Bryant, Baez And A Weekend In Des Moines

kris-byrant-smileToday’s column from CBS Chicago

(CBS) It’s still in Iowa, but these days the Field of Dreams exists about 190 miles southwest of Dyersville, just outside downtown Des Moines.

Or at least it sure does for Chicago Cubs fans.

That’s because Principal Park, home of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs located at the confluence of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in Iowa’s capital city, is also the current nexus of the franchise’s hopes and Cubs fans’ dreams.

Heck, the place even has a few ghosts floating around, to boot.

This past weekend, my dad and I road-tripped five hours west of Wrigley Field to Des Moines in pursuit of actual compelling Cubs baseball – a brand of the sport not seen at the Friendly Confines since before Lou Piniella retired.

With phenom third baseman Kris Bryant having been called up to Iowa last Thursday to join a fellow whiz kid, in shortstop Javier Baez – the organization’s top two prospects ranked No. 8 and No. 5, respectively, in Baseball America’s Top 100 list – we wanted to get a first-hand look at the future that Tom Ricketts and Theo Epstein keep promising us.

And we came back home cautiously optimistic – although we didn’t exactly start that way.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com

 

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