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History Happenings: Cedar Rapids Kernels
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In March of last year, we brought you the story of the Cedar Rapids Bunnies, the baseball team with the punny name, that played in Cedar Rapids from the early to mid-20th century. For the dedicated baseball fans among us, we hope you’ll take the time to go back and read that column if you missed it.
That said, with the excitement of October post-season Major League Baseball fresh in our minds, we decided to turn our attention back to the country’s national pastime, but this time with an eye on the history of the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
Early beginnings
As our previous article recounts, the history of baseball in Cedar Rapids is a long one — but make no mistake, Cedar Rapidians have more to show for that history than just the Bunnies.
Professional baseball in Cedar Rapids has been played since 1890. The original name of the team was the Cedar Rapids Canaries. Eventually, that team would become the Cedar Rapids Rabbits, which then morphed into the Bunnies — a change initiated by the public but eventually officially adopted by the team. That original stretch of professional baseball being played in Cedar Rapids would go nearly uninterrupted until 1942, when the team, then called the Cedar Rapids Raiders, fell apart.
Rocketing into the Central Association
Despite the disbandment of the Raiders, Cedar Rapids has proved to be a durable baseball town. As Benjamin Hill for MLB.com writes, “[a] central Association club named the Rockets debuted in 1949, beginning an unbroken Minor League Baseball streak that continues to this day. Cedar Rapids joined the Class A Midwest League in 1962 and now stands as the circuit's longest-tenured club. The Kernels moniker was adopted in 1993, following nearly three decades in which the team carried the name of its parent club.”
The Kernels have been associated with seven different MLB teams over the course of their time in the Midwest League. In 1962, the team was initially established as an affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves. From 1963 to 1964 and then again from 1980 to 1992 (much to the chagrin of your authors, who are serious Cardinals fans), the Kernels organization was an affiliate of the Cincinnati MLB team. The Kernels were then connected to St. Louis from 1965 to 1972, Houston from 1973 to 1974, San Francisco from 1975 to 1979, the Los Angeles Angels from 1993 to 2012, and have now been a Minnesota Twins affiliate since 2013.
Notably, in 2021, during a large restructuring of Minor League Baseball, the members of the Midwest League were elevated from Class A teams to High-A teams.
Veterans Memorial Stadium
You’d be hard-pressed to find a Cedar Rapids native without a childhood memory tied to Veterans Memorial Stadium, the home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The younger of your authors, for instance, was taught to keep the score of the game by hand in the stands of Veterans Memorial (a dying art, no doubt).
This reality is not surprising given that Veterans Memorial has been around in two different iterations since the Rockets came onto the scene in 1949. The original stadium sat on the same grounds as the park most are familiar with today. However, a change came in 2001 when it was decided that the park needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Following the conclusion of that summer’s season, the updated Veterans Memorial was built.
Oh, Shucks!
If you’ve ever been to a Kernels game, you know that Mr. Shucks, the team’s anthropomorphic ear of corn mascot, is a mainstay of the experience. Mr. Shucks, despite being an ear of corn, inexplicably has a baseball for a head, reminiscent of Mr. Met.
Hill reports that “Mr. Shucks is un-shucked, contrary to what his surname might suggest, with his oversized Kernels jersey obscuring what appears to be an otherwise green body.” Undeniably, there’s something charming about Mr. Shucks — perhaps most of all that his first name remains a mystery…
A baseball state
Ultimately, there’s no denying that between the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Iowa Cubs, the Quad Cities River Bandits, and the iconic Field of Dreams in Dyersville, that Iowa is a baseball state. Any true baseball fan from around these parts will tell you without hesitation that our three Minor League Baseball teams have produced a myriad of famous and successful major league players who have put their mark on baseball history.
That said, at least for our money, the more valuable part of Iowa’s baseball culture is the memories the fans make in the stands of every Tee-ball, Little League, high school, college, and minor league game.
Your authors have never been big on traditions — but we do celebrate MLB’s opening day every year with a trip to Dairy Queen. We hope that you’ll make your own baseball tradition and join us out at the old ball game.
Jessica Cline is a Leadership & Character Scholar at Wake Forest University. Her dad, Rob Cline, is not a scholar of any kind. They write this monthly column for The History Center. Comments: HistoricalClines@gmail.com
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