Little Leaguers, Spiderman, Kinnick Expansion

(Chris)

Last year, Urbandale made the little league World Series. This year, a team from Des Moines is threatening to do the same. The boys from Grandview Little League are 2-0 in Midwest regional pool play, in Indianapolis...and they won both games by 10 runs! They play again, Monday, against Missouri.

Jeremy Hellickson could start as early as Tuesday, for the Rays. A pair of Tampa starters are banged up, so the organization decided to scratch Hellickson's scheduled Sunday start in triple-A Durham.

Tony Stewart didn't make the trip for the US Cellular 250, but he won't miss the Knoxville Nationals. He'll be in Knoxville on Monday, and Tuesday.

If you weren't out driving around at midnight, Sunday, you're lucky. I'm not sure that I've ever driven anywhere in a worse rain storm. It took 30 minutes to get from downtown to 50th street in West Des Moines. I'm not sure when hydroplaning becomes floating, but I'm sure I was on the threshold. Hopefully Mother Nature is done throwing hissy fits for a while.

This guys nickname is 'Spiderman' ... and he's living up to it  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxpAkOWNM0

When I got to work, Keith told me I looked too thin. A few hours later, a gracious co-worker ordered 3 pizza's for the newsroom. I proceeded to eat 8 pieces. Thanks, Keith.

Here's a question that I bet we're going to start hearing: Is Kinnick Stadium too small? With every ticket sold heading into 2010, it makes you think. Some Hawkeye fans will be on the outside looking in come game day...unless they want to pay at least 2x face value on a ticket. Kinnick holds 70,585 people, and it has the 6th largest stadium capacity in the Big ten. Sure, the Hawks could fill an 80,000 seat stadium, this year. But what about an average year? This year isn't the norm. I think Iowa could use an extra 5-10 thousand seats....but there are logistical problems. They would need to add an upper deck, and I don't see that happening in the near future.