In an attempt to ignore the Giant’s mounting loss total (they have won one in their past ten games for those of you not keeping track), I am going to cover a different topic in today’s blog post.
Last Friday night I went with some friends see the home opener of the Iowa Cubs, the Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate. I have been to easily over a hundred professional baseball games but never one in the minor leagues. I apologize for being a member of the cultural elite where we only watch baseball games while drinking Chardonnay and sitting in the same venue that might host Opera at the Park the following day.
The game itself was not thrilling, the iCubs played sleepily and lost 3-2 to the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Somehow the Dodgers found a way to haunt me even in this remote location. But since I was new to the “bush leagues’” it was quite the experience all the same. The Minor League game offered many pros and cons compared to taking one in at the Major League level.
I’ll start with the most positive of positives: the price. It just can’t be beat. Four tickets ran me only $34. To put that in perspective, equivalent seats for Tuesday’s Giants-Dodgers at AT&T Park would cost easily over $200.
But the game had other positives aside from its relative ease on my wallet. Principal Park, the Iowa Cubs home stadium, was gorgeous (and if you’ve never been to Des Moines, that isn’t usually an adjective associated with the city’s architecture.) Principal Park sits right on the Des Moines River, with a great view of Downtown Des Moines in the background. With the weather in the mid-70s and the sun setting as the game went on, the experience felt like a picturesque vision of Heartlands America.
But there is a reason the Majors is the Majors and the Minors is the Minors. Unsurprisingly, the quality of play simply cannot compare. The fastest pitcher rested around 90 MPH, and at least two of the middle infielders made errors on the mid-inning warm-up ground balls. Also, as Cubs’ uber-prospect Kris Bryant had been called up literally the day before (my poor luck), there was little in the way of star power.
Moreover, it is odd to watch a game where the winner and loser are ultimately of little consequence. With everyone angling to move up, the Minors are about individual performance. And with so many players coming and going there seems to be less of a sense of team. The result was that the crowd was more at the game for a nighttime activity, rather than to live and die with their team. There is no comparison between 10,000 people who care little to moderately about the outcome of the game, and 40,000 people who are on the edges of their seats.
So would I go to another Triple-A game? Absolutely. But, apologies to the hard working Minor Leaguers of America, I am not going to get it confused with the real thing.
spoiledgiantsfan 