Not having been to a baseball game this season, I was looking forward to seeing the Minor League Burlington Bees, a Class A Los Angeles Angels Affiliate, take on the West Michigan Whitecaps. As a baseball fan, I enjoy visiting baseball fields as I travel. More often than not, they are minor league fields, which are far more plentiful and much more economical than attending a major league game.

Baseball has been in Burlington since 1889, and Community Field, where the Burlington Bees play, has been around since 1947. Though the park has gone through several renovations, it has retained much of its old-time ballpark atmosphere. There’s no Jumbotron here, just a regular digital scoreboard, and except for the first four rows, the seats are general admission metal bleachers, which allow fans to move about the park as they wish.

Our tickets were for assigned seats, some of the best in the ballpark (even the best seats are only $8), and one member of our travel group was to throw out the first pitch. But on the evening we went to the game, instead of evening sun, the sky was full of clouds—and rain. Read more