Baseball’s minor league teams, including five in Iowa, canceled their seasons Tuesday after Major League Baseball decided not to provide players to its affiliated teams due to COVID 19.Now that MLB has made its decision, except for a few high school games, there will be no baseball at the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Burlington Bees, the Clinton Lumber Kings or the Quad Cities River Bandits. But you can hear “play ball” starting tonight at Waterloo’s Riverfront Stadium.
Dan Corbin is the general manager for the Northwoods League Waterloo Bucks, whose players are college students.
“When all the universities baseball teams shut down, the NCAA granted waivers for seniors to come back for an extra year of eligibility so that opened the floodgates for the players that we could sign. So the Northwoods League expanded rosters from 30 to 35 and at the same time, nearly all the other leagues in the country have canceled the season so players signed in the Cape Cod League or the Texas League are available now as well. The amount of talent in the Northwoods League is probably going to be the highest it’s ever been,” said Corbin.
Corbin explained how COVID 19 has altered the scope of what will be available at the Park.
“There won’t be inflatables for our Kids Zone, there won’t be a wiffle ball field for kids to play at, we’re going to eliminate a lot of the on field promotions between innings that have kids interacting with players, but we’ll be able to do a lot more with our video board that will be exciting so there still will be an entertainment factor there,” Corbin said.
Corbin said every other row in the stadium will be roped off as well as the end seats to allow for ample social distancing.
About an hour south in Cedar Rapids, even without the Kernels, the area around Veterans Memorial Stadium has been busy. General Manager Scott Wilson said every Friday night in May they served up concessions in the parking lot.
“It’s interesting to watch cars park in circles and have social distancing enjoying some time at the ball park. Some of them went all the way to the front gate and sat in their chairs so they could look out and see the field like they were at a ball game,” he said. "It’s interesting what people miss. That to them feels like atmosphere to them, if they can have the pretzel or the foot-long hot dog of the foot-long corn dog or the Philly that we have here.”
Saturday night the Kernels will host what’s being called Home Plate Bash. Thirteen hundred fans who have preordered their tickets will be allowed in for two hours to hear a band and watch fireworks.
The parking lot outside Principal Park in Des Moines is also being utilized this summer. The home of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs recently served as a drive thru for a naturalization ceremony in which 100 residents became U.S. citizens.
I-Cubs Assistant General Manager Randy Wehoefer said the ball park has hosted a handful of high school games and will be the home of the state baseball tournament at the end of this month.
“We had to zip tie 8,000 seats and leave just under 3,000 left to allow for people to social distance while in the stands," he said. "We’ve reorganized the restrooms to allow for distancing at the ticket widows, concession line and common points where people would potentially end up at the same time. All of our staff are wearing masks at all times when the gates are open. We are washing our hands frequently and having had sanitizer at different points around the ball park. It’s been well received by the schools and the fans and they’ve been nice events so far.”
Wehoefer said they had a bit of a scare a week ago when a stadium employee who had traveled out of state tested positive for COVID-19. The facility was immediately shut down and all employees where tested. All tests came back negative the next day and the employee in question is self-isolating.
Back in Waterloo, Bucks manager Dan Corbin said safety protocol has reduced their seating capacity to less than 1,000, and since they are basically the only game in town he’s predicting many of the 15 home games in July will be sold out. Thursday night’s first pitch is at 6:35. The Bucks will play 41 games in 52 days.
