players—who sometimes exhibit incredible promise. Like folks who once saw Nirvana at Gabes for $4, these smaller baseball venues offer the chance to get in on the ground floor and to maybe even say, “I saw Mike Trout play for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2010,” two years before he was the Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up to Miguel Cabrera (who in 2001 was an 18-year-old shortstop for the Midwest League’s Kane County Cougars). Team wins and losses are noted, but ultimately the minor leagues are about player development. Sometimes, for example, a pitcher is terrible. But sometimes he just seems terrible, for a time, because the organization is forcing him to develop a new pitch needed in order to survive in the major leagues. (Please bear this in mind, Drunk Guy on a Thirsty Thursday screaming invective at a struggling teenage pitcher.) Over the offseason, some Midwest League teams and their major league “parent” organizations shuffled affiliations and signed player development contracts with different major league clubs. After a 20-year association
with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Cedar Rapids Kernels are now an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The Sutter family from Manchester is pleased with this. The family goes up to games in the Twin Cities at least once a year, but they love having a sneak preview of future Twins. They’ve already been to two Kernels’ games this season, in spite of the cold, wet April weather that cancelled and postponed many games throughout the league. “It’s awesome,” Kris Sutter, father of two Twins fans said. “We can come to any game we want now. Before we would wait till the Twins farm team came here and then we’d go.” The Sutters love seeing the Kernels’ current crop, including Byron Buxton, who signed with the Twins out of high school for $6.2 million and leads the league in hitting. Grown men linger on the railing by the dugout with duffel bags full of baseballs and cards for him to sign. He is off to such a strong start he may soon be promoted up the next rung on the
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GILBERT ST
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CLASS A FUN
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