Apropos of this link.....we went to our first Kane County Cougars game of 2005 earlier today. Scalzi’s primary link appears to be broken, but it indicates that minor league baseball is booming in the U.S.
Cool by us!
We love going to the Cougars games. Cody has never been to a major league park – a condition we intend to rectify on Memorial Day, when we’re all going to Comiskey Park, sometimes called US Cellular Field. The only time Bailey was in a major league park was at Busch Stadium in 2001, though I doubt he remembers it. It was his first ever ballgame.
Today was the first time Bailey met Ozzie the Cougar, who Bailey believes is a “bear cougar.”
Cody, shown here in his Boston Red Sox cap in the lower right, complained all the way home that “he misses Ozzie.” That's Shiela Scott and Baby Taylor (our neighbors) next to Ozzie, Bailey (in the Cubs hat) in front, and Bailey's and Cody's great friend (and Shiela's son) Ben next to Bailey.
Cody deserves a clearer picture in this post.
We’ve got nine more games to go to this year, so hopefully Cody will get his fill of Ozzie.
It is worth mentioning at this point that minor league baseball is, by absolutely no stretch of the imagination, "lesser professional baseball." The Cougars own website provides proof. Scroll down to the "Cougars 15th Anniversary All-Time Team" on this link to see. All of these major league players are former Cougars:
Former Cub closer Antonio Alfonseca
Current (rehabbing) Cub closer Joe Borowski
Current Cub pitcher Ryan Dempster
Former World Series MVP Josh Beckett
Former NL Rookie of the Year Dontrell Willis
Current Mets closer Felix Heredia
Former Cardinals second baseman and All Star Edgar Renteria
Current White Sox leadoff hitter (stole four bases and scored four runs today!) Scott Posednick
There are more - click the link above to see. It is pretty clear that excellent baseball is being played here in the Western 'burbs of Chicago.