At the Ballpark on Memorial Day

Among the quintet of quintessential American holidays, Memorial Day is second to none as an excuse to head out to the ballpark. On Monday, that’s just what I did, packing up the car in Chicago and heading west to Modern Woodmen Park, home of the Quad Cities River Bandits. A few reflections are in order.

It’s tough to ruin a baseball game on the Monday afternoon of a three day weekend. Case in point- yesterday, storm clouds bobbed menancingly on the radar, but mustered only intermittent sprinkling. Was it ideal weather? No, it wasn’t. But sometimes it’s just about the right time for a ball game.

The stadium itself is in Davenport, Iowa, one of either four or five of the Quad Cities, depending on who you ask. In a thrilling bit of Americana, the stadium is right on the bank of the Mississippi River. And that means right  on the bank, as in, fishing for foul balls and four baggers. Nearly every seat in the park has a commanding view of the Big Muddy, and of a wide bridge which spans it. Here’s a picture. What, I ask, is wrong with going out to watch the national past time, on Memorial Day, and with the ol’ Mississippi in the distance? I’ve never seen the Mississippi River; it was a beautiful thing.

Parking at the stadium cost two dollars. Actually, it didn’t cost anything. The lot attendant explained. “It’s two dollars to park here, but then I’ll give you two Bandit bucks that you can use for anything in the stadium. I’m always trying to tell people to park here, but they don’t all the time.” Now that I think about it, I remember hearing about two dollar parking outside of Wrigley. I’ll have to look for that next time.

The River Bandits were playing that day against the Fort Wayne Tincaps. The Tincaps are in their first season with that moniker, after abandoning the ‘Wizards.’ The new name and  logo , chosen in a fan ballot, are a nod and a bow to midwesterner Johnny Appleseed, who seems to have worn a tin cap wherever he went. The Tincaps are the Low-A affiliate of the Padres, and the River Bandits are with the Cardinals. As such, there were a handful of interesting 2008 draftees on the field: for the home team, Niko Vasquez and Charlie Cutler; for the visitors, Allan Dykstra, Sawyer Carroll, James Darnell, Jaff Decker and the starting pitcher, Nick Schmidt.

Going into the game, Dykstra was the only player I knew about, so I paid extra attention to his at-bats. The results: 0-3 with a strikeout, two walks and a run scored. In his first at-bat, Dykstra was fooled badly on a 1-2 change of pace, one of the few effective pitches thrown all day by Quad Cities starter Andres Rosales. He made good contact in the third and fifth innings, and did a better job of recognizing pitches and staying back on the ball. Contrary to his reputation (and frame- 6’5″, 243 lbs.), though, he didn’t manage to drive the ball very far. His swing was slow and choppy, probably due to the achingly heavy bat he was dangling. At first base, committed two errors. The first came in the first inning on a missed catch. The second came in the fourth, when he wasted a pickoff by chucking the ball into left field and letting the runner advance to third.

That, of course, is why it’s called the minors. Actually, there were two pickoffs in the game. On the second one, Decker got caught off first, but River Bandits first baseman Osvaldo Morales couldn’t manage to get the ball to second base in time. That wasn’t ruled an error, but five other plays were, in addition to the two by Dykstra. Seven errors in three hours of baseball. Two pickoffs, good for three bases gained.

The nice thing about these sorts of games is that the fans–and there were 1,856 of them–will never emit anything louder than a low grumble. They know what they paid for. The worst of the bumbling came in the seventh. Dykstra and Carroll were on first and second, and advanced on a passed ball. Darnell followed with a single, scoring Carroll. Decker hit a ground ball to first that Morales flung to second, trying to start a double play. Unfortunately, neither he, nor the pitcher, nor the second baseman saw fit to get back to the base for the return throw. As a result, it was a fielder’s choice, and another run scored. Then Decker stole second. Then, with two outs in the inning, Jeudy Valdez lofted a high, lazy fly ball to center field. It was a lazy, lazy, nothing much going on fly ball. The River Bandits center fielder dropped it, and Decker scored. Valdez moved to second, then advanced to third on a balk. The grumbling at this point nearly broke out into full-fledged booing, but a groundout happily ended the inning.

Why would fans put up with this mediocrity? Well, for one thing, the concessions were good. My girlfriend helped herself to a tasty funnel cake, and I got a pickle the size of a small submarine for one dollar. Only the second one they’d sold all game, the lady said. It was alright.

In between innings, there was an airplane gliding contest with big model airplanes, and also a tractor race with plastic tractors for the kiddies. Two people teamed up for a stunt sponsored by the local newspaper where one guy had a plastic box fixed on his head and the other had to chuck newspapers into it. After the fourth inning, a red pickup truck raced around the perimeter of the field. From the truckbed, the mascot (Rascal) and some interns slung cupcakes into the stands- probably 60 of them in 45 seconds or so. Not catching one, I can’t attest to how the frosting held up on impact.

The highlight of the game was the performance by Fort Wayne starter Schmidt, the Padres’ first round pick in 2007. He was sidelined last year with elbow problems, but on this day threw a heavy fastball with mean cutting action. His slow curve made fools of even those batters who waited for it to reach the plate. The final score of the game was 7-4 Tincaps; my girlfriend and I left after the seventh inning stretch in an spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to outsmart the traffic in Chicago.

Baseball is a tough taskmaster for those who love it, participants and spectators alike. Today, the River Bandits head east to Grand Rapids, the Tincaps west to Cedar Rapids. They’ll each take a bus to, and they’ll take a bus from. For even the sparse scattering of people who cared about this late-spring game in the deepest thicket of the sticks, the events of the day will quickly disappear into the month, the season, and the black. On Monday, though, Memorial Day, through the rain, the chill, the bobbles and the dropsies, the national game never was so good.