Denard Span called Justin Arneson one of the best all-around athletes he played with or against. He starred in football, basketball, and baseball at Fergus Falls High School and then Fergus Falls Community College, and committed to play wide receiver at Division-1 University of Toledo before signing with the Minnesota Twins out of a Metrodome tryout camp in 2002.
He got off to a hot start in pro baseball, batting .344 over 37 games in the Gulf Coast League in 2002. He had 14 multi-hit games and strung together a 10-game hitting streak.
Altogether, Arneson played five seasons in the Twins farm system, but didn’t advance beyond the single-A Fort Myers Miracle. He was teammates with Span at three stops in the Twins chain: Elizabethton in 2003, Quad Cities in 2004, and Fort Myers in 2005.
Arneson still plays baseball with the Urbank Goldtimers in the 35-and-over Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association. He works as a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Fergus Falls.
Fellow former Twins minor leaguer Doug Palmer, who graduated from New Ulm Cathedral in 1979, is a financial advisor with Edward Jones down in the Orlando area.
Arneson was teammates with Elk River graduate Johnny Lynch at Elizabethton in 2003.