Today Hot Report

Millstadt — Rick Arndt’s gift this year isn’t a necktie or a golf club, or a coffee mug emblazoned with “World’s Greatest Dad.”

For Father’s Day, Arndt got a softball team. Not just any team. Safe at Home, as it’s called, is made up solely of his sons.

Arndt has 14 children — 13 boys and one girl. Nine of them are now old enough to play in a men’s softball league in Belleville.

“This has been a real dream,” Arndt said. “It makes for such a meaningful Father’s Day.”

Baseball — or its direct descendant, softball — is a constant in this super-sized family. It’s on the field that Arndt teaches his children about life, sport, religion — and, of course, competition.

This family is competitive. They keep meticulous stats and monitor the most minor of changes, just as a Major League Baseball team would do.

Luke Arndt, 23 (fourth-oldest, as Dad would say), wrote an essay on the family’s website — famteam.com — lamenting a recent hitting slump.

“Uh-oh. Here I am, at this tournament, with many people watching,” he wrote. “I’m batting second — I’m the second guy to bat in this game — and I can’t even hit the ball?! Am I in for a weekend of flailing the bat, striking out every time?!?”

Luke talked his way through. He wound up going 4-for-4 later in the week.

Safe at Home, by the way, has a record of 12-11 this year.

“Slightly above .500,” Rick Arndt said. Dad is also quick to point out the team has won seven of its last nine games.

“We’re also younger than most of the other teams,” Arndt said. “So I’m very happy with our success.”

The league requires players to be at least 14.

Jacob, the ninth-oldest Arndt, turned 14 last August, giving the team nine sons plus Dad, who plays shortstop.

Hitting this benchmark pleases the 52-year-old baseball-loving dad. But it also signals that times are changing. The Arndt family is getting older.

Seven of the boys are over 18.

“It’s great to see them grow and develop talents,” Rick Arndt said.

All of the Arndt kids live at the family’s home in Millstadt.

“It saves overhead,” said Paul Arndt, 27, the oldest child.

It’s that spirit that makes them an enterprising bunch. The family runs a court reporting business and a ministry, aptly named “Safe at Home Ministries.”

Paul Arndt also has started a video business, an offshoot of the court reporting business.

Every year, for 10 years running, the family sponsors the Safe at Home Softball Classic in Belleville. It’s billed as a Christian-oriented community festival. This year it’s on Aug. 31.

Their passion, other than softball, is the family’s website, which documents family trips, lifestyle, ministry and commerce.

“It’s an office atmosphere,” said Paul, describing the family’s house.

The family built the house a few years ago, using Arndt power. The house, in rural Millstadt, has 6,000 square feet of living space.

“We use every inch of it,” said Dad.

And where will he be found today, if the weather is good? On the softball field out back.

npistor@post-dispatch.com | 618-624-2577