Iowa Cubs
It’s a big night with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs at Principal Park in Des Moines: a lively crowd, a ballpark tour, and a win for the home team.
Dad and I pulled up to Principal Park in Des Moines and found fans lined up at multiple gates, ready for a big Friday night of baseball between the Triple-A Iowa Cubs and the Syracuse Mets. There was no heavy promotion underway — just a fishing lure bearing the Cubs logo — yet the lines snaked well into the parking lot.
Opened in 1992, Principal Park was designed by elite ballpark architects Populous and built for about $12 million. It has a capacity of 11,500. The Cubs averaged about 5,500 fans per game in 2025 — 12th best in the 20-team International League — and reported about 7,500 for this Friday night.
The ballpark was originally named Sec Taylor Stadium after a sportswriter who worked for the Des Moines Register for 51 years. Since 2004, however — and I say this as a former journalist, way back when — that charming bond to the community has been replaced by the branding of Principal Financial Services, an investment firm with nearly $16 billion in annual revenue. But such is the way — this is how we get nice things in 2026.
As we stepped through the gates and each grabbed a lure, we were approached by team staffer Ben Campney, who was named Employee of the Month by the Cubs two weeks earlier. Ben knew about our trip and recognized us immediately in our big hats. He asked where we were sitting and said he would stop by to take me on a tour of the ballpark. One minute in, and things were already looking up.
The Iowa Cubs began in 1969 as the Iowa Oaks, a reference to the state tree as well as its affiliation with the Oakland A’s. The name stuck as that affiliation changed to the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros during the 1970s. In 1982, a year after the Chicago Cubs first partnered with the team, the franchise became known as the Iowa Cubs and remains so 43 years later — the fourth-longest affiliation in Minor League Baseball.
The club first played in the old American Association, which disbanded after the 1997 season when the number of Triple-A leagues was reduced from three to two. Iowa moved to the Pacific Coast League until 2021, when Minor League Baseball reorganized and placed the Cubs in the expanded International League.
The team has won just one league title in its 57-year existence, claiming the 1993 championship with a squad led by the big hitting of Eddie Zambrano and starter Turk Wendell. Other stars who spent time in Des Moines include Tony La Russa (as a player and manager), Greg Maddux, Joe Carter, Mark Grace, Rafael Palmeiro, Kris Bryant, and, of course, Ryne Sandberg, who also managed the team in 2010 and died later in the summer of 2025 after a battle with prostate cancer.
Like Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Four Winds Field, home of the Double-A South Bend Cubs, the ballpark has a concourse beneath the stands. We made our way through the bustling crowd to the Cub Store.
The shop featured a host of Iowa-specific takes on the familiar Chicago Cubs logo, plus a nod to the Oaks moniker and a few styles of jerseys and caps for the Demonios de Des Moines, the club’s current Copa de la Diversión identity. It’s a nod to the Des Moines Demons (1925-1937 and 1959-1961), who primarily played in the Class-A Western League.
Earlier teams in Des Moines, dating to 1900, include the Boosters, Champs, Champions, Underwriters, Prohibitionists, Undertakers, Midgets, and Hawkeyes, and I was fine with several of these early brands remaining unrepresented in the Cub Store.
The Cubs have also played as the Iowa Caucuses, recognizing the state’s role in helping to determine the presidential candidates of both major parties.
I selected a fairly conventional hat and immediately began worrying if I had made the right choice for the one and only hat I would allow myself to purchase from the Cubs. Dad found a colorful logo ball depicting Iowa Cubs history, and we were on our way.
I took a quick walk down each line to get some early impressions of Principal Park. I found a vendor balancing a tray of 15 vodka lemonades on his head, no hands needed. I later encountered vendors with trays of colorful snowcones and cups of equally colorful fruits and vegetables — a unique touch that gave the ballpark a festive feel.
Iowa entered the night a few games above .500 and would remain in the middle of the pack for the rest of the season, missing the playoffs.
The visiting Syracuse Mets sat four games below .500 and, despite a strong second half, would also miss the International League playoffs.
Pre-game activities included the introduction of Iowa mascot Cubby Bear, who first came onto the scene with the switch from the Oaks brand to the Cubs in 1982.
Soon after the game got started, Ben stopped by, and I followed him down the right-field line to the outfield. He described how seating sections on each side would be taken out to allow the bullpens to be moved off the field, in compliance with Major League Baseball’s requirements for all Minor League teams.
We stood in the Right Field Party Deck behind the manual scoreboard and watched as the operator pulled out a “1.” The Cubs had just put the first run on the board in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly. They would get a another on a bases-loaded walk to take a 2-0 lead. The sun began to set behind a canteloupe-colored sky marred by wildfire smoke.
Moving along at a brisk pace, Ben took me up to the broadcast booth, where I met Des Moines register beat writer Tommy Birch.
Ben took me to a shrine dedicated to Birch’s much earlier predecessor, Sec Taylor, who began his career in Wichita and covered Iowa sports from 1914 until his death in 1965 at the age of 78.
We then took a trip down the left-field line. Other staffers and a few fans greeted Ben and shared jokes as we made our way into the Left Field Lounge, a sharp spot for a drink and a great view of the action.
Ben and I said our goodbyes, and I went about the business of finding dinner for Dad and me. Befitting a Triple-A ballpark, there were plenty of great options — pork tenderloin sandwiches, sausages, brisket sandwiches, barbecue pork sandwiches, tacos, and more. But when Dad realized they had Chicago Dogs — a culinary connection to the parent club — the debate was over. Dad ate about five Chicago Dogs on our Eastern Midwest trip the year before, and he was quick to rekindle the love affair.
The drink options were equally plentiful, ranging from an on-site bar, a walk-up window for mixed drinks, and an Iowa Craft beer stand that offered more than 25 different beers. I tried a Confluence Des Moines IPA with my own Chicago Dog, and all was right with the world.
I caught a few games and other events between innings, including hot dogs blasted from a giant Berkwood Farms hot dog cannon, and t-shirts fired from what appeared to be a military-grade t-shirt cannon mounted on the back of a golf cart. Otherwise, we saw a lot of races — a snow-angel relay, a hippity-hop race, and the Iowa B-Bops Race, in which kids dress in hamburger costumes in honor of a local chain and sprint around the infield. A girl joined the race without a costume and, unencumbered by a floppy burger outfit, won the race. (Watch the video!)
Jonathan Long
The Mets took the lead in the top of the third on two singles, a walk, and a double. Cubs first baseman Jonathan Long answered in the bottom half with a solo homer to center field. A ninth-round pick of the Cubs in the 2023 draft, Long was well on his way to a stellar season in which he would hit .305 with 20 home runs.
The Cubs picked up three more runs in the fourth on a home run and a trio of singles. Syracuse scored once in the fifth, making it 6-4 Cubs.
Carlos Pérez
The home team notched three more runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back home runs — the first an encore blast by Long, and the second a shot to left-center by catcher Carlos Pérez, in his 17th season of Minor League Baseball — a career that has included stints with four Major League teams and several seasons in Venezuela.
The Cubs led it 8-4 down the stretch.
As the night came to an end, I noticed the state capitol building illuminated in golden light beyond center field. We had seen talented players with Major League experience battling it out in front of a lively crowd in a ballpark that feels close and communal, and the city’s biggest landmark lit the way. Now we just needed the Cubs to close it out.
In the top of the ninth, an error and a hit batter helped the Mets push one run across, but it ended there. Cubs win, Cubs win, Cubs win — 8-5.
Friday nights are for fireworks across much of the minor leagues, and we were treated to a good show to top off a night of big fun at the ballpark.