Summer is baseball season, and many Northwoods residents enjoy playing the game in local leagues or watching professionals on television. A few of those professional players have found the Northwoods equally appealing, and more than one has called the town of Three Lakes home. One of them was first baseman Fred Luderus. Frederick William Luderus was born in Milwaukee in September 1885. The son of German immigrants, Luderus grew up in Milwaukee’s German American community and as a teenager gained