Remembering the greats: Nate Teut

By BRANDON HURLEY

Sports Editor 

sports@beeherald.com

@BrandonJHurley

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A portion of the roots may be a bean sprout or a corn stalk, but prep baseball legend Nate Teut never forgot his. 

You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger long shot than the former Paton-Churdan hurler. From a high school class of 19 to a now defunct college program and on to the “Big Show” in less than 10 years, Teut’s journey to the pros is remarkable in itself. 

Heck, his old high school field, where he once racked up 17 strikeouts in one game – is gone, turned into farm land in Churdan. The Iowa State University baseball program – where he made a name for himself battling Big 8 hitters – is out as well, which folded after the 2001 season, coincidentally the last year P-C fielded a varsity team, too. 

The physical evidence of Teut’s rein in the early 90s may be limited, but his memories – along with the fans of the now defunct local baseball program – are plentiful. His rise through the ranks was rooted deeply in Iowa – he even spent a season playing for the Iowa Cubs out of Des Moines – which is why he isn’t shy showing love for some of the country’s nicest, and most humble human beings. 

“It comes back to here [Churdan]. I never say I’m [just] from Greene County or from around Jefferson. I’m from Paton-Churdan,” the former Chicago Cub prospect and Florida Marlin said. “I’ve always been proud of it. We are humble and we have a strong work ethic. I love this community.”

Teut was thrown for a loop recently when he arrived in Churdan last month after several years without making a visit and took what he hoped to be another jaunt past his old stomping grounds. 

“I love being up here, but I haven’t been back in awhile,” Teut said to the Churdan Rotary Club May 5 at St. Columbus Catholic. “I got here about 30 minutes early, intentionally, to drive around town and take in some of the sights. 

I realized it had been awhile when I drove by the baseball field and saw it was no longer a baseball field but a bean field.”

The obstacles a small town presents an aspiring professional are not something future major leaguers often have to overcome. But for Teut, it helped build his character and pushed him to greatness. As a high schooler, Teut was limited when it came to repetition. The Rocket athletes were often preoccupied with family duties during the week, so practice was placed on the back burner. As long as everyone showed up for the games, everything went on as planned. 

“The challenge was, because it was – and still is – a farming community, it was tough to get kids to practice,” Teut said. “But I think we knew we were good. We had Brian Happy, Jeff Miller. We knew we could be pretty good.”

Despite the lack of practice time, Teut blew past the competition, throwing back-to-back no-hitters as a senior and struck out a career-high 17 batters as a junior in a conference game against Coon Rapids-Bayard. 

His final year in the black and orange, though P-C came up a game short of state, was a statistical marvel. 

“We had a target on our backs,” Teut said. 

The hurler seemed to thrive off that added pressure – he struck out a blistering 130 batters in 64 and two-third innings, only giving up 27 hits all season. His earned run average was a remarkable 0.64 and he only allowed six earned runs all season. Teut batted .476 with 43 runs batted in and 25 stolen bases at the plate. His remarkable senior campaign was rewarded with an all-state selection as a utility player and a unanimous first team all Rolling Valley Conference selection. 

Teut was a multi-sport star as well – fitting, since he stood at a massive 6’4”, 220 pounds. He was a well-rounded athlete as he was named all-conference in basketball and helped the Jefferson-Scranton/Paton-Churdan golf team to back-to-back conference titles. 

In fact, Teut originally thought golf was his ticket out. 

—• –– 

Teut’s lengthy baseball career nearly never was as the young, naive pitcher gravitated toward golf in high school and even rode the dream into college. The future Florida Marlin was a turf management major at Iowa State – hoping to one day run his own golf course. 

He vividly remembers where he was when he got drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago Cubs in 1997 – clearing out weeds on the 10th hole at Briarwood Golf Course in Ankeny. 

“I had no aspirations for Division I baseball,” Teut said of the early days. “Golf was my passion. That’s what I loved doing every summer.”

Before Iowa State University came into the picture, Teut thought he was going to enroll at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake and try out for the baseball and golf team. 

Teut and his family came from Bussey, a town in the Twin Cedars school district in south central Iowa. They arrived during the Greene County fair. His dad Oran’s first mission upon arrival – who took over as the P-C superintendent – was to start a high school baseball team. 

That grass roots campaign would prove to be the most fruitful for Nate. 

Oran took Nate to a Cincinnati Reds tryout in Indianola early on in his high school career. There, he ran into then ISU head coach, Bobby Randle, who pulled him to the side for a pep talk. 

“I had no idea who he was but I went out there and threw as hard as I could [like he told me too],” Teut said. “He liked the fact that at the time I was 6’4” and he loved the fact I was left-handed. They liked the fact that I had good arm action. I wasn’t throwing 90 MPH then but [he] felt I had the frame I could put weight on.” 

The proverbial light came on when Teut struck out 17 batters in seven innings against Coon Rapids-Bayard as a junior. The very next day, he was offered a recruiting visit to the campus in Ames.  

It all hit the teenager at once. He was becoming a star even outside this small, farming community. 

How much of an impact could a kid from Churdan have on the baseball world outside of west central Iowa? To his dismay, quite a bit, actually. High-caliber college ball at that. 

“Growing up in this community, that’s something we aren’t used to,” The now father of two said of the recruiting process. “It kick-started everything.” 

Once he took the practice field on the Iowa State campus, a rush of reflection over took Teut. The competition was fierce. From a tiny school playing in front of small crowds to playing in a power Division I conference. 

“It didn’t take long to realize I’m not at Paton-Churdan anymore,” he said. “When you have teammates from California, Alabama, Chicago, this was going to be big boy baseball.”

Teut’s college debut was at Oklahoma State in Stillwater with the bases loaded.

“I was ready in three pitches, my adrenaline was pumping,” he said when he got the call out of the bullpen. “I didn’t know what was going on, it was a blur.

Coach asked me if I knew what was going on and I said I had no clue.” 

In fact, there were no outs and the Cyclones were losing by six. 

“He said ‘good luck,’” Teut recalled.  

Fast forward to the 1997 MLB draft and Teut is busy working the golf course with his immediate future far from his mind - he didn’t even want to take his dad’s call, he felt it wasn’t important enough and thought he was going to bug him. But, Teut reluctantly strolled back to the maintenance shed and received the life-changing news – he was going to be a Cub.

The call would set in motion a grueling, but fairly successful five year stretch in minor league baseball. 

“It was tough, not the glitz and glamour you would think,” Teut said. “I was paid $852 a month but kept the same attitude during it all and worked hard.”

He picked off six base runners and only walked six batters during his first year playing for Rockford and Daytona Beach. In 2001, Teut returned to his home state as a member of the AAA ball club, Iowa Cubs in Des Moines. 

He went 13-8 that first year and was later traded to the Florida Marlins organization. The Marlins were a talented team during the summer of 2002 but were still a year away from their second World Series title, featuring the likes of Derrek Lee, Mike Lowell, Luis Castillo and Alex Gonzalez. Teut briefly found a spot in the rotation early in the year. He made his Major League debut May 4, 2002 in Milwaukee. 

“That was the pinnacle,” he said. 

The Brewers won 6-4 with Teut suffering the loss, throwing four and one-third innings, giving up five earned runs and eight hits while striking out three. He made one final appearance that season, throwing three innings and allowing three runs. 

“At that level, you just don’t know if you’re stuff is good enough,” Teut said. “I got the first pitch out of the way and then I settled in.” 

— • — 

Teut spent the last decade in the Iowa Cubs front office as an executive. The opportunity blossomed while with the minor league club in 2001 – he was approached by Sam Bernabe to get a feel for the executive life. 

Teut’s first job in behind the scenes was handling the season ticket orders, while still playing with the Iowa Cubs. 

“They [season ticket holders], thought it was weird that a player was calling them,” he said. 

Teut returned to baseball full-time when he was traded to the Marlins then was bumped down to an independent team when the organization cut him in 2003. The lefty was playing in Nashua in 2005 when the Chicago Cubs came calling for a two-week contract. They then asked him to work in the front office. 

Teut still had an inkling for turf management and his infatuation with golf courses, but sought some advice from his friends who worked at golf courses. 

“They hated (it),” Teut said. “They worked 80 hour weeks and heard lots of complaints.” 

So Teut went back to school and took business courses at ISU, graduating with a degree in 2006. 

“I’ll tell people now ‘it took me nine years to get my degree at Iowa State,’” he said. 

Today, Teut lives in Waukee with his wife and two kids, Maddox and Harper. 

His father Oran retired and now lives in Tulsa. He’s a starter at a golf course.

“It’s the perfect job for him,” Nate said. “He can yell at people and get paid.”

His mom Becky is also retired and lives in Ankeny, working closely with her church. 

Nate’s sister, Tatum, works for Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. 

Teut recently started a gig in the – what else – turf grass profession, latching on with the Iowa Cubs Sports Turf, a field maintenance and construction company that reconstructs athletic fields all over the state, including the Greene County baseball field reconstruction following the 2015 season. 

As Teut begins another chapter in his life, how fitting that he’ll be so closely rooted to the ground, handling the construction of ball fields, where he’ll plant new roots.