We have been meaning to get to a baseball game in Cedar Rapids for awhile now. Never quite made it last summer, but then again, we had a 6 mo old, so it wasn’t exactly the ideal place to be going on a hot, summer day. However, with Meg staying with her Grandparents in Missouri this week, we took the opportunity on Memorial Day to take in a ball game at Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels minor league team (a Los Angeles Angels farm team).
Firstly, let me start by saying that tickets are cheap for these games. They range from $7 to $10, depending on if you want lawn, bleacher or standard seating. We opted for bleacher seats ($8 each), though in retrospect, the extra $1 would have been worth it (more on that shortly). The food/beer prices were also pretty good. $3 for peanuts, $3.50 for nachos, $4 for a 16 oz beer and $7 for a 32 oz beer. With regards to beer, while they had your standard A-B, Miller and Coors fare, they also had a selection of other varieties, from Fat Tire to Blue Moon to Leinenkugel’s. Enough to suit just about any taste.
As you can see above, the stadium itself is relatively small. Again, we were in the bleacher seats when I took that picture, but you can tell that we were practically sitting on home base. Unfortunately, however, the bleachers have absolutely no shade whatsoever. And when it’s 87 F and sunny, that can get tiresome. It would have been worth the extra $1 to move to actual seats, with the promise of some shade. We did have our 30 SPF sunscreen on, though, and for the most part, we got out of it unscathed.
The other downside that I certainly didn’t anticipate was the length of the game. Granted, I tend to expect spending maybe 3 hours at a baseball game, though games are shorter or longer than that, too. We were sitting there for 2 hours and we had made it through the 4th inning (we got there a bit early…but still…). The problem, of course, was that the teams weren’t hitting anything – they would go through all counts, strikes and balls, and get bases loaded without bringing any of the runners home. At the time, the Kernels weren’t doing all that well, and we were sun baked, so we decided to leave.
Of course, as can be expected, the Kernels ended up winning. The Peoria Chiefs (a Chicago Cubs farm team) were up 0-3 when we left, and by the end of the game, the Kernels won 7-5. I guess they just needed a few warm up innings?
All in all, we had a good time. The prices were good, the stadium was easily accessible, and the atmosphere was pretty good. I’d like to go back, but I’d either a). pick a night game, or b). spend a few bucks extra for some shade. I can’t fault the team for those particular blunders on my part, though.
A good way to spend Memorial Day, though. Sun, beer and baseball. Can’t go wrong.