This year, the Kernels represent more than just baseball in Cedar Rapids
By Casey Drottar Medill Reports Even two weeks ahead of opening day, Andrea Brommelkamp had no trouble predicting what the return of Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball would look like. The team’s senior director of tickets and group sales knew how important the long-awaited moment would be for everyone, from the stands to the front office. […]
Cedar Rapids Kernels back in business
By Casey Drottar Medill Reports For a little more than 1,700 fans in attendance, the Cedar Rapids Kernels season opener represented the much-needed return of minor league baseball and a sense of normalcy. For members of the team’s front office, it was a culmination of one of the most stressful months of their lives. “Over […]
Bars, restaurants near Principal Park relieved to have Iowa Cubs baseball again
By Casey Drottar Medill Reports As locals embrace the long-awaited return of Iowa Cubs baseball, so, too, are the bars and restaurants surrounding Principal Park. Many of them spent last summer deprived of the fan revenue they typically depend on, which made an already arduous 2020 even more difficult. “It was pretty tough,” said Zack […]
Baseball is more than a game to these Cedar Rapids Kernels superfans
By: Mack Liederman Medill Reports CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — It’s routine. They attend the church of baseball — almost religiously. “Missed a game?” said Joan Reinberg with a chuckle as she leaned back in her usual seat on the main concourse at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I don’t think I have in the last 20 years.” […]
‘He’s one of the guys’: How a longtime Cedar Rapids bat boy became part of the Kernels family
By Ashton Pollard Medill Reports Jon Teig grew up as a Cedar Rapids Kernels kid. He spent his summers at the ballpark, chose the stadium as the location of his birthday parties and was occasionally a guest bat boy for the team, an opportunity he landed through a friend of his mother’s who was involved […]
Owner of Iowa Cubs finds new ways to interact with Des Moines fans
By Madison Williams Medill Reports As a 9-year-old boy, Michael Gartner accompanied his father to his first minor league baseball game in 1947 in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. The Des Moines Bruins had begun their affiliation with the Chicago Cubs that year. Fifty-two years later, after working at The Wall Street Journal, acting […]
Pandemic protocols disrupt long standing traditions and bonds established by Cedar Rapids Kernels host family program
By Hannah Lichtenstein Medill Reports Inside the brown house on Sussex Street — the one with the white garage and the wooden bench at the front door — there is a pantry that does not have any granola bars. There is also a freezer without a haul of Jack’s pizzas and a refrigerator with just […]
Cubs begin to embrace baseball’s technological revolution, but not everyone is convinced
By Benjamin Rosenberg Medill Reports Ian Miller just felt stuck. Drafted in the 14th round of the 2013 MLB Draft by Seattle, Miller was still in the Mariners’ organization at the beginning of 2019 without having spent a day in the major leagues. He had put up solid but unspectacular numbers for Triple-A Tacoma the […]
Chicago This Week Episode 7
Amelia Burns, Medill Reports
Chicago This Week Episode 6
Amelia Burns, Medill Reports