March 11, 2019 – West Bend, WI – Doug is a lifetime resident of West Bend, and has been involved in baseball for over 50 years.
He started in the West Bend Recreation Department program at the age of 8. Some of Doug’s fondest memories of the Rec League program were the annual Brewers game trip, where all participating kids were allowed to take a bus and attend a Brewers day game.
He really loved the game of baseball, and along with his brothers, participated in a game whenever the opportunity arose.
Doug continued his early career by playing for the 7-Up team in West Bend Little League, and then Kirchner Electric in the Senior League program.
During this time, a big influence on Doug was watching the West Bend West baseball team of 1972, coached by Jim Cahoon (another West Bend Baseball Wall of Fame Member), win the WIAA summer baseball tournament at Regner Park. This motivated Doug to continue his baseball career.
Doug then graduated onto high school, attending West Bend West. In high school, Doug had a good athletic career, playing baseball, football, and hockey. One of the highlights of Doug’s high school baseball career was that he caught 3 consecutive shutout victories during the 1978 summer tournament, including a 1-0 win over Brookfield Central, pitched by Tom Albrecht. That team was coached by the late great coach Chuck Schroeder (also a member of the Wall of Fame), and only took an amazing 1 hour and 2 minutes to play.
In addition to baseball, Doug was a very good hockey player as well. He was the top scorer for the team, including a record 5 goals in a 7-2 victory over Beaver Dam.
At the conclusion of his high school career Doug then joined the Barton baseball club in 1980 and played in the Land O Lakes northern division. In 1983 Doug made the All-Star team by batting .367, with 4 HRs and 18 RBIs.
Then in 1988, Doug and his brother worked to found the new West Bend Company/7-Up baseball team. This team replaced the old Barton team in the Land O Lakes northern division. This team went on to win the 10-team northern division in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004 under Doug’s direction. The West Bend Company/7-Up baseball team finished in either first or second place in 16 out of the 17 years Doug was involved, compiling an impressive record of 237-64. They also won the Grand Championships in 2001 & 2002, the first for a West Bend team since 1935.
Those teams produced 4 Land O Lakes Hall of Famers to date – John Jaczak, Bill Albrecht, Travis Thull, and Darrell Washburn.
In 2004 Doug and a number of ex-baseball players from West Bend got together and discussed how the group could “give back” to the community, which has always had a rich baseball tradition. Doug was instrumental in working with local attorney Charles Williams and getting all the necessary paperwork done to formally establish the West Bend Baseball Association, Inc., a legal 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. Doug was the first official President of the organization, and acted in that capacity for a number of years. During his tenure, the WBBA made many improvements to Carl Kuss Field at Regner Park, which included new dugouts, and established the annual scholarship program for high school players who were continuing their education.
In addition, Doug worked to create and maintain the Sunday Night “Old-Timers” baseball league, which is still active today.
Doug is a 1983 graduate of UW-Oshkosh with a Finance degree, and has been in the banking industry for 35 years. Doug is married to his very supportive wife Lisa, and they have two daughters (Kaitlyn and Klaire).
Doug is very proud of his nephews who have carried on the baseball tradition in the family. Derek Hall is a 5-time Rock River League all-star, and Blake Hall was an All-State infielder and conference player-of-the-year last year as a sophomore at Random Lake H.S.
Doug’s brother Mark Hall also was an all-state player for WB West in 1989, setting records for batting average, home runs, and RBIs, going on to play 4 years of college baseball at UWM and the University of West Florida.