Hlas: A grand Grand Rapids party in Cedar Rapids

Monday was the last night of summer of Cedar Rapids.

Maybe the calendar says that is tonight, but baseball fans in our city know better. The season's last game, the deciding Game 5 of the Midwest League championship series, was played here on a night so pleasant it almost made you sad. Because you know precious few of them are left this year.

Then there was the more-substantial melancholy the Veterans Memorial Stadium crowd had when the home Cedar Rapids Kernels literally went down swinging in a 3-2 loss to the West Michigan Whitecaps.

Two things surprised me. One, I thought the crowd of 2,363 would be about half that size. A Monday night, school's in session, it's football season, and how many people are really interested in whether their local minor league team wins a pennant? Especially when the Saturday and Sunday afternoon crowds here for this series were under 2,000.

Two, I was struck by how much the players on the two sides cared. Players are in Class A baseball to develop and get up the ladder. Championships at this level don't get you money or glory. I was surprised (yet again) to learn they do get championship rings.

But the celebration by the Whitecaps was epic. After rejoicing on the field, they stormed to the visitors' clubhouse and grabbed champagne bottles that had been waiting on ice. They sprayed it all over the clubhouse and drenched each other in it. They did have the decency to make sure the clubhouse television was safely covered in plastic before letting the bubbly fly.

Andrew Graham, the manager of the Whitecaps, told me he'd never been part of a minor league team care about winning the way his did. Maybe the Kernels matched that. They clearly were distraught about not being able to hoist the championship trophy, and played like they dearly wanted it.

Graham, perhaps the first Australian to manage a U.S. pro baseball team to a title, was a catcher in the Detroit Tigers' minor league system for five years. He got as high as Class AAA Toledo. He began and closed his playing career with the Sydney Blue Sox.

Judging by the way his guys won back-to-back tight games on the road after falling behind 2 games to 1, he may get to the bags yet, in a managerial or coaching capacity.

I sure hope West Michigan second baseman Joey Pankake makes it to the majors, by the way. What a great name.

Anyway, Troy and Dorothy Tissue of Grand Rapids drove to Eastern Iowa Friday, set up a camping spot at Lake Macbride, and attended the three games of the series in Cedar Rapids. They had a beautiful dog named Liberty with them. Liberty came to them from the Pets for Vets program, in which companion dogs help military veterans transition back into civilian life.

The couple got married at the Whitecaps' Fifth Third Ballpark. They like the stadium in Cedar Rapids, too, as well as the area itself.

'It's beautiful here,' Dorothy said.

'It's been great,' said Troy, a former U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer. 'The people are fantastic. And the weather is always sunny in Iowa.'

After the final out was recorded on a swinging strikeout and the on-field jubilation was played out, the Whitecaps were handed T-shirts to wear that noted they were Midwest League champions. The West Michigan organization brought the T-shirts with them to Cedar Rapids and asked the Kernels to store them. It's good to be prepared.

The whooping, spraying, and pounding of empty Gatordade buckets as if they were bongo drums lasted for quite a while. Then the Whitecaps showered away the sticky, stinging champagne and changed into dry street clothes for the 6-hour bus trip from Cedar Rapids to Grand Rapids. It was the last of a lot of long rides this spring and summer, but it was the best of them all.

After the game, the Kernels joined members of the team's booster club and some housing parents for a picnic type of deal in the stadium. Today, those players all begin heading their separate ways around the country and beyond.

Many of the players on the United States Hockey League's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders attended the game, wearing their team jerseys. They sang 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' to the crowd during the seventh-inning stretch.

Their long regular-season starts Saturday. It ends April 8. Just when baseball is starting up again.

But for now, summer's over.