Jon,
You brought up Jerry Montgomery's name, saying that it would be a lateral move from Michigan and probably hinged on whether living in the Iowa City area was more to his liking. I'm pretty sure that that would be the case. He is married to a farm girl from Dyersville (20 min. west of Dubuque), and for the last two years, her and their young kids have lived in the Dyersville area, near her parents, while he has gotten settled in Michigan. He also has another child, from a previous relationship, that lives here with her mother (whose family is all from this area), too. My kid has played softball with his, so I've seen him back here in the summer quite a bit. My guess is if he got the chance to come back home to Iowa, he would jump at it -- there's too many important family ties living an hour away from Iowa City.