By Nick Gerhardt
nickgerhardt@mnbaseball.org
Shane Sellner’s sudden death in June reverberated across the state and amateur baseball.
Sellner died Monday, June 10 of cardiac arrest at 28 years old. His wife, Amanda, was pregnant with their second child at the time of his death. She gave birth to Andrew shortly after midnight Saturday that week. Shane’s funeral took place June 17.
The loss has left the Sellner family reeling but the outpouring of support across the state from those connected to amateur baseball has helped.
Shortly after his death a GoFundMe started to support Amanda and his two sons, Isaac and Andrew. People have donated more than $100,000 to the fund. The hashtag #for2s sprouted across social media as a show of support. A fundraiser created Sellner T-shirts with his name and No. 22 on the back. Teams across the state ordered shirts and those within the 13/60 League wore them before games the rest of the season.
Sellner, a Mankato native who attended Mankato Loyola High School, started playing amateur baseball with the Mankato Twins. When they folded he looked for another team. He found one and much more with the Waterville Indians.
“I think when Shane joined our team, Shane probably didn’t know a lot about town team baseball and then he realized this is something cool,” Waterville Indians General Manager Joe Grose said. “He grasped that town team baseball attitude. The game is on, let’s go get it, let’s play for our jersey.”
Amateur baseball in Minnesota is a family endeavor. Waterville exhibits it as well as any organization. The Indians play on William J. Grose Field, on land owned by the Grose family. Joe Grose has run the team for decades and his sons Dalton and Nolan play for the team.
When Sellner joined the team, his brother, Luke, and father, Rick, became part of the team shortly after. Rick has served as the team’s on-field manager and Luke has turned into one of the team’s aces on the mound.
Baseball served as the introduction into what has become a large extended family for the Sellners. It’s helping them heal and remember Shane now.
“That’s 100 percent that’s what’s getting them by right now,” Grose said. “They need baseball. They need the support from not only our organization, from our league, from the fans. They need this right now. Amanda and the two boys have been at the park pretty much since this all happened. We get to see them whenever we play at home at the park. They have plenty of babysitters anytime that they want to. They’re part of our Waterville baseball family.”
Shane’s best friend Josh Cook joined the team a year after Shane. They grew up playing in Mankato and decided to attend Southwest Minnesota State University to play college baseball. Cook pitched on the mound with Shane catching. Cook said it was the best feeling knowing he had Shane catching because the two were always on the same page. Since Shane’s passing, the team has been a source of strength for everyone.
“They’ve come together,” Cook said. “They’ve been there for the family. It means a lot to have those guys sitting next you checking on you to make sure things are going OK.”
The family has seen many touching tributes. The Waterville ballpark has his number painted behind home plate. The team has No. 22 patches on its uniforms. Rick found one tribute particularly touching when the Indians faced Waseca. Waseca’s Tink Larson, who has worn No. 7 for some 60-plus years, donned a No. 22 Waseca jersey as homage to Shane and his family.
“I had to hug him and we stood there and cried,” Rick said. “It’s tear-jerking and gut-wrenching but they do it out of respect for Shane.”
The family has received cards and condolences from across the state and often from people they’ve never met.
“We’re hearing from people we don’t even know,” Rick said. “We got cards and letters from people who don’t even sign their name because they’ve heard of Shane’s story. The generosity of people is overwhelming. ”
Shane’s dedication to Waterville Indian baseball went above and beyond. While many players make long drives to play in weekend games, Sellner did it routinely for weekday games. Shane and Amanda made their home in Willmar when she took a teaching job in the school district. Shane found a sales job with Rambow and further ingrained himself in the amateur baseball world. Rambow holds a special relationship with amateur baseball as it produces much of the apparel teams wear. It also has several employees who also continue to play amateur baseball.
“Shane not only was a great player, a great member of our team, but he was well informed on the Minnesota Baseball Association because of his job,” Grose said. “He got to know a lot of dudes from the Corn Belt League. He was telling me about things going on in other parts of our state that I had no idea were going on. He knew a lot of guys around the MBA from his job at Rambow.”
Living in Willmar meant making a two-and-half hour one-way drive to Waterville for games. Those travel times extended for road games.
Sellner served as the team’s catcher and a middle-of-the-order hitter for many years before switching to first base after the toll of catching affected his knees. He and Rick handled managing duties together. As Rick took care of the lineup, Shane called defensive positioning and strategy.
Together they experienced great thrills as Waterville put together an impressive run through the state tournament in 2019. The Indians won three one-run games to advance to the final eight before falling to eventual runner-up Hutchinson 3-0 in the quarterfinals.
Waterville opened the state tournament with a 3-2 victory over St. Benedict behind a two-run walk-off home run from Riley Schultz. Shane was the first to greet Schultz at home plate.
“Shane was right in the heart of it all,” Grose said. “… He was our leader. … Shane was a born and bred leader of our team.”
