Cedar Rapids Kernels
It’s a big night at the ballpark with the Minor League Cedar Rapids Kernels: a first pitch, live and taped interviews, incredible ballpark food, and a walk-off win for the home team.
Dad and I were coasting. We had seen games in 15 ballparks over 16 days across seven states, and had endured some long, flat drives to make it happen. But now we were in eastern Iowa, densely populated with current and former Minor League ballparks. For the next few days, the drives would be shorter, the cities smaller, our days easier.
Game 16 was a Tuesday night tilt at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, between two Minor League teams from the High-A Midwest League: the Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Peoria Chiefs.
This is the second Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. The first was built in 1949 for the Cedar Rapids Rockets of the Class C Central Association. Over the decades, the ballpark hosted a long list of Cedar Rapids minor league clubs as they moved up the ladder to Class B and Class A with the Indians, Raiders, and the Cedar Rapids Braves.
The Braves left the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (or Three-I) League for the Midwest League in 1962. Over the ensuing decades, the franchise regularly changed the team’s moniker — to the Red Raiders, Cardinals, Giants, Astros, and Reds — as Major League affiliations shifted. In 1993, the club went in a different direction and rebranded as the Kernels. The original Veterans Memorial Stadium hosted every one of these teams.
A new Veterans Memorial Stadium was built for the Kernels in 2002. It includes Veterans Memorial Park, a collection of military memorials and a hefty tank at one end of the parking lot.
The new ballpark has a capacity of about 5,300. The Kernels brought an average of 2,291 fans per game to Veterans Memorial Stadium in 2025 — 10th best in the 12-team league.
We were met outside the gates by Amos Dupuich, the Kernels Marketing & Advertising Manager. He — and, as it turned out, quite a few others on staff — knew all about our road trip and gave us a warm welcome.
A brass band greeted fans inside the gates —a fun touch from members of the community to help make the experience feel special.
The Kernals — affiliated with the Minnesota Twins since 2013 — have won four Midwest League titles, in 1988, 1992, 1994, and 2023. Well-known alumni include Mike Trout, Trevor Hoffman, Joe Mauer, Paul O'Neill, Ted Simmons, Rocky Colavito, and San Diego Padres slugger Nate Colbert.
Dad and I headed straight for the team store and found a bounty of merch sporting Kernels branding and a multitude of alternate identities.
This included the team’s Copa de la Diversión entry, Los Granos de Cedar Rapids — which translates to "the grains,” as in kernels of corn. (Cuanto más sabes…). The brand uses yellow for the summer harvest and purple to evoke fall decorations.
Also on the shelf: the Mat Grapplers, celebrating Iowa’s wrestling heritage; July 4th caps; the Minnesota Twins City Connect hat; and the Kernels two-color home hat — my choice from the start.
As Dad settled into his seat, I returned to the team store to check out a corner nook reserved for the Cedar Rapids Pro Baseball Hall of Fame.
The earliest mascots in Cedar Rapids baseball history were gentle creatures, starting with the Canaries in 1890 and the Rabbits from 1896 to 1903. Evidently concerned that “rabbits” felt overly menacing, the team changed its name to the Bunnies 1904, and it stuck through 1932. The Kernels appear as the Bunnies on select nights and played in era-appropriate Bunnies uniforms at the 2022 Minor League Baseball Field of Dreams Game.
Back on the concourse, I met beloved Kernels mascot Mr. Shucks, who first donned his baseball head atop his corncob body in the inaugural 1993 season.
I also met Cedar Rapids Assistant General Manager Sean Brandhorst and Director of Corporate Sales Matt Like, who chatted me up about the road trip.
All of this hospitality was on top of the fact that I had been asked to throw out a first pitch in this beautiful ballpark by a historic franchise. Dad and I wore our matching road trip t-shirts for the occasion.
When Dad and I reached the backstop gate, the team photographer introduced herself and said she would take photos of the two of us as well as my first pitch. Another thoughtful gesture from the team’s front office.
I was joined on the mound by a woman serving in the Army — I think? It was hard to focus — who threw a relaxed strike for her first pitch. Then it was my turn.
I was a catcher for 10 years growing up, and I still remember the most valuable drill I ever practiced: Wearing my full catcher’s gear but with my arms behind me, my coach threw balls in the dirt, left and right. I had to block each one on the bounce — squaring my body, chest forward, keeping the rebound in front of me — and then be ready for the next ball. It not only helped me refine my technique, it also reduced my fear of getting hurt behind the plate.
So I thought I would return the favor of this lesson by bouncing my first pitch to the young Kernels player acting as catcher.
OK. Yes. I just bounced it. I took a bit of a windup, and let’s just say my weight distribution is not what it used to be. I tilted forward off the mound and bounced it, to my complete horror.
I walked with the Army woman to collect our baseballs and joked with her that I could tell them apart easily. Mine was the one with the brown scuff.
Soon, it was time to play ball. Mr. Shucks fired up the crowd to get things started.
Cole Peschl
The Kernels started right-hander Cole Peschl, a 22-year-old in his first season of professional ball out of college. Peschl had dazzled with the Single-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels earlier in the season, giving up just three earned runs in 26-plus innings and racking up 37 strikeouts in the process. He would start nine games for the Kernels in 2025, putting up a nice 3.40 ERA.
Peschl put the Chiefs down in the first, but he ran into trouble in the second. Peoria scored three runs on a triple, a double, and three singles.
Cedar Rapids responded with a run in the bottom of the second off Chiefs starter Darlin Saladin. Peoria led it 3-1 after two.
Our big night kept rolling on. Dad and I were invited to join Kernels broadcaster Calvin Christoforo for an inning on the air to talk about our journey together. Calvin was in his third season with the Kernels, and it was fun to hear him do his call live before we put on the headphones.
Dad went back to our seats while I wandered the hallway behind the press box, which was stuffed with Cedar Rapids baseball memorabilia.
When I emerged back down on the concourse, I found Dad with Chelsea Brown of KCRG-TV — the Cedar Rapids ABC affiliate — ready to interview us. I grinned and blinked and shook my head. This night at the ballpark!
Chelsea asked some great questions and did a really nice piece on us, which you can watch here.
Peschl and Saladin kept their opponents from scoring over the next few innings. It remained 3-1 Peoria.
I took photos of the concessions stands at Veterans Memorial Stadium — something I feel obliged to do as a thorough ballpark reporter, though it does get some looks — but I did so more to understand the landscape than to make a decision.
That’s because I knew without a doubt that I wanted a Kernels Street Corn Dog. I had seen this beauty on social media and placed it atop my Concessions Strategy document, with a star, a bullet, bold font, you name it. I needed to ask a couple of concessions workers, but eventually I found the dog of my dreams in a stand down the left-field line.
The Kernels Street Corn Dog is a huge sausage — thick, very juicy, and extending well beyond the bun — topped with saucy street corn, cilantro sauce, and sprinkled with a bit more cilantro. I bought one for Dad as well, and grabbed a couple of forks. It was incredible. The dog itself was world-class. The sauces had real, restaurant-quality flavor and worked well together. It was the perfect ballpark specialty food — regionally appropriate, a little wild, and excellent without excess — and the best thing either of us ate at any of the 20 ballparks we visited.
With all of our side activities at the ballpark, I missed some of the fun on the field between innings, but I did manage to see a t-shirt toss, a recycling relay race between girls dressed as inflatable pigs, kids throwing balls to men who tried to catch them in a backwards cape, and a relay race between guys dressed as pizza slices in which the “batons” were pizza boxes. (Watch the episode!)
I made my way down the left-field line as fans lined up for ice cream and coffee.
I came upon Kernels General Manager Scott Wilson watching the ballgame. The Kernels were in a battle with the Quad Cities River Bandits for the first-half title and needed to make up some ground. Staff at the ballpark monitored the River Bandits game taking place just 80 miles southeast in Davenport, Iowa.
I thanked Scott for the efforts everyone on his staff had made to make us feel welcome in Cedar Rapids. As we talked, we turned to see the video board wishing Scott a happy birthday.
The ballgame picked up steam in the sixth inning. Peoria tacked a run onto their lead, but heavy-swinging Kernels center fielder Brandon Winokur hit a two-run shot to center in the bottom half to make it 4-3 Chiefs.
Peoria jabbed back with two more runs in the seventh, answered by another Cedar Rapids two-run bomb, this time by Kernels right fielder Caden Kendle. The visitors led 6-5 after seven.
What the heck — things were going so well, why not have a second Big Grove IPA?
In the bottom of the eighth, Cedar Rapids converted a one-out double-steal to set up a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Down in the Kernels bullpen, a team of teens talked baseball with minor leaguers just a few years older than them.
Peoria collected a pair of two-out singles in the ninth but could not break the tie.
Cedar Rapids also put two runners aboard in the ninth and also did not score. We went on to extra innings for the second night in a row.
With so much happening, I hadn’t noticed Jon Teig until just then. The Cedar Rapids Bat Boy was in his 25th year of service with the team, a milestone that would be celebrated in August when he would throw out the first pitch and bring the team’s lineup to home plate.
Both teams began the 10th with the ghost runner on second base. The Chiefs went down in order. The Kernels moved their runner over on a fielder’s choice, and an easy sacrifice fly to right field brought him home for the walk-off celebration.
What a night it had been — meeting so many people, throwing out a first pitch, spending some time on the air, a TV interview… and in the late innings, Amos stopped by to see how our night had gone and offered to show me some of the extensive team archives. Then Mr. Shucks came by for a parting shot.
It was a standout night of memories made possible by the generosity of the Cedar Rapids Kernels. We left full of gratitude and happy exhaustion.