Juha Puhtimäki39, the contract with Puna-Musti, who became the first team for next season, was part of the so-called public secrets after the finished baseball season.
The curtain finally rose on Wednesday. Chairman of the board of the society Juho Juhantalo marched into the Helsinki hotel cabinet as silver medalist of Manse PP’s Superpesis after saying goodbye to the star locker and told that Puna-Musti had made a 2+1 year contract with him.
In addition to playing, Puhtimäki helps the Helsinki club significantly on the sales and junior side.
“Totally dominant”
A nesting and locker legend who knows the lock from Ostrobothnia very well Toni Kohonen did not hold a candle to Urheilulle Puhtimäki’s level from the point of view of Ykköspesis’ requirements.
– Totally dominating player there. The level difference to Super is so big. This does not yet mean Superpesis rise for PuMu, but it still requires increasing the number of quality players. But this is an excellent start towards that goal, Kohonen said.
Before Puhtimäki, he was the previous baseball player of the year, who moved from Superpesis down the league level – 2019 from Jymy in Sotkamo to Lippo in Oulu.
Society of evacuees
Puhtimäki was presented to the media in the Torni hotel in the heart of Helsinki, which became known worldwide as the headquarters of the Allied Control Commission after the Continuation War 1944–47.
Few people remember that Puna-Mustat, who won the men’s SM gold medal once (1973) and the women’s championship no less than five times, had been active in Helsinki since 1941 with the help of the Karelian evacuees driven from their homes during the winter war.
– The baseball was only on loan in the country, and now I’m bringing it back, Puhtimäki laughed.
Puna-Musat, which is moving strongly towards the heavy series of the national game, runs 15 junior teams in addition to the men’s representative team, one of which is played by girls. Growth curves are heading northeast on every front.
In cooperation with the city, the Meilahti sports park’s baseball field is being developed, where the club even has to play in Ykköspes with an exception. As it stands, the place would not even be suitable for a super nest.
The men’s representative team will be incorporated soon, the junior teams are getting paid coaches.
Conditional contract
According to reliable information, the contract of Puhtimäki, who won two SM golds in the Joensuu Maila and one in the Manse PP, was conditional and came into effect the moment Puna-Mustat became the first team. This was not directly confirmed by Puhtimäki, yes in a roundabout way.
There were also offers from Superpesis on the counter, but PuMu’s project fascinated me.
– This is a smart, moderate and careful project, where the foundation stone is put in order first. Helsinki, on the other hand, is a huge showcase for nesting. These two things piqued my interest, the veteran boasted.
During four seasons at Manse PP, Puhtimäki saw how a great baseball boom and sport culture was created in Tampere in a tight competitive situation under the pressure of other team sports, without a significant history of success in men’s baseball.
– Now it can certainly be repeated in Helsinki, no doubt, said Puhtimäki, who became a father for the first time a month ago.
PuMu aims for a Superpesis place in 2027 and plans to be the largest club in the country in terms of the number of licensed players by 2030.
No shortcuts
The Päsäpalloliitto and Superpesis have made no secret of the fact that there is a great need for a men’s major league team in Helsinki. According to chairman Juhantalo, it does not mean that these umbrella bodies offer any kind of economic or sporting shortcuts to happiness for the Karelian evacuees.
Water was carried to the well in the city park in the mid-1990s, when the Tigers of Kaisaniemi marched to Helsinki with great noise. It bought star players from several clubs in the national game for very large sums of money.
The capital the conquest ended after two seasons in the 1998 match-fixing scandal. Puhtimäki followed the tragedy as a junior player in South Ostrobothnia as an early teenager.
– It was a time for which my generation of players had to pay a heavy price.
Training started
Puhtimäki is known as a tough athlete, for whom training as a sports massage therapist has given him vital information about anatomy, physiology and the limits of his own body. Thanks to that information, injuries have been kept at bay.
Lukkari has already started physical training in preparation for next season in a familiar group in Tampere, where the family’s home will be until spring.
The playing season is in Helsinki, but Puhtimäki, who also works as a trotting instructor and trainer, keeps the stables of the four trotting horses he owns in the Tampere region.
In Tampere, the opportunities for additional baseball training are also excellent, in the capital region, the playing and training conditions are no better.
The Ykköspesis club, which is ambitious in lobbying for these issues and has a wealth of business management expertise in its board of trustees, now faced its toughest face in decades.