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Congrats to the 2023 Rock River Hall of Fame inductees shown below. They were honored at this year's Oldtimers Banquet on Saturday, October 28th at the Lions Hall in Clyman.
Back Row; Ron Bartels VP, Jason Strobel HOF, Steve Lehman President
Front Row: Ray Lauersdorf HOF, Steve Held HOF, Ross Roeseler Rock Diamond Award, Tom Salmon on behalf of John "Butch" Salmon', Bob Schulz Secretary/Treasurer
2023 Hall of Fame Inductees
Steve Held - Hustisford
Ray Lauersdorf - Neosho, Johnson Creek
John "Butch" Salmon - Rubicon
Jason Strobel - Kewaskum
Rock Diamond Award Winner
Ross Roeseler - Hustisford
Hall of Fame Bios
Steve Held – is 63, retired and lives in Wautoma. Steve played 2nd base, shortstop and left field with Hustisford from 1976-1982, 1984, 1985 and 1987-1991 and played with Horicon in 1986. “Playing for Hustisford with all hometown players and friends, and winning 6 Championships in 12 years was a major accomplishment. I usually hit leadoff or second in the lineup and maintained a .300 plus average, while appearing in 5 RRL All Star games”. Steve’s humorous incident went as follows. “In 1989, I was late getting to a game due to my nephew’s baptism. As I was speeding away, I saw police lights behind me. As I pulled over, Officer Dick Thieme pulled up next to me and said “late are we? Slow down and have a good game”. Dick laughed and took off. Little did I know that Dick would be umpiring the field in our game. As luck would have it in the 6th, I was in left field and dove for a line drive and caught it. As I rolled to my feet. Dick was yelling and signaling no catch and safe. He then yelled at me I don’t care if you caught it or not, you owe me so don’t say a word. After the game we laughed about it. Dick asked if I caught it and when I told him yes, he said Oh well, you owe me a beer. Steve’s top opponents were Lynn Held of Lebanon and Mike Urban of Oakfield.
Ray Lauersdorf – 42, is a high school tech ed teacher and lives in Johnson Creek. Ray was a pitcher,/DH/outfielder for Neosho from 1997-2017 and Johnson Creek from 2018-2023. Ray’s top achievement was winning the RRL Grand Championship in 2016. There were also a couple of years where Neosho had a team OPS of 1.000 or close to tit. Ray’s humorous incident was as follows. “It was the beginning of the first year that my brother Zach played with Neosho. After the outfielders finished their pregame throws, I was sitting in the dugout with Tyler Kreuser watching the infielders practice and Zach made a nice play. Tyler looked at me and said, Man Ray, we’ve had to put up with you for a lot of years, but we finally got the good Lauersdorf. Ray’s top opponents were Joe and Josh Shere of Milton, Casey Powell of the Madison Black Sox, Mike Finnegan of the Madison Senators and Cam Schuett of Lebanon and Clyman.
John “Butch” Salmon – 74, is retired and lives in Denton, Texas. Butch was a pitcher and shortstop for Rubicon from 1966-1985. Butch’s crowning achievement was winning the RRL Player of Merit Award. For his humorous incident, Batch remembers wearing the old wool uniforms that Rubicon used for many of his early years. They were hot and baggy.
Jason Strobel – works in Flooring Contract Sales for Drexel Building Supply and lives in Allenton. Jason played centerfield for the Kewaskum A’s from 1998-2016.Jason’s career acheivements include – being named to the Rock River League All League Team in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016, being named RRL MVP in 2012, Manager of the Year in 2011 and RRL Player of Merit in 2016. Kewaskum was Northern Division Champs in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, RRL Grand Champs in 2012 and RRL Runner-up in 2011. “2012 was by far the most fun, entertaining year of my career. We had a 20-1 record in RRL (including playoffs) and were 41-8 overall. Along with winning the Rock River League, we also won the Tri-County Nite League Championship, the Jim Pokel Memorial Tournament in Plymouth, the NBC State Tournament and SWABA Class “A” Tournament. As a personal achievement in 2012, I hit .447 with 6 HR, 8 doubles and had 23 RBIs in Rock River League play”. Jason had several humorous incidents and choose this one. “This event happened in the early 2000’s. We were playing at Horicon. And as it usually did when we played there, a severe thunderstorm came through and canceled the game. As we were waiting out the rain, we decided to drink some beer, and then drink some more beer. Lightening struck the swing set about 50 yards from us. It was the coolest but scariest thing I have ever witnessed. When it was time to leave, I asked who had the keys to the car. Everyone said they didn’t have them, so we looked in the car and sure enough, they were in there. BUT the car was locked. It was probably 11:30 PM at this point, a couple of beers in and we couldn’t call the cops to open the doors. SO, we took a metal bat and smashed the window to get it open. All would have been all right, but it was my parent’s car. I could honestly say that conversation didn’t go too well.” Jason felt there were too may good opponents to choose from and was afraid he might let someone out. “The constant battles with all of the Rubicon, Brownsville, Slinger and Hustisford teams were exceptional. The games against Hartford in my later years were epic. I lover every minute of playing against them and thoroughly enjoyed drinking a beer with them afterwards”. “All I want to say is Hey Noooorrrtttoooonnn!”
Ross Roeseler – 64, is the owner of Roeseler Flooring and lives in Hustisford. Ross played centerfield for Neosho for 4 years and for Hustisford for 14 years and is currently one of the coaches of the Hustisford team. Ross represented Neosho in the 1979 RRL All Star Game. He represented Hustisford in multiple RRL All Star Games and was a member of 5 RRL Grand Championship teams for Hustisford. Ross’s humorous incidents were when the Hustisford team won the Fort Atkinson Tournament and lost the trophy before we got home and when he was standing on 3rd base at Kewaskum and Kirk Kaul was on second and Kirk decided to steal 3rd when the pitcher went into the windup. Ross’ top opponents were Tim Fitzsimmons – Clyman, Mike Urban – Oakfield and Lynn Held – Lebanon.
