Four Winds Field - South Bend Cubs

Lake County Captains (CLE) @ South Bend Cubs (CHC)

June 20, 2025

Cubs 5, Captains 4 (10 inn)

W: Brayden Risedorph
L: Kyle Scott

HR: Jefferson Rojas (SB)

Attendance: 6,528
Time of Game: 3 hours, 1 minute

Stadium Facts

Location: South Bend, IN
Opened: 1988
Capacity: 5,000
Level: High A
League: Midwest

On this Friday morning and afternoon, I drove pretty much the entire length of the state of Indiana from just South of its border in Louisville to the very northern part of the state, South Bend.  No local exploration was necessary at this stop because there are very few cities that I am more familiar with than South Bend.  There is also no minor league ballpark that I have visited more frequently than what is now called Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs.  The summer between my junior and senior years at Notre Dame, I spent most of the summer in South Bend.  Back in those days, the South Bend Silver Hawks played at this same park, which was then called Coveleski Stadium.  Every Monday home game was $1 night:  $1 tickets, hot dogs, beers and sodas.  I think I attended virtually every Monday home game that summer.  That was back when minor league teams actually played on Mondays.  I would guess I've been to at least a dozen games in this ballpark.  That said, prior to this trip, my last visit was a week before I graduated from college.  So we're talking well over two decades ago.

I barely recognized the place.  Opened in 1988, this is the oldest park I've been to so far this year.  In the years soon following the new affiliation with the Cubs (2015), major renovations were made to the stadium and the neighborhood around it.  There are now residential buildings just beyond the outfield in both left and center that definitely weren't there the last time I visited.  The left field one has rooftop seating, giving it some Wrigley Field flavor.  There are also a bunch of newer picnic and party areas down the third base line and in left field.  Lawn seating remains in other parts of the outfield and down the first base line.  Currently, all of the seating areas within the regular confines of the park are on the field level.  But that is about to change.  Construction is in progress to add a second level above the concourse.  This park was a little bit ahead of its time having suites (from what I read, it was the first in the minor leagues to have them) and a concourse above the main seating area from which you can view the field.  On this particular night, that concourse was jam packed with people.  I'm curious if the addition of more seats on a second level will make this better or worse.  This game had an announced attendance well over the listed capacity, which presumably doesn't take into account lawn seating.  As I will continue to write about in upcoming Midwest League recaps, I'm starting to understand why this league was promoted to High A in the most recent minor league reorg.  Most of these teams have nice stadiums with great local community support.

This was probably the most entertaining game I saw on this Midwest trip.  It was a bit difficult for me to pick a side to root for considering these are affiliates of my two least favorite MLB teams.  The first inning featured leadoff extra base hits in both halves.  Lake County's Christian Knapczyk doubled to right on the first pitch of the game, but was then erased on a poor base running decision.  It was the start of an eventful night for Knapczyk who reached base four times, twice by way of being hit by pitches.  Cubs leadoff hitter Jefferson Rojas started the bottom of the first with a home run to left off of Captains pitcher Yorman Gomez to give South Bend an early 1-0 lead.  It was close to the only blemish of a pretty dominant performance by Gomez.  He had seven strikeouts in the first three innings and a total of nine with no walks in his five innings of work.  Lake County got on the board in the fourth inning, during which they sent all nine men to the plate despite starting the inning with two consecutive outs.  What followed was a bloop double that the center fielder got a poor read on, an RBI triple by Jonah Advincula, a single, a double, Knapczyk's second time being hit by a pitch, and then a bases loaded walk taken by Jaison Chourio, younger brother of the Brewers' Jackson Chourio.  Apparently walking has been Jaison's calling card this season because he has a very good on base percentage despite a disappointing batting average.  This walk gave the Captains a 3-1 lead.  The Cubs did some of their own two out nobody on damage in the sixth.  Following a pair of hits and a walk, Drew Bowser singled to knock in two and tie the game at three.  South Bend retook the lead two innings later on a bizarre play.  With the bases loaded and one out, a Rojas grounder to third took the third baseman to the bag where he got the force, but then threw wildly to first in an attempt to end the inning.  The ball got away into the bullpen area on the first base side where the right fielder picked it up and threw home to get an out at the plate on a questionable call by the home plate umpire.  In the top of the ninth with the Captains down to their last strike, Jacob Cozart doubled to the gap in left center to score Knapczyk and tie the game at four, which ultimately led to extra innings.  In the top of the tenth, Brayden Risedorph struck out the side, stranding the free runner at second.  In the bottom half, with runners on first and second and one out, the Cubs pulled off a double steal to put the winning run 90 feet away.  An intentional walk loaded the bases.  For some reason, #8 hitter Bowser decided to swing on 3-0, one ball away from ending the game, and fouled it off.  But he then redeemed himself for that questionable decision by singling up the middle for an extra inning, walk-off victory for the Cubs.

After this exciting Midwest League game in South Bend, it was up to Michigan for three more Midwest League games over the weekend and into the following week.  Despite traveling to the North, temperatures continued to rise for what was a rather steamy weekend.

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Next ballpark: LMCU Ballpark in Comstock Park, MI

Louisville Slugger Field - Louisville Bats

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (NYY) @ Louisville Bats (CIN)

June 19, 2025

Bats 6, RailRiders 3

W: Yosver Zulueta
L: Brent Headrick

S: Zach Maxwell

HR: T.J. Rumfield (SWB), Ryan Vilade (LOU)

Attendance: 4,065
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Louisville, KY
Opened: 2000
Capacity: 13,131
Level: Triple A
League: International

After an unexpected day off due to a rainout in Dayton, I drove Southwest across the Ohio River into Kentucky where I ultimately settled in Louisville.  I wish I had known ahead of time that there would be no game played in Dayton on Wednesday because I really would have liked to have spent an extra day checking out all there is to see in Louisville.  I was able to sneak in a visit to Churchill Downs, but didn't have time to make it to the Louisville Slugger museum or do a bourbon tasting tour on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville.

Louisville Slugger Field is located right on Main Street in downtown Louisville, near the East end of Whiskey Row.  It is located just a couple blocks from the Ohio River.  From most vantage points within the stadium, you get a great view of a couple of the bridges crossing the river into Indiana.  Really, there is great scenery looking out from pretty much anywhere in the stadium.  From points in the outfield, you can see the downtown skyline.  The ballpark is built right up against an old brick warehouse.  In fact, the main entrance to the park is actually inside of this building.  Also housed in that building is an active brewery.  First one of those I can recall seeing on site at a minor league park.  A very spacious concourse encircles the entire park.  Traditional stadium seating covers almost all of the foul territory on the lower level, even circling around to left field, providing ample outfield seating to go along with lawn seating in left center and picnic, patio and bar seating covering all of right field.  There is a pretty substantial amount of upper deck seating available as well.  The stadium's capacity of over 13,000 makes it one of the larger parks I've been to the past couple years.  There was not a terribly large crowd on this particular night though despite ideal baseball weather.  If you include the Dayton game that got rained out, this was the only one of the first five stops on my trip that didn't have a near capacity crowd.

Cam Schlittler got the start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in this one.  He is expected to make his MLB debut for the Yankees sometime later this week.  I saw him pitch for High A Hudson Valley last August, so that will be three promotions in less than a year for Schlittler, a pretty meteoric rise.  He was quite impressive on this night before hitting a bit of a wall in the fifth inning.  His 97-99 MPH fastball was giving Bats hitters fits through the first four innings.  The first time through the order, six of the nine Bats hitters struck out.  Eventually, Schlittler would strike out nine to just one walk in his five innings.  The RailRiders got on the board first.  Following a two out walk, T.J. Rumfield blasted a two run homer to left.  The Bats answered in the fifth.  Schlittler issued his only walk of the game to start the inning.  That runner came in to score on a slow infield chopper base hit by veteran infielder Jeimer Candelario.  The Reds would DFA Candelario a few days later, so I saw what was presumably one of his last games in their organization.  Two batters later, Rece Hinds tied the game by ending a nine pitch at bat with another chopper that found a hole for a base hit.  The RailRiders quickly retook the lead though in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by one time Cubs top prospect Brennan Davis.  In the bottom of the sixth, the Bats took advantage of Schlittler no longer being in the game with their first authoritative run of the game.  Ryan Vilade started the frame with a home run to left center to tie the game at three.  They then added an unearned run in the seventh and two more runs in the eighth.  Louisville won this one by a final score of 6-3.

After a fun day in Louisville, it was up to Northern Indiana in a ballpark I had been many times before in South Bend on Friday night.  With the exception of the first and last days of the trip, that Louisville to South Bend drive was my longest of the trip.

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Next ballpark: Four Winds Field in South Bend, IN

Huntington Park - Columbus Clippers

Indianapolis Indians (PIT) @ Columbus Clippers (CLE)

June 17, 2025

Indians 7, Clippers 2

W: Ryder Ryan
L: Doug Nikhazy

HR: Nick Yorke (IND)

Attendance: 10,087
Time of Game: 2 hours, 58 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Columbus, OH
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 10,100
Level: Triple A
League: International

On Tuesday, June 17th, I set out on what might have been the craziest baseball trip I've ever completed, and that's saying something.  It was definitely the longest in terms of number of days and games attended.  It was originally supposed to be 11 games in 12 days, but one rainout knocked that down to 10 in 12.  What made the trip doable is that almost all of my drives between cities were no more than a couple hours.  So other than the first and last days of the trip, I didn't really spend too much time in my car.  The trip covered all over the states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, plus one stop just across the river from Indiana in Louisville, Kentucky.  Stop number one was in central Ohio, the state's capital and largest city Columbus is interestingly not the home to either of the state's two MLB teams.  But it is the home of a very popular AAA franchise.  The Columbus Clippers are appropriately an affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians.  Interesting that this game featured a team named the Indians, but it wasn't the one affiliated with Cleveland.

Huntington Park is a very nice stadium and has some pretty unique characteristics among the AAA parks I've seen.  It is located in what is known as the Arena District, situated in between Columbus' MLS and NHL stadiums.  The concourse does not encircle the entire park because the right field wall butts right up against the sidewalk and street that runs past the stadium in right.  Pedestrians walking past the stadium could stop and watch the game through a chain linked fence if they so desire.  There are no seats in right, just a standing room porch above the tall right field wall.  A much different setup in left field though where there are expansive bleacher sections and lawn seating in left center.  A three story brick building creates the exterior of the park in left, with deck seating on the upper levels and one section of bleacher seating on the top level, reminiscent of the rooftop seating across the street from Wrigley Field.  Traditional seating covers the entire foul territory on the lower level from pole to pole.  The second level consists of suites.  There are also some premium, full service sections behind home plate that essentially connect the two levels.  The main concourse design is a bit of a mix between the two styles I've seen.  While there is a walkway at the top of the lower level that provides a view of the field from all points, most of the concourse is separated from the field by brick walls housing restrooms and other facilities.  This particular night was 10 cent hot dog night.  My takeaway is that this is an ingenious promotion for midweek games.  The stadium was absolutely packed on a Tuesday night.  I was at a MLB game in DC the night before that definitely had fewer butts in seats than this Tuesday minor league game.  The announced attendance was over 10,000 with more than 17,000 hot dogs served.

Starting this game on the mound for Indianapolis was the top pitching prospect in the game according to MLB.com, right handed fireballer Bubba Chandler.  I saw him in person last summer as well when he was pitching for the Pirates AA affiliate in Altoona.  He struggled a bit in that game, but was far more impressive on this night.  For one thing, he hit triple digits with his fastball multiple times.  I don't recall him throwing quite that hard last summer.  He only struck out three in his four innings on this night, but was pretty effective nonetheless, allowing a couple runs, only one of which was earned.  The Indians scored a pair in the top of the first on a RBI double to left center by former Pirates regular Jack Suwinski who then scored when the next batter Billy Cook singled to left.  Chandler ran into some trouble in the third, some of which was of his own making, but also some bad luck.  After a one out walk, he gave up a single on a flare to left that the left fielder had trouble seeing as he was looking towards the setting sun.  Not sure if it would have mattered though.  Brayan Rocchio then singled to right and Suwinski made a solid throw home that was going to hold the lead runner at third.  But the catcher let the one hop throw skip by him as Chandler may have impeded his vision as he was standing near the path of the throw for some reason rather than backing up the plate.  So the runner on third came in to score.  Then Chase DeLauter hit a chopper over the first baseman's head to score another run and tie the game.  The Indians answered right back in the third with two more runs, despite having two runners thrown out on the bases.  Darick Hall crushed a double high off the tall chain fence in right that probably would have been a homer in most minor league parks.  He was later thrown out at the plate on a fielder's choice play.  But then Ronny Simon delivered a double down the left field line to score a pair of runs and he too was thrown out on the play getting caught between second and third.  That's all the Indians would need as the Clippers did not score again.  For good measure, Nick Yorke drilled a two run homer to the concourse in left in the top of the eighth to give Indianapolis a 7-2 lead, which was the final score.

This was a great way to start this monster trip.  It was a perfect night for baseball in front of a huge crowd on a Tuesday night.  I wasn't quite as fortunate the next night though.  A line of heavy thunderstorms hit Dayton right around the time the game was to begin, which eventually caused the game to be canceled.  Even though I was able to check out the park in its entirety, I do plan on making a return trip to Dayton to see a game at some point so I won't be writing about it at this time.  The next game I actually did see was in Louisville on Thursday night.

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Next ballpark: Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, KY