Whatever your opinion of the movie “Field of Dreams”, the field itself has become a baseball destination for a lot of fans from all over. That field was badly damaged in January when someone thought it’d be a great idea to try to destroy the place with a truck.
On Monday, it was fixed. Four minor league teams in Iowa, including the Iowa Cubs, sent their grounds crews in an effort funded by donations from around the world (including one from the Chicago Cubs), and the field was restored to a playable state in short order.
This isn’t the first time the Iowa Cubs have deployed their baseball field expertise in the community. Over the past few seasons they’ve helped out in a number of baseball diamond construction and restoration projects, but this was probably the most famous one.
If you want to see the field yourself, keep the week of September 3 clear. There will be a game then that will feature some retired Major League players, including some Hall of Famers.
Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Nashville 3, Iowa 2
Two more Iowa errors led to an unearned run.
Alec Mills: 4.1 IP, 3 R (2 ER), 6 H, 4 BB, 4 K
Michael Roth: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 4 K
Mark Zagunis: 2 for 3, 2B, BB
Wynton Bernard: 2 for 4, SB
Double A: Tennessee Smokies
Tennesee 6, Montgomery 1 in ten innings
This was a pretty good duel between some pretty good pitchers.
Duncan Robinson: 6 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 4 K
James Norwood: 2 IP, 1 BB, 2 K
Daury Torrez: 2 IP, 1 H
Yasiel Balaguert: 2 for 5, 2B
Trent Giambrone: 2 for 4, 2B
Trey Martin: 2 for 3, BB
High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Buies Creek 6, Myrtle Beach 2
The starting pitching was excellent for the Myrtle Beach. The bullpen, however, ran into issues.
Keegan Thompson: 5 IP, 3 H, 4 K
P.J. Higgins: 1 for 3, 2B, BB
Wladimir Galindo: 1 for 4, 2B
Kevonte Mitchell: 1 for 2, 2B, BB
Low A: South Bend Cubs
Dayton 3, South Bend 2
The Cubs entered the bottom of the eighth with the lead.
Cory Abbott: 5 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K
Brendon Little: 2 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 1 K
Jared Young: 2 for 4, 2B, HR
Yeiler Peguero: 2 for 3, 2B, BB
Other Notes
Alec Mills threw 93 pitches and did not get out of the fifth. Michael Roth needed just 61 pitches to finish the game.
Daury Torrez pitched the ninth inning on the road in a tie game, and then pitched the tenth inning tainted by a rules-induced runner starting on second, and did both almost flawlessly. That’s a good sign for a guy who could be in Chicago’s bullpen one day.
After lasting just 0.2 innings as a starter in his first game, Brendon Little worked out of the bullpen in this one. I’m not sure that means anything, but it might. The South Bend Cubs have already used six different starters this season, and they’ve only played nine games. Little may be back in the rotation in a week or so, and he may be working out of the pen for awhile, even if only as a piggyback. We’ll just have to see.
Left-handed hitting second baseman Jared Young now has a small sample size OPS of 1.316. Eight of his thirteen total hits have gone for extra bases.
And finally, in some depressing and non-Cubs news, one of the best team names in minor league baseball is going to vanish. The Las Vegas 51s, named for the nearby Area 51 and featuring awesome alien branding all over the place, will be ditching their very nifty name for something that will probably be way less interesting next season. Lending some ray of hope of the proceedings, they are letting fans propose new names for the team. So… go nuts. Personally, I think it’d be great if about a billion people all submitted the name “51s”, but that’s just me.