After spending the bulk of August away from spectator sports on an Alaskan cruise (if you’ve never gone, please do. Awesome beauty!) followed by my son’s wedding (congratulations Robbie and Rachel!) I returned to catch a little MiLB as the season is winding down to the playoffs (independent Minor Leagues wrap their regular seasons at Labor Day, while lower-level affiliated go about another week).
In addition to getting a quick Schaumburg game in between the Alaska and wedding trips, after our first college football foray, I took advantage of some spectacular late summer weather for three games in three days in three different ballparks. And because I’m retired, the last of those was on the Tuesday after Labor Day…
Day 1 was Beloit, for a Sky Carp win over Peoria. A couple of changes I noted from earlier visits: they changed the Ball/Strike/Out display from too small dots to numbers – a definite improvement. And the player who had Whole Lotta Rosie as his walk-up song, now had Cherry Pie by Warrant. I’m not sure that was an improvement. And the Peoria Beer Batter struck out twice, making him the most popular man in Beloit.
Day 2 was Kane County – a beautiful day and a Cougar win over Fargo-Moorhead,
Lastly, Day 3 was my first trip this year to the Quad Cities River Bandits in Davenport, IA. This park has a soft spot in my heart…we lived in the Quad Cities for several years while I was in grade school/junior high so I saw a number of games in this stadium – then called Municipal Stadium and John O’Donnell Stadium. Not surprisingly, the stadium (now called Modern Woodmen Park) has been completely rebuilt since those days 50+ years ago. They added an amusement park past left field with a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round. The stadium is right on the Mississippi River and looking out past right field is the Centennial Bridge between Davenport and Rock Island, IL which is one of the iconic images of the Quad Cities.
A few game notes:
- Adding to the long list of great sponsorships: pop flies are brought to you by the Quad City Airport. The standard quiz was brought to you by Iowa Corn and all questions revolved around corn. Yes, we love ag in the Midwest. And mound visits got a song: “this mound visit brought to you by Hungry Hobo, oh yeah oh yeah”. Same lyrics over and over. Like you weren’t already wishing the mound visit was over.
- In a rare moment of traditional in MiLB, the home team wore white and visitors wore gray.
In the end it was a 3-0 shutout win for the hometown River Bandits over Beloit (yes, my home team from Sunday becomes the rival on Tuesday).
There is a chance I might sneak in a playoff game next week as both the Dogs and Cougars are in the playoffs, Given that, I will hold my MiLB season summary for the next post.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!
I came to college football late in my spectator sports experiences. I went to DePaul for undergrad (no football team) and Northwestern for grad school (it was the early ’80’s: they should not have been ALLOWED to have a football team at that time). After my wife and I got together, I went to a few games with her and her parents – they were Michigan State season ticket holders for eons. And when my son came along, despite my best efforts, he became an Illinois fan and so we went to a few games in Champaign as he was growing up. But it really wasn’t until my kids (who are twins) started undergrad – my son at Illinois and my daughter at Wisconsin – that I started going to games more regularly. Initially, we went to an early season game at each to do a quick check-in on the kids as they settled in. But then, much to my wife’s chagrin, I discovered I LOVED it. The band, the pomp, the way too many people descending on a campus. It was a BIG event.
And so as my kids got through undergrad and then added grad schools that I now had an excuse to go to games at (Washington for my son, Iowa for my daughter), I spread my wings and have now visited all of the 12 Midwest Big 10 schools (i.e. not Rutgers and Maryland – they don’t count). And with the B1G’s latest expansion, add on Washington for a lucky 13.
This year’s plan includes visits to all my kids’ alma maters, and I will catch my Northwestern Wildcats as they pay their first conference visit to Washington. I am also planning two additional games, and the first is already in the books…a trip to Minnesota to see the Golden Gophers host North Carolina on the Thursday night before Labor Day.
The back story here: when I visited Minnesota for a game several years ago, despite the fact that it was early October, it was a night game, and it was cold – low 40’s and dropping, windy with rain sometimes turning to sleet. Not a great game to judge a stadium. So, weather aware as I am, before Labor Day, it can’t be cold right? And it wasn’t. Unfortunately, the one weather issue at this time of year did come into play: thunderstorms.
It could have been a lot worse: the game was scheduled for 7 PM. At a little after 3 PM, the school announced that kickoff would be postponed to 8 PM. Between 5 and 6, some nasty storms rolled through and it still rained pretty hard for a while after that. But by the time we left our hotel for the few block walk to the stadium, it had lightened up and the game was played through from 8 PM with no delays and just some on-and-off rain showers.
Huntington Bank Stadium is unlike most of the other B1G stadiums in that it is fairly new – only about 15 years old. And so it has more amenities in the “normal people’s” seating areas, that many other stadiums just have in Premium Seating…like stadium seats instead of bleacher benches or bleachers which are common in other stadiums (big thanks from my butt and my back here).
Random thoughts:
- The band performance had flag carriers for each of the now 18 B1G members – does that open up more band spots?
- And, they lived up to the BIG events mantra: during the National Anthem, we got a National Guard flyover and parachutists with the U.S, flag coming down on the field. Very cool.
- During the game, Chik Fil A sponsored “Kickin for Chikin” where someone had a chance to kick a short field goal for a prize. They should have practiced more.
- And I LOVE mascots. Goldy the Gopher had multiple outfit changes and a three-wheel vehicle to scoot around on. He also had a spot in one corner of the field that we dubbed Goldy’s Lounge, where he would disappear and come out in a new outfit. (It is also possible that there are multiple Goldies – I know other schools have mascots trade off given the length of football games). I could do without him spinning his costume head around though. That has to be scaring some kids.
- Given the delay in kickoff, we had dinner before the game, but I had a couple of good beers, easily available in the concourse. Thumbs up!
The game went down to the wire. Unfortunately, Minnesota missed a field goal as time expired, giving them a 19-17 loss. Compounding that misfortune, the fireworks operator had an itchy trigger-finger and set off the victory celebration fireworks. Oops.
As mentioned, we stayed at a hotel a few blocks away. While getting there was a challenge (the campus is right in downtown Minneapolis and it was move-in day for students), we got the benefit on the back end, with a short walk back and were in our room within a 1/2 hour of game’s end.
All-in-all a good trip – Minnesota is almost a 400-mile drive for us, so it requires at least one night in a hotel – but I would like to come back again down the road. Maybe I can get a pristine weather day…
That’s it for now…trips to Wisconsin, Illinois and Washington the next three Saturdays!