The homestand, which includes games with Quad Cities and Wisconsin, begins the second half of the Midwest League season for the Kernels, who finished 31-36 in the first half.This next bit is from the Kernels.com
The Kernels were on the road last week while flooding devastated parts of the city, including the downtown area. The ballpark is fine, however, and Mayor Kay Halloran and City Manager Jim Prosser gave Kernels General Manager Jack Roeder their blessing to play.
The Kernels have also teamed up with the Freedom From Hunger Food Drive and will be collecting non-perishable food items at all eight games that will be distributed through local food pantries to aid in flood relief efforts.BaseballAmerica.com had this on their business blog.
The low Class A Cedar Rapids Kernels had a bird-eye view of the flooding that left 480 blocks of the city’s downtown underwater after the Iowa River crested at 32 feet, roughly 20 feet above flood levels. However the flood, considered the worst since 1993, never approached the Kernels’ ballpark that sits atop one of the city’s tallest hills. "If we were going to be worried about water in the stadium," Kernels spokesman Andrew Pantini said, "then the whole city was going to be wiped out."
Yet despite plans to open their gates as scheduled on Thursday following the Midwest League’s all-star break, it remains unclear how the Kernels will fare attracting fans to the ballpark in a region where bridges and roads are washed out and a large portion of its population are still unable to return to their homes.
"It took me two hours to get home, to make a 10-mile drive," Pantini said of his commute on Thursday at the peak of the flooding. "They were closing bridges left and right as the water kept rising . . . They say it is going to take anywhere from two weeks to two years before everything is back to where it was.
There is also a bit about the Iowa Cubs and why they played at home instead of moving some games elsewhere.
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