at Cadwell Park where she would wait until he was done. Even if that meant having the stadium lights being shut off while she waited. 

“His mom went to just about all the games he umpired whether it was 80 degrees or a 100 degrees,” Weber said. “She faithfully went to the games that Al umpired. She would sit in that hot car. I don’t know how she did it.”

An umpire’s best friend 

Allen Olson hands out water to umpires during the state amateur baseball tournament last year. After being un umpire for 60 years, Olson was an umpire’s best friend after his retirement. (Rodney Haas/605 Sports)
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After deciding to hang up his chest protector and clicker, Olson essentially became an umpire’s best friend. From his lawn chair behind home plate, Olson would keep close watch over his fellow umpires, heading over to the concession stand to grab baseball’s that had been turned in for 50 cents, and hand them to the ball boy working the first base dugout. 

“You’re right,” Johnston said of Olson being an umpire's best friend. “He would tell me that the home plate umpire needs some water. That’s stuff I try to do all the time and those of us from Mitchell baseball, we try to make sure we get water to the umpires and Allen was there to remind us. He worked with the umpires and made sure the balls were getting back to them.” 

Johnston recalled times when Olson would get out of his chair and tell the young ball boys how to do their jobs, and he would have to remind Olson “If there’s problems with these kids, you have to let me know.”  

“He was right, you get a 12-year-old in (inside the field of play), their attention span isn’t always great and for Al, it had to be done professionally and if it wasn’t done right, he wasn’t shy about letting me know or letting the kids know,” he said.

A fixture in Sioux Falls sports community 

For the past three state amateur baseball tournaments, Allen Olson has worked as a ball boy. It’s one of many jobs he worked as he became a fixture around baseball and sporting events in the Sioux Falls area. (Rodney Haas/605 Sports)
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While Olson is better known for his accomplishments during the summer months, he was a fixture when it came to sports in Sioux Falls. Olson worked at events held at Sioux Falls public schools as well as Augustana College and Huset’s Speedway in Brandon. However, he is better known for his work at Howard Wood Field and the Sanford Pentagon. It was there where Olson would help guide workers and teams to their parking spots, or as was the case this past March at the Class AA girls basketball tournament at the Pentagon, he was there greeting members of the media as they checked-in. 

“For years going to Howard Wood Field to referee football games or refereeing college games Allen would be in the parking lot directing you where you park,” said Johnston, who has been officiating games in South Dakota since 1974. “It got to a point where I saw him so many times, he would see me and I wouldn’t have to show my pass. He would see me and direct me to a place to park. Whatever kind of job he took, he took it very seriously.”

It’s a work ethic that was installed on Olson at a young age where Weber recalled he would work at Anderson’s grocery in Salem when he got out of school. 

“From there on he took a lot of responsibility working around Sioux Falls,” Weber said. “The guy was so dependable that you could count on him to be there and do a good job. He was hired by a lot of different segments of the sports world in Sioux Falls.”

Olson’s passing will certainly leave a void in the sports world of South Dakota, but his legacy will live on through the countless baseball fans who showed up to Cadwell Park over the years.

For the older generation of baseball fans, they will remember him as an umpire, for the newer generation, they simply wanted to know who that was being the ball boy.

“People would ask me all the time, “Who is this guy? Mostly Mitchell people and fans from the Sunshine League,’ Johnston said. “Most people would comment ‘Wow, he works his butt off.’ ”