And that's exactly why I've never gone out of my way to go. It's off the beaten path for me anytime I've come back to Iowa and you're not the first I've heard with this take on it. If it was closer to anywhere I actually go I'd have done it a long time ago. But it'd have to be a special trip kind of thing so yeah it's a long ways down on the ole bucket list for me.
Slightly OT - Tell me about Manchester, Iowa
- Thread starter okeefe4prez
- Start date
For those who may not recall, they are also now building the larger field right next to it that will host the Sox and Yankees this summer (or next if COVID prevents). So it will be a bigger draw.
thedukeofearl
Well-Known Member
EstronHawkKing
Well-Known Member
Minnesota Gophers play-by-play announcer Mike Grimm is from Manchester. He was a long time employee with WMT Radio.
M1911A1Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Nope.
Minnesota Gophers play-by-play announcer Mike Grimm is from Manchester. He was a long time employee with WMT Radio.
Wonder who takes over for Hawks when Dolph hangs it up.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Gentlemen - bad news and good news. The wedding has been moved to Tennessee because the church in Chicago where the actual wedding was going to occur can only accommodate 10 people due to Commissar Pritzker's rules on fighting The Germ. I mean, I totally get it. 11 people in a 600 person capacity church is just begging for The Germ to kill millions through just one super spreader catching it there. I won't get to crush beers and launch fireworks out in Manchester, but the drive is only 7 hours for me.
Thank you all for all of your tips on the greater Manchester area.
Thank you all for all of your tips on the greater Manchester area.
Well hell, we are taking down the banners and canceling the parade then.
HawkPrdatr40
Well-Known Member
I Grew up in Dyersville!
FYI I Think Chad's Pizza is temporarily closed.
FYI I Think Chad's Pizza is temporarily closed.
MikeyLikesIowa
Well-Known Member
I noticed this when I drove by there a couple weeks ago. They are doing some long overdue remodeling.
Fryowa
Administrator
Played against Beckman in a state baseball game back in high school. Little known trivia, I was the only guy in the tournament to get more than one hit off Nic Ungs. I was hoping he’d crack the majors so I could tell people about it like Cliff Clavin would have.
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Fryowa
Administrator
@earlkoppelman has my vote.
Peruse his post history and tell me you don’t want to hear that mess of alphabet soup translated into audio...
earlkoppelman
Well-Known Member
Thanks I think huh? or no huh!
earlkoppelman
Well-Known Member
Me and Gary B. when retired? Mmm!
Fryowa
Administrator
MikeyLikesIowa
Well-Known Member
Nice story. Nic Ungs is currently the University of Iowa's Baseball Director of Operations. Dyersville has been a big baseball town as long as I can remember. Beckman usually fields a pretty good team every year. I'm willing to bet that Dyersville has more baseball fields per capita than any other town in Iowa. I can think of 5 baseball fields suitable for organized play in that town (not including the Field of Dreams) and there may be a couple more I'm unaware of.
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Fryowa
Administrator
He and Darin Naatjes were the only two guys I hit against in high school that I genuinely thought I couldn't hit. I don't mean that I was that good, there were plenty of guys who were better pitchers than I was a batter, but I always went to the plate confident.
Not those two though. I faced Naatjes several times because we were in the same conference all through school, and that dude was scary. He was already 6'7" ish early on in high school and adding 6" from the mound made it a shit show. He ended up playing baseball and football for Stanford, and went I think 3 years in the minors.
Ungs I only ever played against that one game and neither of those hits were solid, at all. One was a weak high-bouncing grounder between 1B/2B, and the other was a blooper into shallow right filed that I'm pretty sure went off the end cap of my bat cause I was so late. Totally outmatched.
Funny story, two or three years later I was at the Clay County Fair and they had one of those radar gun carnival booths, and they had the top 25 or whatever people's names written down. I have no idea why he was there, but I remember walking past that booth and seeing "Nic Ungs" on the white board in probably the top 6 or 7 spots listed out as like 84, 85, 87, 86, 87, and so on. The next guy down was in the high 50s or something. He must've handed the dude 20 bucks and rattled off ten fastballs or something. And I'd imagine a carnie radar gun is probably low.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
Those two hits off Nic Ungs looked like line drives in the box score. And I'll bet you displayed world class wheels beating out that grounder.
Cascade, which is nearby Dyersville, is another baseball hotbed, hell a sports hotbed. The McDermotts, father and son, were Cascade natives, as was Gary Dolphin and baseball hall of famer Red Faber. Their best known player now is Collin Rea, who has pitched for San Diego in the past and pitched for triple A Iowa last year.
Dubuque County has always been a semi pro baseball hotbed. Getting extras for the Field of Dreams movie was probably the easiest job the producer had.
Fryowa
Administrator
Never had wheels. I was actually faster after college because I started running 5Ks.Those two hits off Nic Ungs looked like line drives in the box score. And I'll bet you displayed world class wheels beating out that grounder.
Cascade, which is nearby Dyersville, is another baseball hotbed, hell a sports hotbed. The McDermotts, father and son, were Cascade natives, as was Gary Dolphin and baseball hall of famer Red Faber. Their best known player now is Collin Rea, who has pitched for San Diego in the past and pitched for triple A Iowa last year.
Dubuque County has always been a semi pro baseball hotbed. Getting extras for the Field of Dreams movie was probably the easiest job the producer had.
The blooper into right was weak sauce, it went just over 1B’s head, if he had stayed put and the right fielder was on his toes they probably could have thrown me out, which would have been the most embarrassing moment of my life. The grounder was just out of 1B/2B’s reach. I was too wound tight for any kind of reaction, didn’t know who Ungs was (none of us did), so after the first couple pitches all I could think was, “Holy shit, what the hell is this?” Back then there was no internet like there is today so the only thing we heard was from our coach talking to other coaches. He said they had a stud pitcher which, so do a lot of teams. Well this one was better.
