BUTLER TWP — Butler City's American Legion baseball players bail each other out on the field.

They bale hay off it.

The majority of Butler City's players work with their coach, Jerry Piroch, on his dairy farm just outside of town when they're not playing baseball for him.

"A lot of kids can't find work,"Piroch said. "I've got a lot of work to do here. My brother and I handled it for a long time. We've always needed help, so I figure, why not give these guys something to do and put them to work?

"All I'm doing is giving them an opportunity and they're using it."

All but two of Piroch's 17 players work on his farm from time to time. Nick Monteleone is Butler High School's quarterback and attends camps and workouts during the summer. Brian Warheit is the team's statistician.

Everybody else is down on the farm.

"I bale hay. sack the feed, milk cows, whatever needs done," center fielder Phil Waller said. "I come here five days a week, five hours a day.

"It's fun because you're outside all the time."

Don Beeman, a pitcher and utility player who tossed a no-hitter last year, has been working on the farm for three years now.

"Working together here helps us as a team,"he said. "We all know each other. We communicate better on the field."

Catcher Ben Cress is Piroch's stepson. He was helping out on the farm before a lot of his teammates.

"We had work to do and we got it done,"Cress said. "But it's a little easier now. We just brought everybody in.

"It doesn't feel like work. It's more like we're all just hanging out together."

Piroch coached most of his current Butler City team in Colt League. Butler City lost its team after the 2003 season when the departing coach was not replaced.

With most of his Colt team slated to move up to the American Legion level last year, Piroch wanted the squad to have a local team to play for.

"I knew Ben wanted to play, but it wasn't just him. It was all the boys,"Piroch said. "I began attending the league meetings and offered to coach a Butler City team.

"When nobody challenged me for it, I had the job."

No one on the 2005 Butler City team had played for the previous program. Only two of the players — Ryan Smith and Josh Marchinoski, previously with Butler Township — had ever played Legion ball anywhere.

"Basically, our Colt team stayed together and became the Butler City team,"Cress said. "We've been playing ball together for a lot of years."

When Piroch resurrected the Butler City program, he had to rearrange his work schedule.

"I used to milk the cows at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.,"he said. "With our games being at 6 p.m., that doesn't work. Now I milk them at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m."

And he couldn't be coaching at all if not for the help of Jordan Fisher.

AButler graduate this spring, Fisher is not a baseball player. He is good friends with a lot of players on the team.

On game nights, Fisher comes to the farm at 6:30 p.m. He sweeps the barn, mixes the feed and brings 45 cows inside.

When Piroch gets back from baseball, he can start milking right away.

"Without Jordan, I doubt we have a team,"Piroch said. "He's one of our most valuable players, in a sense."

"I just wanted to help out,"Fisher said. "It takes me an hour and a half or so to get everything ready for him."

Butler City finished 7-11-1 last year and failed to qualify for the league tournament. The squad is 6-6 with six games left in this regular season.

"I know we've gotten better,"Waller said. "We hardly even have to talk when we're on the field. Everybody knows what everybody else is going to do."

The team plays three days a week. Its practices are two hours before each game.

Piroch has no assistant coach. When it rained one day, he set up a makeshift pitching mound in his upper barn and his team took batting practice there.

Now that he's coaching a Legion team, he doesn't plan on giving it up.

"I'm probably more into it than the boys are,"he said. "I'll probably be coaching until the day I die. 'Til death do us part."