When I moved to Evansville, I was intrigued that at the time, Evansville had a triple A baseball team which was affiliated with the Detroit Tigers. Sometimes the team was quite good and at other times not so much. As a fan of the Chicago Cubs, I was kind of used to these ups and downs, and usually for the Cubs, it was mostly down. We were used to the moniker of “loveable losers and the “doormat of the National League.”

I attended several games at Bosse Field, which was built in 1915, making it one of the oldest baseball fields still in use today. The Triplets were the team associated with the Detroit Tigers, but while they were here, I got to see some players who made it up to the “big” team, who won the World Series in 1984. There were four players who were instrumental in the team winning the World Series. At third base was Tom Brookens, Shortstop Alan Trammell, second base Lou Whitaker, and right field Kirk Gibson, who was instrumental in winning the World Series in 1988 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gibson hit a home run in the first game of the World Series off of relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley of the Oakland Athletics, who by the way, was a former Chicago Cub.

Another connection with the Cubs and my visits to Bosse Field was watching the Triplets play against the Redbirds, which was the triple A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, and they had a first baseman named Leon Durham, and I liked his hitting and play at first base, and I thought how cool it would be to see Leon Durham play for the Chicago Cubs. That was 1983, and in 1984, he was a Cub.

I miss this level of minor leage baseball because, the reason for these lower level teams is to develop the players who would eventually make it to the major league. Some of these players wound up being traded to other teams for current players who could help the major league team get into the playoffs and ultimately to win a World Series Championship. In Evansville, we have a team in the Frontier League which is even below minor league A, and they are unaffiliated with any major league teams. However, this doesn’t mean that some of these players don’t advance to play in the major league, but it’s a more difficult road. I hope to visit Des Moines in the future to take in an Iowa Cubs game at Principle Park. I do listen to some of their games through the internet, and sometimes those games are more interesting than the Chicago Cubs. In any event, I can still say, “Go Cubs!”