AAA Iowa Cubs v. AAA Diamondbacks Reno Aces

Well, I did wake up puking Saturday, too. I showered and then fell asleep in my wet hair. If you have curly hair, you know that you CANNOT do that. But I did. So I had to cover up that hair, and the only hat I had was a free cap I got at Wrigley that did not fit right. I looked absolutely disgusting.

But I don't think every game you go to should be a fashion show! So I decided I would go looking like a monster and that would be okay. And the more the day wore on, the better I felt. The bug was leaving my system, but I still looked like a monster.

My monstrous appearance is important to note. I was still treated well by the Cubs players even though I looked like something from their nightmares.

First we got there early and walked around. I have been to several semi-pro "minor league" games in my life, but this was the first minor league park I had been too that was actually affiliated with MLB.

Baby Steve Clevenger

Our tickets weren't ready yet so we walked around some more. It really was a cool place.

Players just walked around outside freely, signing autographs and taking it easy. 

There were a decent number of autograph hounds, but no one was too obnoxious. One kid gave Angela and me some baseball cards. He said he came every Sunday because it was free if you donate canned goods.

You could definitely see shades of Bull Durham here. It was cute and fun and family friendly. But the boys had told us that after about a week in Des Moines you kind of ran out of things to do. I could see it being the kind of city where the boys hung out with the locals in the bars and such. But I liked the small-town appeal of Des Moines. I had spent a good amount of time near here in college. Our Minnesota school played a school in Ankeny, and I came here a great deal. I had always liked it. And I had such a fun time there that I wished I could come to more games. Sometimes Chicago is a bit too much for me and I dream of going farther south or west where things can slow down a bit.

I just missed getting a picture of Blake Parker's commercial on the board. He is literally the worst actor ever. I'm sure with some acting lessons he could improve immensely. I told him he needed to put more pep in it, and he did this weird dance that I also wish I could show you, but, alas, I cannot.

How cute is this?

Here is Blake Lalli being nice to us. He was kind of a turd in his brief stint in Chicago. I think he was only nice because we had a message from The Clev.

Dave Sappelt, in the flesh. I have to say, I think he is going to stay in the bigs.

Casey Coleman was pitching, another one of our friends.

But back to Dave Sappelt...

Michael Bowden

Then we tried one with the zoom off and Blake Parker jealous in the background because he wasn't getting all the attention.

I wanted to give Blake something as a thank you for the seats, and I wasn't going to buy him chewing tobacco, so I got him sunflower seeds. Yeah, they already had a year's supply of the exact same kind in the bullpen. Michael accused me of stealing it.

And of course Blake Parker signed autographs for the masses. He spent a lot of time complaining about how ugly their uniforms had been the night before. He also told us he would not be pitching until Monday. So that was poopy.

But then we had a photo shoot and that cheered me up.

Our seats were lovely. We were sitting with the players' wives. They were very friendly.

 

We told all the players' wives that Rachel was carrying Dave Sappelt's baby.

Okay, I'm totally kidding, but that would have been a really funny joke.

Blake said he was going to talk the coach into letting him coach first because he said that was the only way the Cubs would win. He got his way. Charmer.

Okay, I can't talk in detail about this game because I didn't keep a scorecard. But I will tell you that we missed Brett Jackson and Josh Vitters because they had both been called up to The Show. And I will include many photos of Blake coaching first and Dave Sappelt, and all the fun activities there.

There's a Twins fan in every crowd.

A bucket with Darwin on it from his Iowa days.

Ryan Dempster

Seriously, Blake is so classy.

 How cute is this?

After the game, the kids run the bases.

Rachel is a Cubs fan, but not to the degree Angela and I are.

So she just filed her nails like a diva.

We said goodbye to Dave Sappelt

And Blake Parker. We decided not to stay until Monday. I would've had to pay for an extra night in the hotel and an extra day of car rental. And I am pretty sure he didn't even pitch Monday. But when he did start pitching, he was amazing and needs to get back to Chicago ASAP.

 I am definitely going back again! And this time, Katie and our other Iowa twitter friends and all of us will party.

All of my pictures from this game can be found at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151002522288786.427854.511233785&type=3