BELOIT, WIS.—Minor league baseball is about coming and going.
No one wants to stay put.
But after the ABC Supply Stadium opens on Aug. 3 with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers taking on the Beloit Snappers in downtown Beloit, the ballpark will be there for years to come. Fans will walk through the centerfield gates along the bed of the timeless Rock River. Located on the Illinois-Wisconsin border, long foul balls hit over the first base facade could land in the Illinois zip code. Hopefully, they won’t get super [...]
KANSAS CITY, KS.—The Kansas City Monarchs were the royalty of baseball’s Negro Leagues. They played in Kansas City, Mo. between 1920 and 1961 and their graduates included Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson (1945), Ernie Banks (1950-53), and Satchel Paige (1934 and 1940-47). The team produced more major league players than any other Negro League franchise.
The Monarchs have taken a new flight as a member of the American Association.
These Monarchs play at Legends Field in Kansas [...]
I don’t recall the tip that led me to the Prime & Tender, an oddball nightclub-restaurant at the corner of 63rd and Harlem in south suburban Stickney. It was the spring of 1983 and I was a staff writer at the Suburban Chicago Sun-Times and was freelancing for the Reader and the Illinois Entertainer.
The Prime & Tender was not the Pump Room. Patrons walked through a cheesy, long mirrored hallway as if they were boarding an old cruise ship. They sat along the perimeter of the multi-colored dance [...]
SPRINGFIELD, IL.–The new exhibit “The State of Sound (A World of Music From Illinois)” celebrates the migratory paths artists took to Illinois. Visitors at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) in Springfield can learn about the roots of our musical tree as well as a multitude of contemporary branches.
You can follow some of this Chicago-to-Springfield path to visit “The State of Sound,” which runs through January 2022.
The ALPLM is rolling out a special $29 “State of Sound” VIP ticket starting May 26. That includes a T-shirt, our 36-page souvenir [...]