I grew up going to games in Cedar Rapids in the late 70s and early 80s, so it definitely brings good memories. In an earlier leaked list, Cedar Rapids made the cut, but not Burlington, Clinton, or the Quad Cities. I made my first trips to Burlington and Clinton in the last several years, and it doesn’t surprise me that they would get axed. Clinton is old, and I’m guessing they’d need to put quite a bit of money into it to bring it up to par. Burlington is community owned, I believe, and it very much had the feeling of a city park combined with the fairground grandstands. I had a wonderful time at both, but it’s easy to see where MLB would go in saying they need improvements. Dropping Quad Cities was a surprise, but I have to wonder if their proximity to the river and the regular flooding they’ve experienced did them in. A concern in dropping QC is that makes Cedar Rapids several hours from the nearest Midwest League team, so it would end up being an easy excuse to drop them later when some team wants to use another city as leverage. Cedar Rapids does have proximity to Minnesota, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago going for it, but if the Twins have St. Paul, they don’t really need Cedar Rapids for rehab. St. Louis has Springfield and the Cubs have South Bend. I don’t remember where Milwaukee and the other team in Chicago go for nearby rehab.