November 12, 2026 – The West Bend Baseball Association will hold its 2026 WBBA Hall of Fame Induction on November 14 2026.
“We’re bringing back our traditional event after seven long years of fundraising and rebuilding Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field,” said WBBA President Willie Mueller. “We’re excited to sit down and celebrate all the people who help make this game great here in West Bend and across Southeast Wisconsin.”
More than a dozen awards will be presented. This week we will highlight some of the recipients including Mike Staral who represented West Bend through and through.
A graduate of West Bend West High School, class of 1976, he was a lifelong community servant and one of the most beloved figures in the history of both the city of West Bend and the West Bend Baseball Association.
Mike Staral was West Bend through and through. A graduate of West Bend West High School, class of 1976, he was a lifelong community servant and one of the most beloved figures in the history of both the city of West Bend and the West Bend Baseball Association.
Mike passed away peacefully on April 22, 2025 at the age of 66 after a courageous seven-year battle with ALS, but not before leaving an indelible mark on the city and its baseball community. Staral’s baseball legacy was cemented with a moment of vision. In 2011, he sat down with Craig Larsen and Cathy Lawton in a Fleet Farm parking lot and sketched out, on a white napkin, an idea that would eventually become the complete renovation of Carl M. Kuss Memorial Field.
That napkin grew into a multi-year, multi-million dollar public-private partnership involving the city of West Bend, the West Bend School District, and the West Bend Baseball Association. When the project stalled in 2019 and 2020, Staral rejoined the effort alongside former Mayor Kraig Sadownikow, Prudence Pick Hway, and Craig Larsen to keep it alive. The renovated field, which opened for play in May 2022, stands as a lasting monument to his vision and persistence.
Beyond baseball, Staral spent decades investing in West Bend in every way imaginable. He began his career as a tool-and-dye apprentice and retired as Vice President of Sales at Willard Tool Corp, a company his colleagues credited him with helping grow from a small garage shop into a significant enterprise known and respected worldwide. He served as Board President of Moraine Park Technical College, President of the City of West Bend Parks Commission, and held leadership roles with Friends of West Bend Parks, the West Bend Police and Fire Commission, and Little League, among countless other commitments.
He was also the longtime secretary of the West Bend Baseball Association, and in the WBBA’s transition from organization in infancy to the full-fledged institution it is today, it was Mike Staral who was credited for keeping the WBBA board train on the tracks. Those that knew him remember a man of unrelenting positivity. He was involved in everything Little League, the Police and Fire Commission, anything that meant something to the community, recalled Jeff Szukalski.
He was a great, great individual. During winter months, Mike could be found in Marco Island, Florida, where he was affectionately known as the unofficial mayor of the West Bend Snowbird community. His induction into the WBBA Wall of Fame is both a celebration of his life and a tribute to the truth of Jackie Robinson’s words, which the WBBA cited in his memory.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on the lives of others. Mike Staral’s impact on West Bend was immeasurable.
