Finding Baseball in Iowa

Driving past the 'Welcome to Iowa' sign on Interstate 35, I wasn't sure what kind of baseball culture I would find.  It was my first time in the state.  I knew there were some minor league clubs scattered here and there, but it was already after Labor Day, which is typically the final day of the minor league season.  I had just spent three days in Missouri, home to two major league teams and the Negro Leagues Museum.  Missouri is a great baseball state.  But Iowa?

Baseball in the Nation's Capital (Part II)

In Part I of Baseball in the Nation's Capital, I claimed that Washington, DC and baseball have an awkward relationship.  I also said that, despite it's awkwardness, baseball has a positive presence in DC culture and I attempted to prove it by listing the many baseball-themed activities that take place regularly in the area.  However, as some readers pointed out, even those local baseball events are a little awkward...  Fans gathering in an MLB outfield to watch an opera simulcast on the main scoreboard?  U.S. Congressmen and women putting on game-day uniforms and trying to strike each other out in a major league stadium?  A high school named after a pitcher?  So why does a city that lives and dies by its football team, and that sticks by its basketball and hockey teams through good and bad seasons, have such a strange relationship with the national pastime?