History
The original Veterans Memorial Stadium was built in 1949 for the Cedar Rapids Rockets of the Central Association. It later became home to the Cedar Rapids Indians (1950–1952), the Cedar Rapids Raiders (1953–1957), and the Cedar Rapids Braves (1958–1961) of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. From 1962 until its demolition, Cedar Rapids' Midwest League teams — which went through several name changes before becoming the Kernels in 1993 — played their home games there.
During the 1990s, Veterans Memorial Stadium failed to meet many of Major League Baseball's new standards for minor league parks as newer facilities were opening in other Midwest League cities. On August 15, 2000, Cedar Rapids voters approved a referendum that helped provide some of the money needed to build a new ballpark adjacent to the old one. (Other funds came from the state of Iowa, the Kernels ballclub, and private donations.) The last game at the old Veterans Memorial Stadium was played on August 28, 2001, with the Kernels defeating the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 4-1. The stadium was demolished shortly afterwards and the site now serves as a parking lot for the new stadium.
The new Veterans Memorial Stadium was dedicated on April 7, 2002, but that day's scheduled game against the Quad City River Bandits was rained out. The first games were not played until April 9, when the Kernels swept a doubleheader from the River Bandits, 5-4 and 3-0.
Read more about this topic: Veterans Memorial Stadium (Cedar Rapids)
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“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
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