Our Cousin Won HR Derby!

By Rodger M. Wood

While on assignment at the Eastern League All Star Game in Harrisburg, PA last week, I was surprised to read on the video screen the high school hitter at the plate in the HR Derby was “Kolbe Herr.”Knowing he was representing Lower Dauphin HS in Hummelstown, PA, which is nearby Lancaster,home site of the Mennonite elder, Hans Herr, who migrated to the new world about 1719,I sought him out to congratulate for winning the HR derby as well as find out more about his Herr ancestry.

Kolbe knew his extended Herr family was large at family gatherings, but typical of an 18 – year ball player, not too much about his roots, or Hans Herr’s homestead was still standing in Lancaster or if he was related to Lancaster, PA , St Louis Cardinals 2B of the 1980s, Tommy Herr. Understandably, he was at an age when those things were not too important.Not wanting to spoil the joy of his triumph that day, I dropped the genealogy to tell him I was also a photographer for Baseball America who would be forwarding his photos on to that magazine for publication consideration.

Kolbe will be entering junior college in September, and is a fine clean cut young man, who will well represent the Pennsylvania Herr Family now and down the road.