Road Trip

I'm back from my recent tour of some Minor League stadiums throughout the Midwest, and the first thing I have to say is how good we really do have it in Appleton with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. From the knowledge and friendliness of the staff to the Disneyland-like cleanliness of Fox Cities Stadium to the amazing condition the playing field is kept in, the Rattlers staff and their facilities stand head and shoulders above the other stadiums I visited. Most of the other Midwest League stadiums I saw were old and run down, and even the Triple-A stadium of the Iowa Cubs seemed a step down from Time Warner Cable Field. So I just want to take this time to acknowledge the Timber Rattlers and their staff for the outstanding job they do each and every day!


That being said, I did get to see some cool things and got some nice images of some of my favorite current and former baseball players such as Mat Gamel (pictured), Billy Hamilton, Michael Fiers and Delino DeShields Sr. (that makes me feel really old throwing that senior behind his name). I saw seven games in six days at five different parks so here's a little breakdown of each park I visited along with my photos from the trip.

Friday July 15th, Pohlman Field in Beloit, WI. South Bend Silver Hawks @ Beloit Snappers


Pohlman Field is always fun for me to visit as I got to play there some in my younger days and have some fond memories of that stadium. I've been there plenty of times so I knew what to expect going in. The stadium is on it's last legs and I don't know how much longer there will be baseball in Beloit without a new facility but for now it's home to the Minnesota Twins Low-A affiliate. You hear a lot of bad things about Beloit, but the area around the stadium is fine and you can go pretty much anywhere you want around the stadium without much hassle. The two players that impressed me the most in the game I saw were Ender Inciarte and Zach Walters of South Bend. Inciarte was on base four times, with a single and three walks. He showed good patience from the leadoff spot and played a fine center field. Walters was only 1 for 4 with a walk but he was awesome with the glove, making several nice plays, ranging once deep in to the hole and then a few batters later coming all the way across the second base bag to field a ball, throw off balance, and get the Beloit runner.


PHOTOS

Saturday July 16th, Alliant Energy Field in Clinton, IA. Lansing Lugnuts @ Clinton LumberKings



From the moment I rolled in to Clinton I knew it was going to be bad news. The entire city smells like an Arby's. And I used to like a little good mood food from time to time, but the smell is seriously worse than driving through Kaukauna. Apparently there are a couple of meat packing plants in town and with the temps in the high 90's it was just brutal. Then I got to my hotel, where it took the geniuses behind the desk over an hour to find my reservation. While I was waiting, a couple of players from the visiting Lansing Lugnuts came down to the lobby complaining of no a/c and a distinct smell of urine in their room. Needless to say I didn't spend much time in my hotel and got over to the stadium as quickly as I could. Things weren't much better there. Their field is what I imagine Goodland Field would look like if the Rattlers (Foxes) were still playing there. It's old, dirty and run down. There were cobwebs on the cupholders and if you look closely at the photo of the field, yes that is a wooden fence in the outfield. The chain link fences on the softball diamonds I play at are safer than that! They must be waiting for another Rodney McCray moment or something. To top it all off I got stuck by the fans from hell. I'm pretty sure most of the people in my section were related (as in married to their sisters). It was the perfect storm of being surrounded by Napoleon Dynamite, Randy Quaid in Major League 2 and the Truffle Shuffle kid from the Goonies. As for the game itself, Lansing pulled out the win in 11 innings. Carlos Perez is one of the Blue Jays top prospects for a reason, he was 4 for 6 and gunned down a runner trying to steal. Michael Crouse also impressed me, going 2 for 5 with a stolen base and an outfield assist (What can I say, I'm a sucker for speed and defense).

PHOTOS


Sunday July 17th, Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, IA. Bowling Green Hot Rods @ Quad Cities River Bandits



Anything would have been a step up from Clinton, but this was actually a pretty cool park to see. It wasn't the cleanest (again with the cobwebs) but the Mississippi River running beyond the right field wall makes for some nice scenery. The corn field down the left field line that the Quad Cities players enter from is a bit cheesy, but I liked Field of Dreams so I liked this bit of cheesy. It was super hot on the day I was there and there wasn't much shade, but I did like how the park was laid out so you could make an entire lap around the field. Also I like their online ticket ordering as it lets you view a whole section and change which seats you buy. I wish the Rattlers would look into this as I prefer buying online and trying to find an aisle seat can be a real pain sometime with their current setup. I was a little bummed I didn't get to see Cardinals first round pick Kolten Wong play as he had the day off, but there were still prospects galore with Oscar Taveras of Quad Cities and Braulio Lara, Luke Bailey, Derek Dietrich, Kevin Kiermaier and Hector Guevara of Bowling Green. Taveras had a nice two run bomb for the River Bandits and Boone Whiting pitched a really nice game to lead Quad Cities to the 8-4 win.


PHOTOS


Monday July 18th, Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, IA. Dayton Dragons @ Cedar Rapids Kernels

This was probably my favorite stop along the way. The stadium is kind of tucked away from everything else, but the parking lot sits on the corner of Veterans Memorial Drive and Kurt Warner Way. The staff was extremely friendly and the fans were pretty knowledgeable. It was scorching hot that day and the noon start time didn't help matters but the Cedar Rapids staff did a fantastic job. The stadium was nothing special but it was by no means a dump like Clinton either. Delino DeShields was managing for Dayton so getting a chance to meet and talk to him was neat for me as he was always one of my favorite players growing up. As for the action on the field, prospects Travis Witherspoon of Cedar Rapids and Juan Duran of Dayton each hit home runs. Ronald Torreyes also had a big game for Dayton going 3 for 5 with a double. But my favorite player to watch was Billy Hamilton. As I've said before I like watching players who can run and he can flat out fly. He stole his 70th base of the season (also committed his 28th error though) and I think he could be a problem for the Brewers in the NL Central in a few years.

PHOTOS

Monday July 18th - Wednesday July 20th Principal Park in Des Moines, IA. Nashville Sounds @ Iowa Cubs

I caught the first three games of a four game series the Sounds played in Des Moines. I left the camera at the hotel for game three but still managed to get a bunch of shots of some past, present and future Brewers. I got to see prospects such as Mat Gamel, Caleb Gindl and Eric Farris as well as ex Rattlers Taylor Green, Daniel Meadows, Jim Henderson and Michael Fiers. Principal Park was nothing all that special, though the walk-in beer cooler was pretty sweet (and nice and cool with those high 90 temperatures). They had an announced crowd of 4,736 on Monday night but I would be surprised if the actual number of people in the stands was even half of that. Brewer fans like me will love to hear that Cubs prospect Brett Jackson looked awful in the games I saw. I think he was on base one time (and got thrown out trying to steal second) and did not look good in center field either. On the other hand, Mat Gamel looked awesome! He just keeps hitting and hitting at Triple A and had several great defensive plays at first base, including a diving stab of a ball ticketed for the right field corner. I also got to see Brett Carroll's last few games before he got called up to Milwaukee and saw him show off that throwing arm, teaming with a great relay throw from Edwin Maysonet to nail a runner at the plate.


PHOTOS Game 1

PHOTOS Game 2


All in all it was a pretty good trip. It's amazing how much less stressful traveling is now that the GPS is part of our everyday lives. I know I won't be going back to Clinton anytime soon, but I can still say I really enjoyed the road trip. I think I'll do it again next year, but maybe head south and see if I can get to both Nashville and Huntsville along the way.