Jim Crikket

I'm not a huge fan of the Chicago area, but I'd love to be over that direction this weekend for the Ryder Cup. Something about the team/match play structure that drives my interest level way up. Just thought I would open up a thread on the off chance anyone else around here had a similar interest.

I think the A's will be a good match for Beloit in terms of talent coming up. Certainly have more moving through the system than the Angels do. It looks to me like MLB teams could be doing the Affiliation Dance again in 2014. It appears that something like 19-20 "low A" affiliations could be up for renewal in 2014. Of course, several of those could renew long before the end of that season.

With the Astros affiliating with Quad Cities, it will be interesting to see if Correa and Buxton end up going head-to-head at some point next season. Would probably be worth a ticket to see.

They'd obviously have to find a way to make it work financially for the Kernels, since they'd be giving up home game gate receipts. But I do think maybe the Kernels played someone in the past at Miller Park, probably the Timber Rattlers but I suppose it may go back to when the Brewers were affiliated with Beloit. It would be fun for the players, I'm sure, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few thousand fans showed up to watch a Kernels/Rattlers game at TF. EDIT: A little googling shows the Rattlers still have an annual game at Miller Park. This past April, they played Dayton there. April makes sense as a time to do it because it's generally a bad month for attendance at home for minor league teams.

Aw, thanks! ~and I don't wanna die, just wanna ride my motor cy... cle~

I wasn't sure if he was referring to me, but then I realized that I MUST be the only baseball-watching Jim in Iowa, right?

The great thing about the MVP award is that it IS subjective. In that regard, it's like the CY or a HOF vote. The criteria will vary from voter to voter. I am old enough to remember the Robinson and Yaz Triple Crowns and maybe it's nostalgic to continue to apply a certain amount of "romance" for that particular achievement. That said, whether Cabrera does or doesn't achieve the TC would not influence my vote. Supporters of both players can make perfectly legitimate cases (to me, anyway). I don't agree that a Cabrera TC should entitle him to the MVP, but if you want to point to his superior performance in a September pennant stretch, I'll consider that argument. I don't feel Trout should be penalized for not being in the Majors to start the season, but if you want to suggest he maybe hit a rookie wall in September, you may have a point. I also agree that Trout arguably had a greater amount of influence on his team's eventual success. I'm a huge Trout fan and would love to see him win the MVP. But when I consider the kinds of problems Cabrera has dealt with and his willingness to be a "team guy" and move to 3B even knowing he might look bad there, that counts in his favor with me, too. These two guys have both had incredible seasons and they both deserve serious consideration for MVP. Where writers (and managers) lose me is when they feel inclined to spout garbage about how one or the other is the obvious choice. Nothing about this choice is obvious, to me.

So Seth, was it some sort of sports version of a Freudian Slip that caused you to post this on the "On the Farm" section? Or just wishful thinking?

As I believe jtrinaldi projected, the Astros and Quad Cities have been reunited.

Yes, Beloit is assured an affiliation. I'd expect that to be announced in the next couple of days.

I honestly have no idea who staffed the GCL team this season, Bobby.

MWL Fan (and anyone else interested): I got this response from Kernels GM Doug Nelson on the question about whether they have a "meet the Kernels" event: "Yes we do. This year's event will be held on April 2 at the ballpark. Gates will open at 5:30, fans have the opportunity to meet the players from 5:30-6:30. The team then takes the field, are introduced and then scrimmage. It's a fun and relaxed night for everyone and best of all it's free!"

I've bought my tickets by the "book of 10" for the past several years and it works great as long as you're sure you'll make it to 10 games. You essentially get 10 ticket vouchers for the level of seats you want and then, when you get to the ballpark, you go to a ticket window and exchange the vouchers for tickets in your level. Use them one at a time or all 10 at once, it doesn't matter to them. I usually buy 2-3 books of 10, but I'll probably get season tickets next year. There are 3 levels of seating, premier, club and plaza levels. Premier are the closest few rows to the field. Club seats are a buck or two less expensive but are the remaining fold-down seats in the main "bowl" of the stadium. Plaza are bleacher seats down the right field line. I usually buy books of Club seats. If I feel like sitting in Premier seats for a particular game, I just pay the buck or two difference for each ticket when I redeem them. The only "pitfall" would be if you happened to show up for a sold-out game after all the tickets in your level have been taken. That has happened to me exactly once in the past 4 years. I showed up right at game time for a game with a promotion going that I should have known would be a big crowd so it was my being stupid. I believe the Kernels do usually have some kind of "meet the Kernels" event when they get to town from Spring Training, but I've never gone. I'm not sure if it's a public thing or for season ticket holders or what. But I'll check on that next week and come back here to post what I find out.

Speaking of Jake Peavy, there's another pool of potential trade targets that the Twins could look in to... the "grossly overpaid and underperforming older former aces that teams would love to get rid of now" pool. The Mets owe Johan Santana $25.5 million for 2013 and there's a $25 million option for 2014 (with a $5 mil buyout I think). Maybe they'd eat about 90% of his contract and take Deolis Guerra back in return? Anyone up for a Santana reunion tour? OK maybe not.

The manager, coaches and trainers are employees of the Major League affiliate and assigned by them, so the Twins will decide who they assign to CR. Someone at the press conference asked about coaches and the Twins reps said they expected some shuffling in their minor league assignments for 2013 but decisions won't be made until at least October. The Kernels have TV cameras rolling for all of their games for the purpose of their closed circuit TVs (on the concourse, on the big video board for replays, etc.). Mediacom, the local cable company in most of the larger Eastern Iowa cities, also broadcasts a handful of Kernels and Quad Cities River Bandits games during the season on their public access channel. I assume the Twins believe FSN could work out a deal with Mediacom to carry the Kernels games that Mediacom broadcasts. I'm not sure what other MWL teams might have similar (or even better) TV options.

I think Ross is probably going to be outside the Twins' budget, as well. But I wouldn't necessarily rule out a guy just because he's an outfielder. Sure, the Twins have a number of OF prospects that appear just about ready to arrive, but what if it takes one or two of those guys to improve your starting pitching and/or middle infield? Just saying there could be a number of moving pieces as Ryan tries to make the improvements necessary and IF the outfield FA market turns out to be deep and he needs to trade young OFers to get pitching, I wouldn't rule that approach out already.

During the Twins/Kernels press conference Wednesday, someone asked the Twins reps if decisions had been made yet on who the manager and coaches would be next season. The answer was that they expected some shuffling to occur, but the decisions hadn't been made yet. The indication was that they typically get those assignments finalized just in advance of their Organizational Meetings in mid-October. Of course, that got me wondering whether anyone had heard anything about possible changes in the Twins minor league managing/coaching assignments. We've speculated about Brunansky maybe getting a promotion (either with the Twins or with another MLB staff) and I've heard positive things about Rudy Hernandez, the Rock Cats hitting coach. The Beloit trio of Prada, Watkins and Lucas seem like they've been together at A level for quite a while. Any speculation on who might be where next season?

I think I'd like the A's organization if I were a minor league owner/GM. They have small/mid market approach of drafting and developing players and aren't going to be giving away their #1 draft pick to sign expensive free agents any time soon.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the time comes to extend the Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and MiLB. It was last renewed during the 2010-11 offseason and that was actually a few years before it was set to expire, so I guess it's possible that could happen again before 2020. The last time, the only real change in the agreement was a bump in the amount of money minor league teams have to pay to MLB out of their ticket revenues, but historically previous renewals of the agreements had been a bit more problematic in areas such as facilities standards. I hope we never get to the point where communities the size of Beloit and Burlington can't keep affiliated minor league baseball due to facilities issues, but at some point somebody is going to have to step up and make some pretty significant improvements.

Of the remaining three MLB teams yet to be matched up with Class A affiliates, the As, Angels and Astros, I have to believe either the As or Astros would be the preferred choices. They've both had some fair success among their short-season teams, which would be where most of the talent would be coming from over the course of the expected 2-year PDCs that will be signed. The Angels, on the other hand, had short-season last-place division finishes that resembled their MWL results in Cedar Rapids this summer. It's hard for me to imagine their MWL affiliate being very competitive next summer anyway.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels held a press conference Wednesday to introduce their new Major League affiliate, the Minnesota Twins. It was actually more of a public introduction to which the press was invited, but that was certainly the right approach by the Kernels. Affiliation changes are big deals in the local communities and when your organization hasn’t had a change in 20 years, it’s an even bigger deal. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/KernelsTwins-300x168.jpg (Image: Kernels.com) I would have liked to attend, dressed head to toe in Twins gear like many of the crowd gathered in the Kernels’ conference room, but my schedule didn’t really allow for it yesterday. My conflicting meeting did end early enough for me to tune in to the live streaming feed being broadcast online by one of the local media outlets, so I did get to see some of the comments from the Twins’ Bill Smith and then most of the questions being fielded from media and the public by Smith and Jim Rantz. For a good sense of how the press conference went and the enthusiasm expressed by pretty much all in attendance, from the Kernels, the Twins and the public, check out Jeff Johnson’s report at the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s website. There’s a video clip, as well. Jeff covers the Kernels beat for the Gazette (as well as the local Junior Hockey League team, the RoughRiders), so some of you might want to start following Jeff via the usual social media outlets. I admit that I have reasons for being happy about this affiliation that go beyond the obvious advantages for the Kernels and 99% of the baseball fans in the area. Yes, the Twins farm system is stronger than the Angels right now and probably will be so for quite a while. The Twins build their MLB team from within, while the Angels have become one of the richest teams in baseball and will likely continue to build by buying free agents and supplement them with the occasional super-prospect they uncover, such as Mike Trout. If you run a minor league team, you’re better off with a MLB affiliate committed to drafting and developing talent. of course, we could debate how well the Twins have been doing that the past few years, but let’s do that another time. The fact is, that’s their model. So make no mistake, this is a huge “win” for the Kernels and we congratulate their Board and GM Doug Nelson for getting this deal done. The Twins have a good fan base in the area and this deal clearly makes those of us who are members of that base happy. That should translate in to a few more butts in the seats at the local ballpark, but not nearly as many more as having a competitive team on the field would account for. From that standpoint, the Twins’ timing couldn’t be better. It would be almost impossible for them to send a team to Cedar Rapids next season that would lose more games than the team the Angels sent this season. Their 53-86 record was by far the worst in the Midwest League. There’s been a lot said and written about how much better next year’s team is likely to be and the Twins brass certainly has brought up the success that their Appy League team in Elizabethton had in 2012 as evidence that expectations should be high in Cedar Rapids next year. That’s fair and I, too, believe the team has the potential to be very good. But before we order MWL championship rings quite yet, Kernels fans (and Twins fans, too) need to keep one often-overlooked fact in mind. There’s a reason Elizabethton wins a lot and that players who move from E’town to Class A sometimes don’t look as good as hoped right away. Those players are skipping a level of competition in the process. No, they aren’t skipping a level within the Twins organization, but there is a whole level of minor league ball that the Twins have elected not to have an affiliate in and that’s “Class A-short season.” Many of the players that Max Kepler, Byron Buxton and their friends were up against this year will be sticking around extended spring training for their respective clubs and then playing in the NY-Penn League or Northwest League next summer, while many of the Elizabethton players are skipping straight to Cedar Rapids in April. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with the Twins’ approach, but I’d point out that it does fly in the face a bit of the perception among many fans that the Twins don’t push their players through the system quickly. That case might be made for some guys after they reach the full-season minor league level, but not so much before that. Of course, we also know that guys do stick around E’town for more than one season at times, too, but that still means those players have faced somewhat lesser competition levels by the time they reach the MWL. Just sayin’ there’s more to the issue than what we see on the surface sometimes and while I’m anxious and excited to see the team the Twins put on the field in Cedar Rapids next season, I’m not expecting them to go undefeated or anything. But, as I said, I have other reasons for liking this match-up between Minnesota and my home town team and they are admittedly very selfish reasons. First, obviously, it gives me more stuff to write about at Knuckleballs. Don’t worry, this will not become an “all Kernels, all the time” blog. It has been, is, and will continue to be primarily a Twins blog. But we’ve always reserved the right to write about whatever we darn well please, Twins-related or not. That’s why you’ve had to put up with me writing about the Kernels before… and the Hawkeyes… and Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” But, yeah, I’ll clearly have a much better excuse to write more about the Kernels next season now that they’re part of the Twins family. How much more remains to be seen, but I’ll certainly mention them from time to time (that’s me… the king of understatements). But, speaking of my Alice’s Restaurant rant from a ways back, here’s my REAL selfish reason for wanting this relationship: I have come to believe that this affiliation is my last-best hope of ever seeing Twins baseball on cable television in Cedar Rapids. In fact, if I HAD been at the press conference Wednesday, I probably would have asked the Twins crew if there was any chance this deal might nudge Fox Sports North and Mediacom together to the point where FSN would at least be an option on the local cable system. So, imagine my pleasure when someone in the crowd asked pretty much that exact question. Of course, I was less impressed with the Twins response, but hey… I’m not giving up hope. Rome wasn’t built in a day and signing an affiliation agreement won’t make Eastern Iowa a full-fledged member of “Twins Territory” overnight. I’m a patient man. (Stop that laughing, right now!) While the Twins people did give the same standard, “that’s out of our control,” response to the television question that their President, Dave St. Peter gave to me last winter, they did mention a few other ways that they plan to work on as initial steps to make us all feel like part of the Twins family. For instance, it sounds like Cedar Rapids may well get a stop on the Twins Caravan in January. That’ll be nice. I’ve never made the effort to drive a couple hours north to Mason City or whatever border community the Twins have ventured in to previously, but they do sound like fun events. I would expect a very big crowd in CR for that if/when it comes to pass. By the way, I believe Kernels staff will also be set up at Twinsfest in January, so if you attend, make sure you stop by and say hi. Doug and his folks are a great group of hard-working people that I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to know. (Tell them I said that, will ya? I could use the brownie points.) The Twins reps also alluded to making efforts to find a local radio affiliate to carry Twins games on the radio. They mentioned also that they’re excited about the fact that all of the Kernels games are carried on the radio and that Twins fans everywhere will be able to catch those games online. In addition, those of you who are blessed to be in an area that does carry FSN, it sounds like you may actually get to watch a few Kernels games on FSN next summer. Honestly… I think that’s great. Good for all of you. But you have to admit that it’s ironic (or, to my mind, moronic) that you folks in Minneapolis may well have more opportunities to see Kernels games on your televisions than I’ll have to watch Twins games here in Cedar Rapids, because of the MLB blackout of the Twins on MLB.tv, etc. But that’s all I’ll say about that… today. For now, I’ll just say it feels good to be at least one step closer to having my home town become a real part of Twins Territory. Thank you and congratulations again to the Kernels organization, as well as the Twins. I’m ready for spring training to begin. - JC

The Cedar Rapids Kernels held a press conference Wednesday to introduce their new Major League affiliate, the Minnesota Twins. It was actually more of a public introduction to which the press was invited, but that was certainly the right approach by the Kernels. Affiliation changes are big deals in the local communities and when your organization hasn’t had a change in 20 years, it’s an even bigger deal. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/KernelsTwins-300x168.jpg (Image: Kernels.com) I would have liked to attend, dressed head to toe in Twins gear like many of the crowd gathered in the Kernels’ conference room, but my schedule didn’t really allow for it yesterday. My conflicting meeting did end early enough for me to tune in to the live streaming feed being broadcast online by one of the local media outlets, so I did get to see some of the comments from the Twins’ Bill Smith and then most of the questions being fielded from media and the public by Smith and Jim Rantz. For a good sense of how the press conference went and the enthusiasm expressed by pretty much all in attendance, from the Kernels, the Twins and the public, check out Jeff Johnson’s report at the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s website. There’s a video clip, as well. Jeff covers the Kernels beat for the Gazette (as well as the local Junior Hockey League team, the RoughRiders), so some of you might want to start following Jeff via the usual social media outlets. I admit that I have reasons for being happy about this affiliation that go beyond the obvious advantages for the Kernels and 99% of the baseball fans in the area. Yes, the Twins farm system is stronger than the Angels right now and probably will be so for quite a while. The Twins build their MLB team from within, while the Angels have become one of the richest teams in baseball and will likely continue to build by buying free agents and supplement them with the occasional super-prospect they uncover, such as Mike Trout. If you run a minor league team, you’re better off with a MLB affiliate committed to drafting and developing talent. of course, we could debate how well the Twins have been doing that the past few years, but let’s do that another time. The fact is, that’s their model. So make no mistake, this is a huge “win” for the Kernels and we congratulate their Board and GM Doug Nelson for getting this deal done. The Twins have a good fan base in the area and this deal clearly makes those of us who are members of that base happy. That should translate in to a few more butts in the seats at the local ballpark, but not nearly as many more as having a competitive team on the field would account for. From that standpoint, the Twins’ timing couldn’t be better. It would be almost impossible for them to send a team to Cedar Rapids next season that would lose more games than the team the Angels sent this season. Their 53-86 record was by far the worst in the Midwest League. There’s been a lot said and written about how much better next year’s team is likely to be and the Twins brass certainly has brought up the success that their Appy League team in Elizabethton had in 2012 as evidence that expectations should be high in Cedar Rapids next year. That’s fair and I, too, believe the team has the potential to be very good. But before we order MWL championship rings quite yet, Kernels fans (and Twins fans, too) need to keep one often-overlooked fact in mind. There’s a reason Elizabethton wins a lot and that players who move from E’town to Class A sometimes don’t look as good as hoped right away. Those players are skipping a level of competition in the process. No, they aren’t skipping a level within the Twins organization, but there is a whole level of minor league ball that the Twins have elected not to have an affiliate in and that’s “Class A-short season.” Many of the players that Max Kepler, Byron Buxton and their friends were up against this year will be sticking around extended spring training for their respective clubs and then playing in the NY-Penn League or Northwest League next summer, while many of the Elizabethton players are skipping straight to Cedar Rapids in April. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with the Twins’ approach, but I’d point out that it does fly in the face a bit of the perception among many fans that the Twins don’t push their players through the system quickly. That case might be made for some guys after they reach the full-season minor league level, but not so much before that. Of course, we also know that guys do stick around E’town for more than one season at times, too, but that still means those players have faced somewhat lesser competition levels by the time they reach the MWL. Just sayin’ there’s more to the issue than what we see on the surface sometimes and while I’m anxious and excited to see the team the Twins put on the field in Cedar Rapids next season, I’m not expecting them to go undefeated or anything. But, as I said, I have other reasons for liking this match-up between Minnesota and my home town team and they are admittedly very selfish reasons. First, obviously, it gives me more stuff to write about at Knuckleballs. Don’t worry, this will not become an “all Kernels, all the time” blog. It has been, is, and will continue to be primarily a Twins blog. But we’ve always reserved the right to write about whatever we darn well please, Twins-related or not. That’s why you’ve had to put up with me writing about the Kernels before… and the Hawkeyes… and Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” But, yeah, I’ll clearly have a much better excuse to write more about the Kernels next season now that they’re part of the Twins family. How much more remains to be seen, but I’ll certainly mention them from time to time (that’s me… the king of understatements). But, speaking of my Alice’s Restaurant rant from a ways back, here’s my REAL selfish reason for wanting this relationship: I have come to believe that this affiliation is my last-best hope of ever seeing Twins baseball on cable television in Cedar Rapids. In fact, if I HAD been at the press conference Wednesday, I probably would have asked the Twins crew if there was any chance this deal might nudge Fox Sports North and Mediacom together to the point where FSN would at least be an option on the local cable system. So, imagine my pleasure when someone in the crowd asked pretty much that exact question. Of course, I was less impressed with the Twins response, but hey… I’m not giving up hope. Rome wasn’t built in a day and signing an affiliation agreement won’t make Eastern Iowa a full-fledged member of “Twins Territory” overnight. I’m a patient man. (Stop that laughing, right now!) While the Twins people did give the same standard, “that’s out of our control,” response to the television question that their President, Dave St. Peter gave to me last winter, they did mention a few other ways that they plan to work on as initial steps to make us all feel like part of the Twins family. For instance, it sounds like Cedar Rapids may well get a stop on the Twins Caravan in January. That’ll be nice. I’ve never made the effort to drive a couple hours north to Mason City or whatever border community the Twins have ventured in to previously, but they do sound like fun events. I would expect a very big crowd in CR for that if/when it comes to pass. By the way, I believe Kernels staff will also be set up at Twinsfest in January, so if you attend, make sure you stop by and say hi. Doug and his folks are a great group of hard-working people that I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to know. (Tell them I said that, will ya? I could use the brownie points.) The Twins reps also alluded to making efforts to find a local radio affiliate to carry Twins games on the radio. They mentioned also that they’re excited about the fact that all of the Kernels games are carried on the radio and that Twins fans everywhere will be able to catch those games online. In addition, those of you who are blessed to be in an area that does carry FSN, it sounds like you may actually get to watch a few Kernels games on FSN next summer. Honestly… I think that’s great. Good for all of you. But you have to admit that it’s ironic (or, to my mind, moronic) that you folks in Minneapolis may well have more opportunities to see Kernels games on your televisions than I’ll have to watch Twins games here in Cedar Rapids, because of the MLB blackout of the Twins on MLB.tv, etc. But that’s all I’ll say about that… today. For now, I’ll just say it feels good to be at least one step closer to having my home town become a real part of Twins Territory. Thank you and congratulations again to the Kernels organization, as well as the Twins. I’m ready for spring training to begin. - JC

It's no shock, obviously, that the Cubs and Kane County have announced an affiliation. But here's what I find at least a little interesting... they only signed on for two years. Given that these two organizations were so keen on hitching up together that they reportedly violated MLB Rule 56 by initiating those discussions well before that rule allows, I find it peculiar that they ended up less committed to one another than the Cardinals & Peoria and the Twins & Cedar Rapids, both of which not only contracted for the maximum four years, but in both cases all the parties went to great measures in saying they intended the relationships to go on well beyond four years. When new affiliation relationships are the result of shotgun weddings where one or both parties find themselves in a "this is the best we could do but we're not thrilled with it" situation, a 2 year PDC is understandable and extensions of existing affiliations are very commonly just two years. But a new deal where both sides are anxious to hook up? Just seems odd to me. It will also be interesting to see whether the Cubs and Cougars end up getting slapped with fines for their transgression, though I suppose that may never become widely public.

Dominos continuing to fall. Peoria and the Cardinals have made it official. Four years. (Hat tip to MWLTraveler's tweet, which brought this to my attention). http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120918&content_id=38612194&vkey=pr_t443&fext=.jsp&sid=t443

After weeks of speculation, a press conference has been scheduled for 1:30 Wednesday to announce that the Cedar Rapids Kernels will become the new Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins for the next four years. Twins officials toured the Kernels facilities Monday afternoon and met with the CR Board of Directors later that day. The Twins, who have been sending their Class A prospects to Beloit for the past eight years, had been rumored to be favoring a move to Cedar Rapids for several weeks. Given that the Twins brass showed up for a meeting almost immediately after the two sides were allowed, by MLB Rule, to even communicate with one another, those rumors turned out to be well-founded. At the same time, the Kernels were looking for a fresh start with a Midwestern Major League affiliate after notifying the Angels that they would be ending their 20-year affiliation with that organization. Cedar Rapids is the closest Midwest League city to the Twin Cities and, while there's a sizable Twins fan base in Eastern Iowa, there certainly is potential for the Twins to expand their media presence in the area. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/KernelsLogo.jpg Beyond geography, however, the two organizations are viewed as a good fit on a number of other levels. Both the Kernels and Twins emphasize the value of community involvement by their players. Twins fans are certainly familiar with the value that organization puts on having their players get involved any number of local charities and causes. The Kernels will prove to be a good training ground for their prospects in this regard, as evidenced by their Summer Reading Program. The Kernels also have a significant “host family” program, which allows players to save money by living with local families during their stay in Cedar Rapids. The reason for the Twins ending their relationship with the Beloit Snappers is widely believed to center on issues involving the facilities there. Pohlman Field is one of the older ballparks still utilized by a full-season affiliated minor league team and efforts over the past decade or more to get funding for a new ballpark in or near Beloit seem to have lost any momentum they might once have had. After eight years, the Twins apparently did not see the situation improving any time soon. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PerfectGameFieldOverhead.jpg Overhead view of Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids (Photo: Kernels.com) The Kernels are community-owned, with a Board of Directors essentially operating as the organization's owners. They have played their games at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium since it opened in 2002. It was built on the site of their “old” Veterans Memorial Stadium. Next summer will be the Kernels' 12th season in the facility. There are a number of newer ballparks in the Eastern Division of the Midwest League, but among the Western Division locations, no city has a newer ballpark than Cedar Rapids. Peoria opened O'Brien Field in 2002, as well. (Though not new, the ballparks in Appleton WI and Davenport IA have both undergone major renovations in recent years.) This will be the first affiliation between the Twins and Cedar Rapids. In the past, the Twins have sent their Class A prospects to Midwest League teams in Wisconsin Rapids WI, Kenosha WI (which moved to Ft. Wayne IN while affiliated with the Twins) and the Quad Cities (Davenport IA) prior to Beloit. Cedar Rapids Baseball has a long history extending back to the 19th century when Hall of Fame manager John McGraw played for the local team. Since the establishment of today's MLB/MiLB affiliation-based relationship, Cedar Rapids has hosted minor leaguers sent by the Astros, Cardinals, Giants, Reds and Angels. Going back further, CR also had agreements with the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers. Former Twins John Rosboro, Chili Davis and Les Straker once called Cedar Rapids home, as did current Twins infielder Alexi Casilla. For more information about the Cedar Rapids' minor league organization, click on the following links to posts at Knuckleballs last month that covered CR Baseball's history and an interview with Kernels General Manager Doug Nelson. Of course, there's also a wealth of information about the Kernels, including their 2013 schedule, at their own web site. - JC