Cedar Rapids to Kansas City - Thursday, 25 July 2019

This morning Wheels Rolling at 8:00 out of the Country Inns and Suites.  

Getting in late and then up early is causing a lot of sleep deprivation for us all. It was just a bit over an hour to our destination of Dyersville, Iowa, site of the Field of Dreams movie. 

It was something special to be able to have this destination on our tour. The movie has been one of my favorites since I first saw it in 1989. The ending does require a few tissues. 

We were met by one of the ghost players  - Frank Dardis, the player who is on the far right when the players come out of the corn. He gave a wonderful half hour chat on the making of the movie, the reconstruction of the set when the 2 land owners had a bit of a spat, and how the ghost players have traveled internationally because of their roles. After the movie filming was completed the Lansing family kept their portion of the set intact. This included the house and ball diamond. The Ameskamp family, however, owned the left and center field and plowed  it under to return it to farm land. After a year, though, they did concede and restored the field. 

 Dardis was also the stand in for “Shoeless” Joe in the movie. We had watched the film the day before on the coach, but I need to go back and watch it again paying special attention to some of the things that were pointed out to us. 

Wearing a Cleveland jersey today since we are seeing the Indians play tonight and supporting our Cleveland contingency on the trip. 

From the Field of Dreams we had about a 5 1/2 hour drive to Kansas City. Nothing but cornfields! Read a bit and catnapped a bit on the coach and then watched the Pirates game. The downward spiral is horrendous and Goldschmidt continues to be a Pirate killer. Another loss to the Cards - 6-3.

They were showing Angels in the Outfield (1994) and Sandlot. I had seen them both before and really didn’t need to see those again. 

We made it to Kauffman Stadium just as the gates were opening. I didn’t realize how close together Kauffman and Arrowhead. We walked around the stadium and went into the Royal’s Hall of Fame. It was nicely done and featured jerseys and their World Series Championship trophies. Learned that the Royals were named from the American Royal, a livestock show, rodeo and barbecue competition.

Found the statues on the concourse. They celebrated the careers of George Brett, Dick Howser, and Frank White. There is also a statue of Ewing Kauffman and his wife, Muriel. 

It was time for some food. Earle got this Brisket-Acho - chopped brisket, BBQ baked beans, cheesy corn, cole slaw and BBQ sauce over a bed of corn tortilla chips. I don’t know how he does it. I had a brisket sandwich and some slaw. 

From where our seats were we couldn’t see the top of the scoreboard, so after a few innings we moved down so we could see the entire board. There was a lot of action on the boards that made for what appeared to be chaos at times. It was as if the board had ADHD. The fountain is beautiful and during the inning change it is lit with different colors.

It was a great game, that went into extra innings. Because of the driving restrictions imposed upon Ollie, we had to leave the game after the 11th inning at 12:30 a.m. Cleveland went on to win 5-4 in 14 innings. 

Got to the hotel around 1 a.m. only to find out that there was only 1 elevator working. After getting things ready for morning, hit the bed. 

Bloomington to Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Definitely a laid back morning that was much needed after such a late night last night. Left the La Quinta Inn at 10:15 for a day that was pretty much a coach ride. Did a bit of writing and photo editing before we left.

Just one stop on the way to Cedar Rapids. The tour escorts have done a great job keeping everyone entertained. Each day we have games that we play that evolve around the live game we attend. There are square boards for scores in the 3rd, 6th and final inning. Then there is the hitters game. Each person picks a card from a group of nine that will correspond to a spot in the batting order. At the end of the game the hits are totaled for that spot and you either payout or get paid based on the number of hits your position has achieved. Yesterday in that marathon game I won $2.75 for one team and lost $2.00 on the other. It’s fun to watch your positions’ hitting. Can I say that there is some competition developing even though all the games are total luck.

We finished watching League of Their Own and then Field of Dreams was played. I cannot watch the end of that movie as the tears swell up. So I read a bit - my magazine stack is dwindling - and watched the corn fields pass by. 

We got to the hotel a bit before 4 and we had an hour to get settled before leaving for the game. I finished yesterday’s entry and it was time to go. 

Just a short drive before we got to Veterans Memorial Stadium, the home of the Cedar Rapid Kernels who would play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The park is quite small as you would expect for an A minor league team in the Midwest League. 

However, the restrooms were nicely done with no chipped paints, again putting PNC Park to shame. 

We were given vouchers for a cheeseburger, brat, or hot dog, chips or popcorn and 2 beverages, including beer. No statues here! The game started at 6:35 and really was entertaining. I was manually scoring it since my iScore program doesn’t import minor league rosters. Multi-tasking as I was watching the Pirates fiasco. Kudos for José Osuna and Jacob Stallings for decent pitching performances. 

This was the first home team we saw win in just about a 3 hour game. Back to the hotel to finish this blog, organize for an early morning departure and bed.  

Milwaukee to Minneapolis - Tuesday, 23 July 2019

It seemed like it was a very short night. The walls at the LaQuinta were paper thin and for some reason there was not much sleep in night. I could take a few little cat naps on the coach since today was pretty much a coach day.

Headed north to Minnesota today and the landscape changed from corn fields to evergreen trees. Just a couple of stops on the way - a facilities use one and lunch. Given the option of MacDonalds or Burger King we opted for the latter. Unfortunately, it was not the best choice. 25 minutes to get an order was totally ridiculous. 

 Got into Minneapolis at the hotel just a bit after 4 and we were able to check into the room and get things situated. Back on the coach for a 5:00 departure to Target Field. PIT is not the only city to name streets after baseball players. Neat mural tribute to Bob Dylan.

Target Field has the smallest footprint of any of the MLB parks, just 8 acres. It does feel like that when you are sitting in the stands. 

On the back side of the stadium are wind breakers with all the Twins players’ baseball card photos.

We walked around the stadium to check out the commemorative statues. They included Tony Oliva, the Target dog, Kent Hrbek, the Twins Mascot, Rod Carew, Calvin Griffith, All Star Game rosters from both the Metrodome and Target Field, Carl and Eloise Pohlad (owners of the Twins), Harmon Killebrew, Tim Kelly, and Kirby Puckett. We actually saw Puckett’s induction into the Hall of Fame in 2001 since that was the same year that Bill Mazeroski was inducted. The gates around Target Field are numbered with the players numbers so you can go from gate 3 to 34 without any numbers in between. 

We hit the team store to pick up a ball and bat for a friend and get my passport stamped before finding our seats. Whoa - right behind home plate in row 16. 

There was a great and vociferous crowd on hand to see the Yankees play. The scoreboards were a bit difficult to read and very busy. When you are keeping score, it is important to make note of substitutions and the PA announcer never made those. When the Twins hit a home run, the two cities shake hands on the scoreboard. The dog also waves all night long. 

So ESPN and MLB are calling this the game of the year. With 26 runs scored and 35 hits between the 2 team, it was epic. The lead changes, home runs, and defense made an exciting game. The pitching left something to be desired as it finally ended in the bottom of the 10th with a spectacular catch by Aaron Hicks after 5:04 hours. Yanks pull it out 14-12. 

Needless to say, we didn’t get back to the hotel until late, actually early morning, at 1:00 am. BED!

It is painful to watch Paul Goldschmidt destroy Pirate pitching. We watched a bit of the game before the live game started and loved that we were up 3-1. But it turned and home runs beat us. Another loss 4-3 to the Red Birds. We will be there in 2 nights and I will be cheering against them.