Aside from wanting to visit MWL ballparks, long forgotten, I had hoped to speak with a few of the ballplayers with local ties to suburban Chicago. While there are a couple reporters with The Daily Herald that cover local kids made good, there is next to nothing written about The Northwoods League and the experience.

The only other time I interviewed someone with the Kingfish was a few years ago when former Cub, Justin Berg, was the pitching coach. That time we arranged to meet without the help of the media relations folks. Due to the expected crowd, this was different. I conducted the most basic of research into the 7 guys with local ties. Northwoods League folks are as green as the players, do stats and bios are not updated or complete (as in uniform numbers are often wrong).

One of the highlights of the appreciation night was the 20% off discount in the team store. However, the downside was the quality of the scorecard/stat sheet and game notes.

I did secure a nice spot next to the Kenosha dugout where I could get some net-free shots of players as they came on the field. And unlike the somewhat older minor leaguers, I’ve been trying to connect with recently, these guys were happy to talk with adult fans. These kids are happy to talk with anyone about anything-especially the NWL experience.

Only two of my guys, the aforementioned Nate Mieszkowski and Tyler Bickers were in the lineup, but I managed shots of both and spoke with them before first pitch. The very thick netting prevented quality shots though. I am hoping to speak with both of them to hear about the overall experience and their college careers.

While many summer league’s draw from the region, there are enough players that have never played in the region or traveled far from home. It’s always fun to hear about their new experiences and what they’re looking to most from home. It used to be that minor league coaches and catchers would share information about the day’s starting pitcher, but for some reason that’s not standard operating procedures any longer.

As Kenosha catcher, Nick Putnam, was stretching we discussed his pitcher, Tsubasa Tomii and the game plan. I also asked about pitch-calling and which coaches allowed him to do so. He also mentioned that he’s come to love cheese curds, but longs for his In-N-Out of California.

I had the opportunity to chat with several Kingfish fans who have great relationships with the kids that call Kenosha home for a summer or two. They genuinely care about the kids whether they achieve ML stardom or not.

Without first realizing how difficult shooting during the game would be, I had very low expectations of staying for the entire game. For whatever reason, whomever wrote up the starting lineups, had some major hiccups. I wasn’t aware of the screw up until the first Wausau Woodchuck came up to bat in the first. Incidentally, Wausau is one of several teams that had teams in affiliated ball. The Kane County Cougars came from Wausau. In fact, they got the entire Wausau lineup completely wrong which made scoring the game, darn near impossible.

Like every NWL pitcher I’ve seen, both teams’ starters had issues with command and control. However, it didn’t result in any runs, nor did some so-so fielding. Both teams escaped early-innings basepath traffic because of poor baserunning and at-em balls.

Spoiler alert, I did not stay for the entire game, but did see Nate get two of his (3-3) singles and score a run which game Kenosha a temporary 2-0 lead.

Bickers didn’t fare as well on the night, and the pictures were not worth sharing here. I do hope to sit down with both of them before they head back to school.

By the time the Woodchucks finally won 5-3, I was enjoying dinner at the Big Star Drive-In while listening to the Cubs-Sox and Brewers-Reds games on the radio.

You can’t beat fun at the old ballpark.