This is a picture of downtown Clinton, Iowa last Sunday morning. If you look closely you will see some vacant storefronts, aging signs and a main street under repair. This is Clinton and dozens of other small and medium-sized cities I’ve seen this summer. There is work to be done on Main Street USA – in Clinton and all of the communities I wrote about in the final pages of In League With America. But that is not what I will remember about this trip back to this Mississippi River town in eastern Iowa.
In 1990, the year before The Excellent Adventure, the baseball writer Daniel Okrent penned an article for Sports Illustrated. It was entitled “Just a Little Bit of Heaven” and extolled the virtues of Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass. I have been a fan of Okrent’s since reading his book “Nine Innings,” which somehow turned a single baseball game into the canvass for an entire book about the sport. It was wonderful, and I agree that Wahconah is a very special place. But I don’t have to jump into a time machine to experience what Okrent was referring to. I have just seen that little bit of heaven at NelsonCorp Field in Clinton.
I pulled into town mid-afternoon last Saturday and drove straight to Riverview Park – part of a much larger city park complex surrounding the stadium. I had talked with Ted Tornow, the affable general manager of the Clinton LumberKings last week and he knew I was coming, so I wanted to get over to say hi. Ted’s baseball career spans all of my ballpark travels. He was working in Memphis in 1991 and remembered what Sue and I had done and for almost all the years since he has been at the helm in Clinton.
Before I went to the stadium, though, I checked out the city-run RV park that is also part of Riverview Park. An RV park next to a baseball stadium could go in one of two directions. It could be pretty cool, or it could be decidedly sketchy. It was the former. I don’t love RV parks where sites are packed so close you can reach out and touch the trailer next door. But these sites were huge, the park wasn’t full and best of all – it was, quite literally, across the street from the ballpark. Thus, I got to cross another first off my list. Even though I have been to hundreds of ballparks in my life and camped at most of them, this was the first time I’ve been able to walk to the game from my campsite.
NelsonCorp Field was built in 1937, and so, although it has been significantly renovated since I first saw it, the field has retained one of my favorite elements. It has a large, covered grandstand that, on a hot and sunny late Saturday afternoon, provided a wonderful refuge from the sun while at the same time making it easy to see everything happening on the field. The light gradually changed as the sun slowly set behind the stadium, as if the players had been placed in some cosmic spotlight even as the fans remained in twilight.
The top rows of the grandstand look out over the field toward a restored paddle wheel boat, the Clinton Showboat Theatre, which is also part of the larger Riverview Park complex. There is a full-sized city swimming pool and a nice walking trail along the Mississippi. Although I stayed in town for almost 24 hours, much longer than any stop in 1991, there was much I would have liked to do that I ran out of time for.
During the renovations, the team added several Camdenesque improvements. Now, a concourse stretches around the field, providing an outfield view that wasn’t previously possible and a bunch more concession opportunities. The picnic area has also been significantly enlarged since the night that Sue and I were served pot roast after a rained-out game. On the outfield walkway, a handful of large Adirondack Chairs are painted in such bright hues they appear neon in the sunlight. After doing an interview on the team’s radio broadcast I couldn’t resist any longer. I had to sit in one of those chairs. It was a great view of the game and the sun setting behind the grandstand. See below.
Even as the game ended, though, the night wasn’t over. Unfortunately, the game ended in a Clinton loss at about 9:30 p.m., but a postgame concert was still on tap! I said my goodbyes and returned to my nearby campsite to watch and listen. As the ballpark lights were dimmed, I sat in a lawn chair and listened to classic rock for another 90 minutes, sipping a beer and basking in a magical day.
Most folks in Clinton would probably admit that losing affiliated baseball was a gut punch two years ago, just as it was in 40 other small cities when Major League Baseball pulled the plug on the minor leagues I had known. It was made even more painful by how unnecessary it was. Part of this trip has been about seeing how this town and the others in the same boat have held up and whether baseball has a future in these communities.
I am happy to report that baseball in Clinton is alive and well and likely will be as long as Ted Tornow and the next generation of leaders in this river city keep unlocking the gates to NelsonCorp Field each spring. People will come out to the park and find their own little bit of heaven. The Prospect League is providing a great baseball experience and there will be more names added to the long scroll of Clinton alumni that have played in the big leagues. But will people in this town still care as much about Major League Baseball? That remains to be seen.
In League with America 