Once again, the Cedar Rapids Kernels are playoff bound

CEDAR RAPIDS — Not sure what the OPS would be on this. Or WAR or any of the other important analytical categories in today’s baseball.

In plain old-school, less-important-than-it-used-to-be batting average, it’s 1,000. Or technically 1.000.

Ten seasons as an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, and 10 seasons in the Midwest League playoffs for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. That’s pretty damned good.

“Better to be in it than not to be in it,” shrugged Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman.

Dinkelman’s club clinched the Midwest League Western Division first-half championship Friday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium with a 3-1 win over the South Bend Cubs before a very nice crowd of 3,855.

Pitchers Marco Raya and Zebby Matthews combined to scatter seven South Bend hits. Noah Cardenas, Misael Urbina and Jose Salas drove in runs, with Urbina also scoring one.

“It means you’re playing good baseball,” Dinkelman said, when asked what he thought of the 10-for-10 playoff streak. “You have good players. The organization does a good job of producing players, and we’ve played good baseball the last 10 years and given ourselves a chance to get into the playoffs.

“It’s always more fun when you’re winning than when you’re losing. You’re still trying to develop and trying to win games at the same time. We’ve kind of found a balance between those.”

There is debate over the importance of winning games in the minor leagues. The foremost goal is individual player development.

If that’s not happening, a major-league organization simply is failing. But there is thought that winning in the minor leagues is part of individual development.

You’d much rather a prospect be in a successful environment team wise than not. This Kernels team has a 36-25 first-half record with five first-half games remaining, including Saturday night and Sunday afternoon against South Bend.

If you wonder what the first-half championship meant to players, they gathered after the game on the infield at Veterans Memorial Stadium, and doused each other in celebratory sparkling cider sprayed from bottles.

There may or may not have been some Busch Lights then consumed in the clubhouse. For the guys above age, of course.

“It makes it fun,” Dinkelman said. “You saw out there, the guys were enjoying it. It’s good to experience that because you never know. You might advance on your career and never get that chance again. You get to the big leagues without ever making the playoffs. So just to experience this a little bit, have fun with your teammates, all the hard work you put in for the season, to have some reward for it is always fun.”

This is Dinkelman’s third season as Kernels manager. Prior to that he was hitting coach for Manager Tommy Watkins, now the third-base coach for the Minnesota Twins.

Prior to Watkins, Jake Mauer was C.R.’s manager. The only thing those guys have not done is get the city its first Midwest League championship since 1994, when the club was affiliated with the Angels.

“It’d be nice to get one,” Dinkelman said.

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