Community Field

Burlington Bees, Midwest League

8/10

First of all, this is the first of 5 reviews from my 2012 Midwestern swing, where on the way home, my camera, loaded with all my photos, absconded, never to be heard of again. A lengthy investigation on my part, proved fruitless. I am now borderline OCD when it comes to downloading photos ASAP. Anyhow.....

I swung through Burlington, Iowa as part of a 6 game/5 park/5 day/6 state Midwestern swing and I'm glad I did. The city itself is apparently the smallest, full-season market in the affiliated minors, checking in at just over 25,000 people in the city proper. The local economy is apparently somewhat depressed, as the local mall, right across from Hotel #1(more on that later), featured numerous empty stores.

As for the park itself, it is a total gem. Renovations in 2006 bought the Burlington franchise some more time in town. This particular franchise has had the same name since 1973, when it was the affiliate for the Kansas City Athletics. The team was affiliated with the Oakland A's when I passed through, I don't believe that that's continuous, but am not sure(Checked in 2016, it's not). Now, the team is with the LA Angels.

The Monday night game I saw featured the hometown Bees, stocked with Oakland farmhands, in an all-Iowa matchup, taking on the Cedar Rapids Kernels, who at the time, were the LA Angels affiliate. I had come down from Bloomington, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis, taking the scenic route to stop in Dyersville, Iowa, and the Field of Dreams movie site, which I highly recommend if you're able to stop by.

The layout is a relatively simple grandstand. The seats stop just past third base on one side, and well before first, which has an area with several picnic tables. Concessions are pretty simple, but some of the lowest prices I've ever encountered. I took advantage of the low prices on everything to pick up a t-shirt(which I am wearing as I type this), as well as a program. The concourse(or what passes for one) features banners referring to past Bees logos and affiliations, with a few simple staircases leading to the seats. The ambience is baseball-first, primarily because that's all there is. There's no bouncy-castle, or mascot, or too many wacky sound effects and if there were, they didn't stick in my mind at all.

The most memorable thing about Community Field is that it lived up to it's name. A largely middle class group of apparent season ticket holders were out in force, providing subtle comments such as "Hey ump, you from Cedar Rapids?" in just the right tone of voice. Numerous fans seemed to know at least which players on the team looked to be progressing towards a promotion. But the best moment had to be when a draw for a child's baseball glove didn't have an answer. The team employee asked everyone within ear shot, "Hey are the X's here tonight?" to which some random voice replied, with a perfect local accent "I think they just went to the bathroom."

After the game, I walked back to HoJos, to discover the accommodations were so Spartan, that I actually checked out and went somewhere else.

Overall, I liked Community Field a great deal. The low prices, small-town community feel of the team and baseball first ambience were a welcome addition to my trip. I would gladly go back, if for no other reason than to get some good photos.

Update 2016: Both these teams swapped affiliates after 2012, with the Angels taking the Bees and Cedar Rapids ending up with Minnesota. The A's ended up with the Beloit Snappers of Wisconsin. A new ratings system doesn't change the rating here, the atmosphere earning a full point, but nothing else, leaving the score at an 8.

Linescore
2012-07-30
                                                123      456    789   RHE
Cedar Rapids Kernels(LAA)         000     000    000   061
Burlington Bees(OAK)                100     010     000   280
Temp: 90F   Time: 2:52    Att: 881