Ozaukee High alumnus and baseball star Al Albert gets inducted into Wisconsin State Baseball League Hall of Fame

Ozaukee High School alumnus Al Albert has fond memories of his athletic days but he doesn’t often visit after living in Arizona the past 30 years.

But last Saturday he was at Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center in Sheboygan.

“I don’t usually come to Wisconsin in January. I had to make an exception in this case,” Albert, a 1984 Ozaukee grad, said.

The case was Albert being inducted into the Wisconsin State Baseball League Hall of Fame.

Albert played seven years for the A’s, patrolling every position in the outfield and doing a little catching.

He wasn’t sure he belonged, in the hall, but the Hall Of Fame Committee disagreed.

“I was pretty surprised because I played with or against at least half of the guys in the Hall of Fame. They were really, really good ballplayers, and I didn’t think I was in the same category,” Albert said.

“After I thought about it, I was really, really humbled and honored to be included with that group of guys.”

The Waubeka native was as surprised to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as he was to play with the A’s in the first place.

He received a letter 35 years ago from the team asking that he play.

“I never heard of the A’s,” he said.

But Albert’s high school coach Curt Lahti knew all about them and told A’s General Manager Denny Moyer that Albert could play.

Albert came back from college in Minnesota and tried out on a Sunday morning in 1985. He played a game and was asked to join the A’s right away.

He was an instant success, hitting .338 in his first season and.300 the next year.

His career average is .312, which is 22nd among State League players with 700 or more plate appearances.

Albert’s best season came in 1987, when he hit .470 and won the Wisconsin State Baseball League batting title. He went 30-for-83 with 39 hits, 30 runs and 28 RBI.

For half that season, he played with a fractured rib from a serious car accident.

“That’s what made hitting .470 that much better,” he said.

In 1991, his final season with the A’s, the team went 49-9 and won its first league title.

He worked at Hawthorne Hills Golf Course in the Town of Saukville all seven seasons with the A’s, and for a few years worked at a resort in Arizona that allowed him to take summers off to come back and play.

Albert was a star athlete at Ozaukee High, earning 11 varsity letters in four sports.

Before his junior year, Lahti returned to coach baseball for the Warriors and promptly moved Albert  from catcher to second base. Albert agreed it was a better fit for his frame.

He handled the transition well. Albert made the all-state first team in his junior and senior years, and the Warriors won back-to-back conference titles.

“He was very dedicated and he worked hard at everything, just one of the good people. There’s a lot of them there at Ozaukee,” Lahti said.

Albert played baseball at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., in 1985 and for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 1988. He went to

UW-Oshkosh in 1986 and 1987 and was cut from the team.

The A’s played UW-Oshkosh in 1987 and Albert remembers hitting well against the coach who let him go.

“It was gratifying,” he said.

Albert made more than baseball memories and lifelong friends during his time with the A’s. He said he is a vice president at Bank of America in Gilbert, Ariz., because of that baseball team.

“I owe everything I have to Denny Moyer. Everything I have is because I met so many people at the Sheboygan A’s,  people who steered me in the right direction,” Albert said.

When he found out he was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Albert first called his former teammate and the best man in his wedding Gene Mand.

It turned out Albert wasn’t the only one leaving southern warmth for Wisconsin last week. Mand, who lives in Florida, instantly agreed to introduce Albert at the ceremony.

Albert’s sister flew up from Georgia for the event. His football coach Roger Sinnen and track coach Mike Falkner also attended.

In 1989, Albert signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. He hit well, but after four years of playing outfield, he struggled when he was moved to second base and was released.

“It was a great experience,” he said.

Albert’s baseball success isn’t limited to Wisconsin, however.

Albert has played for an Arizona Men’s Senior Baseball League for 25 years and managed it the past 20, compiling a 337-121-8 record with seven league championships. Most of his players are in their 40s and 50s — Albert is 54 — but they compete well in the 35-and-older division, he said.

“I was able to take what I learned with the Sheboygan A’s and transfer that down here,” he said. “The guys are just as tight.”

Albert lives less than an hour from his high school coach. Lahti lives in Peoria, Ariz. The two talk often.

They both have gotten to know Ozaukee alumnus Owen Miller, who could make his debut with the San Diego Padres after leading the Double-A Texas League last season.