A preview

This is from Saturday's Quad Cities Times and gives a bit of a preview for what to expect if you are going to the All-Star Game in Clinton.

In more than a quarter century of working in professional baseball, Ted Tornow has sat through dozens of all-star games.

He's watched skydivers, chewed on rubber-chicken banquet food, listened to long-winded speakers and witnessed many of the bells and whistles that typically accompany such events.

Until this week, the Clinton LumberKings' general manager never had been part of hosting an all-star event, and when he and his staff began planning to host the 45th Midwest League All-Star Game, he started with one simple question.

"What can we do differently?" was the challenge Tornow presented to his staff.

Well, what can they do differently?

Clinton was regarded as the sawmill capital of the United States between the 1850s and 1900, a time when huge log rafts were floated down the Mississippi River from Wisconsin and Minnesota to mills in Clinton, where they were cut into lumber and shipped across the country.

In 1892, production at sawmills in Clinton, Lyons and Camanche had risen to more than 196 million board feet annually.

A group of lumberjacks will demonstrate competitions similar to those held in that era as part of pregame festivities on grounds adjacent to the Alliant Energy Field on Tuesday beginning at 4 p.m. Festivities also include all-star autographs, the traveling games and displays of the Principal Family Fun Fest and woodcarving exhibits.

"I think we have everybody other than Geppetto lined up to be here," Tornow said. "The lumberjacks are the same professionals that compete on ESPN, and it will add something completely different to the all-star event. It won't be a competition per se, just an opportunity for them to show what they can do. We told them to have some fun with it, and they're excited about that chance."

Player introductions are scheduled for 6:40 p.m., preceding a 7 p.m. first pitch. Birdzerk and Breakin' B-Boy McCoy and the Klement's Racing Sausages from Milwaukee's Miller Park will provide in-game entertainment and fireworks will follow the game.

Lumberjacks, sausages, and Breakin' B-Boy McCoy...That's different alright....Breakin' B-Boy McCoy?