![]() It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. “The one constant through all the years Ray, has been baseball. However, as I read the book, I was much more reminded of Terence Mann’s monologue from the movie, especially this part of it: It uses the line “If you build it, they will come” to describe the factory and redevelopment efforts going on in South Clinton. That is some serious nostalgia.Ĭlass A does invoke another Iowa baseball story, Field of Dreams. The exterior of Citi Field is designed to look like old Ebbets Field, which was demolished in 1960. To partially rectify the situation, 52 years after losing those two teams, the Mets built Citi Field with the help of $900 million in municipal bonds. Old-timers still lament that the Giants and Dodgers left New York. Remember when the White Sox all but left Chicago? What about when the Bears threatened to move to Indiana? Seattle is still fuming over the departure of the Supersonics. Owners hold the threat of relocation over their fans in order to get them (and taxpayers) to cough up millions of dollars to build a new stadium. Sadly, this threat of teams leaving town is not unique to minor league teams in declining Midwest cities. One of the saddest scenes in the book was when Tom, a dying fan, was asking his family if the team will still be there after he’s gone, if the stadium will still be there, and if the brick with his name on it will still be in front of it. The threat that someday the Lumberkings might relocate from Clinton was always hanging over the fans in Class A. But some will deepen their commitment and redouble their support for the team. Most people are casual fans (like I used to be) and will just shrug if you threaten to move one of these low-level minor league teams. They are a threat to fold nearly every single offseason, despite playing in a really nice, modern building that needs no renovations. I have also become attached to our professional hockey team. Our minor league baseball team was sold in 2003, but the target city did not get public support to build a stadium, so they stayed, and Davenport then did finally renovate the stadium. The way to make people want to keep something more is to threaten to take it away from them. Maybe “nostalgia” is not quite the right word in this case. Memories do not drive my fiercest nostalgia, though. I do recall they won a championship in 1990, but I didn’t witness it, and it didn’t mean a ton to me at that time. I remember the field being flooded in 1993. I remember my brother climbing a fence to get a foul ball. I do have memories going to old John O’Donnell Stadium as a kid, eating a hot dog as we sat in the bleachers. These teams are a minor part of this, but they are a part.Ĭlass A also raised my awareness about my inclination for nostalgia. Whether they stay here or not is less important to me than them believing that they were raised in an area they can be proud of. I want reasons for my kids to be able to be proud of where they were raised. Few things bring together the disjointed Quad Cities like these sports teams. These professional sports teams are a point of pride in an area that usually lacks it. I combat these arguments with this list of names and figures. I still run into many people who think that the Midwest League is lousy baseball. The current River Bandits team has 3 players with contracts over $4 million. I pay attention now to details about the players that are here. Joe Mauer played in Davenport, not Iowa City or Dubuque. I can show people major leaguers I got to see play here. I try to get some of the pictures signed by them.Ī big part of my motivation for collecting the photos and names of these players is civic pride, pure and simple. I wondered who else I may have seen that might now be famous, and decided I better pay closer attention. One day, I found a scorecard from a game a few years prior where Dontrelle Willis pitched for the visiting team. At first, the games were just a fun diversion. I do not collect to the extent that the fan Joyce in the book does, but I still have that tendency. Reading Class A raised my awareness about how I like to collect and catalog things. My dad does genealogy and has an excellent blog about the Langfords. It’s still in pretty good shape (photo at the link above). Charles’ home is across the river from Clinton in Fulton, IL. We were surprised to learn an ancestor lived this close. In fact, Charles didn’t stay in Clinton himself. My family is not one where we all lived within an hour of Clinton all of our lives, though (I live in Davenport). He was the brother of my great, great grandfather. Langford, one of the Clinton, Iowa “lumber kings”. Full disclosure: I found out this year that I am related to Charles E.
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