Photo By Kevin Morales
Poynette’s Davy Tomlinson and Kory Ryan appear at this summer’s Home Talent League All-Star Game at Warner Park in Madison. They played against the U.S. Military All-Stars.

A passer-by might stroll past a Home Talent League baseball game, look at the players sweating under the Sunday afternoon sun before a sparse crowd, and ask why.

They aren't getting paid. In fact, they're paying $4 a gallon to get to road games, and they buy their own equipment. They have to make time to play two games a week, plus practices. They aren't looking to get discovered by scouts: Most are former college players and ex-minor leaguers whose window of opportunity has closed.

Why do they do it? Because they love the game.

Trent Sorg of the Sauk Prairie Twins is hooked on the ballpark's sensations: The crack of the bat, the crunch of cleats on the infield. "The people that really love baseball keep playing because it's fun," he said.

Communities across south central Wisconsin field teams. From Cazenovia to Columbus, men in their 20s remain in the game through the Home Talent League. Formed in 1929, it's Wisconsin's largest adult amateur baseball league, featuring 44 teams. Games begin in May and conclude with playoffs in August.

Paul Molitor - no, not THAT Paul Molitor - of the Reedsburg Pirates said his team is comprised mostly of men ages 19 to 21 who don't want to hang up their spikes after their high school and American Legion careers end. Molitor once played for a professional independent league team in Chicago, and his teammate, league most valuable player Travis Van Zile, was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Whether their pro careers were cut short or never materialized at all, the guys still want to play. "They want to continue on after that," Molitor said. "This is kind of our major leagues."

"You get to play the best talent the other towns have to offer," said Steve Plenty of the Rio Railmen. "It's pretty good, week in and week out."

Plenty, Molitor and Sorg are player-managers. They schedule games and practices, hire umpires, recruit players and report game results to the media. Sorg said he spends a couple hours a week on managerial duties alone. That's why some teams find it more difficult to recruit managers than players.

"It's tough sometimes to find someone that's dedicated enough to do that and take the criticism," Sorg said.

Managerial tasks can be a hassle, but he enjoys mentoring the young players who come through the program. "You can help them along and show them how much fun it is to play with a wide variety of guys," he said. "I've got an abundance of really good players, so I've been blessed."

The league is a throwback to the pre-World War II era, when local baseball teams drew crowds and inspired civic pride, said Brian Carriveau of Beaver Dam, who is writing a book about the 2008 Home Talent League season. "I think these players are really rare, in a sense," Carriveau said. "They kind of rekindle the flame of a time gone by."

His book, tentatively titled "It's Just A Game," will tell entertaining and inspirational stories from around the league and will illustrate the passion exhibited by players willing to play at their own expense. They are distant relatives of the modern major leaguer, who earns millions per year and relies on clubhouse attendances to shine his shoes. "I just enjoy baseball with no strings attached," Carriveau said.

In addition to loving the game, Home Talent players thrive on competition and camaraderie. Sure, they're facing 75 mph fastballs instead of the 90 mph heaters they would see in the minors, and they're playing in front of 50 people who pass the hat for donations, but Home Talent baseball preserves their connection to the game.

"I don't know how many more years it'll be," the 28-year-old Molitor said of his baseball career, "so I have to make the most of them."

Plenty commutes to games from his home in Janesville, which can mean leaving at 8:30 Sunday morning and not getting home until 6 p.m. Yet Plenty, a financial controller by day, said the only thing he doesn't like about Home Talent League ball is that he doesn't get to do it every day: "Once you're out there, you understand why."