EMMONS – Dartball is an area tradition that dates back decades, and 89-year-old Melvin Steele has been playing as long as he can remember.

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

EMMONS – Dartball is an area tradition that dates back decades, and 89-year-old Melvin Steele has been playing as long as he can remember.

Steele was in action Monday, competing for his Mansfield team in the Brotherhood Dartball League playoffs at the Emmons Lutheran Church.

&uot;I’m not a good player,&uot; said Steele, who has lost one eye and has macular degeneration in the other. &uot;I don’t know what you’d call it. I ain’t got no fancy score, but I love to play.&uot;

Steele, believed to be the oldest competitor in the playoffs, keeps coming back for the same reason the league is gaining in popularity, adding two new teams this past season: the camaraderie and competition, but mostly the camaraderie.

&uot;There’s nothing else you can do in the area to meet people like this,&uot; said Ted Yost, a 35-year dartball veteran.

Part fellowship and part competition, dartball is just what it sounds like, a combination of darts and baseball, with teams organized at area churches. Participants hurl darts underhanded at a diamond-shaped target with areas for strikes, balls, hits and outs.

Monday’s banquet was extra special for longtime players. Lunder-Round Prairie had to serve the meal by virtue of its seventh-place finish in the league. A 3-1 loss to the league’s newest and last-place team, United in Faith of Bricelyn, knocked Lunder-Round Prairie out of the playoffs and into the role of servers for the first time ever.