If throwing at least six innings in a baseball game while limiting your opponent to three runs or less now constitutes a "quality start", imagine what you would call Dennis Roisum's start 42 years ago.
Roisum, then just 21 years old and the player/manager of the Kerkhoven Tigers' amateur baseball team, pitched the entire game of a best-of-three, 20-inning loss to the Raymond Rockets on July 30, 1965 in Raymond.
Roisum was tagged with the loss when the Rockets scored with one out in the bottom of the 20th inning.
"I remember people in Raymond coming over to the game and wondering why the lights were still on at midnight," laughed Roisum, a retired school teacher who lives in Glencoe, by telephone from his home Friday afternoon.
Although no one cared about pitch counts back then, it's estimated that Roisum threw between 250-300 pitches. He walked only two batters and struck out 16, while allowing 15 hits.
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"I never thought about being tired and coming out of the game," recalls Roisum. "I had good mechanics and pretty good control so there really wasn't much stress on my arm."
Because he also served as manager, there was no one quizzing him between innings how his arm was holding up.
"I started managing when I was a senior in high school," said the 1963 Kerkhoven graduate. "Mainly because no one else wanted to do it."
Kerkhoven scored both of its runs off Raymond starter Kim Shelrud in the third inning on a run-scoring double by Roisum and a run-scoring single by Butch Haug.
But Shelrud didn't allow another run before departing after the ninth inning and reliever Randy Haats cuffed the Tigers over the final 11 innings for the win.
Raymond the winning run after loading the bases on singles by Haats, Ron Hauser and Duaine Greenberg. With one out, Red Jones hit a bouncer to Kerkhoven shortstop Mike Johnson, but Haats' headfirst slide into the plate beat Johnson's throw home for the winning run.
Haats gave up just five hits in his 11-inning stint. He walked four and struck out six.
Roisum insisted his arm felt no different than a regular nine-inning game.
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"I'm sure I played the next game because I don't remember my arm being too ore to play or anything," he said. "I played shortstop when I wasn't pitching so I'm sure I either pitched or played short the next game."
Tribune records showed the two teams playing an 11-inning game again two days later with Raymond again winning. Roisum played shortstop in that game.
Roisum, who went on to pitch for St. Cloud State, also pitched in two state amateur tournament games that also went 20 innings, although not the entire way in either.
"I would be surprised if there was another guy who pitched in three games that went 20 innings," he remarked.
He was on the mound for Hector during a state game in Brownton against Stark in 1971 and another as a drafted pitcher for Fairfax in a state game in Arlington in 1975. He retired from playing ball in 1979.
Roisum taught social studies for 33 years before retiring seven years ago. He taught one year in Sartell, 11 in Hector and the final 21 in Glencoe. He has been a baseball umpire for the past 28 years.
Since umpires are paid by the game and not by the inning, it's a good thing he's never had to umpire a 20-inning game.
