Iowans Are Setting Records At The Ball Park This Summer

What do salt-pepper, peanut butter-jelly, macaroni-cheese, and bacon-eggs all have in common? They fit together perfectly. It's tough to have one without the other. Do you know what else fits perfectly together? Summer and Baseball.

As far as the four major professional sports go, Baseball is the only sport that's in the full swing of things right now and more Iowans are spending time at Veterans Memorial Stadium than ever before.

Cedar Rapids Kernel's general manager is Scott Wilson and he told KCRG through the first 36 games, the amount of fans is better than ever before.

The first 36 games are a record compared to any other year. We’re comparing that to the 2010 year when we had Mike Trout. He sort of put his name out there every single night and everybody knew what that was going to result in. We beat it.

Sometimes to set a record, you need a little bit of luck. Other than Iowa's love for baseball, the weather has helped out a lot when it comes to these attendance records. Wilson mentioned that in April, when the season starts, we can still see snow in Iowa.

Mother Nature played along incredibly in those first 36 games. Sometimes in April, the white stuff is still flying. The 90-degree temperatures, that’s summer baseball in Iowa. That’s what makes the corn grow.

Another factor that has likely played into the incredible attendance at Veterans Memorial Stadium this season is the upgrades to the ballpark. According to KCRG, $3.34 million went into stadium renovations. Not all of those renovations directly impact the fans who attend games as some of these renovations went into the batting cages and the weight room. Fans will definitely notice the new video board that has been placed in the outfield.

The Cedar Rapids Kernel players love playing in front of a packed house. GM Scott Wilson told KCRG, the players feed off of the energy.

We like to pack the house on our level because the boys play better in front of that. I constantly get reminded, like man great crowd last night, it was so fun to play in front of all those folks. They really do feed off that energy

It also probably helps that the team is headed to playoff baseball for the 10th consecutive season. The Kernels won the Midwest League, West Division, and First Half Championship.

If you've never been to a Kernel game, you should definitely pick an evening to head to the ballpark! Here is the Kernels schedule for the rest of the summer. My fiance and I have been to a couple of games and we always have a ton of fun. There are only 2 of us to worry about which makes for a pretty affordable date night, plus it's just fun to be at the ballpark and check out a game.