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Modern Woodmen Park / Quad Cities River Bandits

 

Year Opened	1931; renovated 2004
Capacity	5,500
Architect	Redesign, HOK Sport
Dimensions	343L, 400C, 318R
Suites	20
Playing Surface	Grass
Last Visit	2008
Web Site	riverbandits.com
Phone	563/3-BANDIT
Ticket Prices (2008)	Club, $12; Lower Box, $9; Upper Box, $8; Bleacher, $7; Berm, $5
League	Midwest League
Level	Low Class A
Parent	St. Louis Cardinals
Parking	Free parking next to ballpark in paved and unpaved lots.
Address/Directions	209 S. Gaines St., Davenport. The ballpark is located on the west side of downtown Davenport. River Drive runs along the south side of downtown Davenport and the Mississippi River, and the ballpark is at the corner of Gaines Street and River Drive.
Written by:	Dave Wright and Kevin Reichard
Rating

This was already one of our favorite ballparks in the minors before it was dramatically revised in 2004. Basically, a classic 1930s-era was enhanced for the new millennium in dramatic fashion, with an iconic exterior retained and the best of modern facilities -- club seating, suites, a wraparound concourse, integration with the waterfront, inserted. The best of both worlds.

The integration of the old with the new makes Modern Woodmen Park one of the nicest ballparks in the minors. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with such a perfect location. The ballpark is perched on the shores of the Mississippi River and on the edge of downtown Davenport. Walk around the outfield concourse and you can watch river traffic slowly moving up- and downriver. (Front-office staff joked about holding a fishing contest from the center-field concourse when the Mississippi River last flooded; the flooding didn't cause a halt in play.) Go to the third-base concourse and watch traffic go to and from Rock Island on a classic span bridge, the Centennial Bridge. If you have a kid, feel free to camp out in the play area down the right-field line, which gives you a great view of the river and the ballgame. From the first-base side you have a nice view of a surprisingly scenic Davenport skyline.

With the Mississippi River sitting directly behind the center and right field fence, it is a ballpark Mark Twain would have loved. He could have parked his raft and walked about 200 feet to a gate behind first base and taken in a game.

The 2004 renovation brought the ballpark to the modern era, adding 20 climate-controlled luxury suites, home and road clubhouses, batting cages, two picnic areas, two team stores and the Mediacom Sports Lounge. Really, the only thing left from the old ballpark is the impressive facade shown above. The ballpark reconstruction gave the city a chance to build a berm on the riverfront to prevent flooding that forced the old River Bandits out of the ballpark when it was flooded by the Mississippi. A new playing field complete with some spotty drainage in center field was also installed.

It is an intimate ballpark, to be sure. If you decide you want to get close to the action, you can. Modern Woodmen doesn’t have a lot of space in foul territory. There are bleachers down the left field line and a picnic area in right field, all with direct, close views of the field. Perhaps the best deal in the place is the berm seating in the outfield. You can darn hear touch the outfielders for just five dollars.

Most people, of course, sit in the main grandstand. Depending where you are, you can get an excellent view of downtown Davenport, a picturesque look at the Mississippi rolling by or simply look beyond the left field scoreboard at what can only be described as a semi-rural scene.

The River Bandits owners have made many changes to the ballpark: including the installation of a a hot-tub deck and Tiki bar area. There is already a small Kids’ Zone, including a nifty slide that was very busy the day of our visit. Warning: it costs five bucks, but you can slide as often as you want. A small, fenced-in diamond near the Gaines Street parking lot that is perfect for a little kids’ game.

The interesting part of all this work is it should take nothing away from the inner workings of the ballpark. There is a lot of room inside Modern Woodmen. The aisles are wider than in a lot of parks (or at least they seem that way). We had no problem moving from seat to seat the day of our visit. We saw one person arrive in the third inning with a ticket for a seat behind first base. A person was in his seat and got up to move away. The ticket holder was either a season-ticket holder or a regular because he told the fellow to simply move down two seats. "I know they’re not coming today," he said with a smile. "They’re stuck in a board meeting."

Like most minor-league parks, most seats are in the open. But there seems to be a lot of space behind the seats to hide from excessive sun or rain. Like we said, whoever did the renovations here was thinking ahead. For the most part, it’s a very easy park to move around in.

Customer service was terrific the day of our visit. It wasn’t easy, either. There were 2,000 kids running wild on a suddenly hot day. But the workers stayed to their tasks, with smiles glued to their faces, and they looked happy to be busy. Combine that with a well-kept-up ballpark with a great view of more than a ball field and you have a place well worth the visit off Highways 74, 80 or 88 (depending your direction). Coming here is like visiting Grandma’s house. There is something to be said for old-fashioned home cooking.
 

Concessions
The day of our visit may not have been a fair test. It was a Kids’ day game and the lads had certificates to lap up hot dogs and soda pop. As this picture demonstrates, they lined up to do just that. As a result, it was hard to fight your way through service, as the photo above shows. For the most part, the prices seem well in line ($3 hot dog, $5 turkey sandwiches, $3 soda pop). $4.50 for a pizza slice seemed a bit steep and $5 for a pre-made salad is more than you see in most convenience stores. On the other hand, this is the first ballpark we have personally seen that advertises butterless popcorn for a very reasonable $2.50. A few folks there on their lunch breaks opted for the meatball sub at $5.50 and looked glad they did so. The beer range of $4-$5.50 is on the low end. Being a midweek day game, there weren’t lot of takers. After watching the clientele, we have a hard time imagining many folks buying a glass of wine for $5. The price is fine but one wonders how many wine drinkers go to River Bandits games.

Souvenirs
The Souvenir Store is behind home plate. It’s easy to get to, easy to get around and the prices seemed reasonable. Here is where you see the most influence of the Cardinals, the River bandits’ parent team. There was a big variety of St. Louis material available but not a lot of interest from that day’s visitors. The T-shirts and sweatshirts seem of good variety. The River Bandits offer two items that used to be staples of the business but are rarely seen anymore – pennants and yearbooks. Pennants have become bit passé but these looked nice. A lot of minor-league teams are afraid of yearbooks because of the constantly changing roster. Not here. It was nicely done, too.

History

The ballpark opened in 1931 as Municipal Stadium, home of the Class D Davenport Blue Sox of the Mississippi Valley League, hosting the likes of the Cedar Rapids Bunnies, Rock Island Islanders and the Moline Plowboys. At the time the Quad Cities was a major shipping, commercial and manufacturing hub in the Midwest, and the idea of three of the four Quad Cities hosting pro baseball wasn't far-fetched.

But over time shipping moved out of the region and the manufacturing base -- centered around the likes of John Deere and other farm-machinery vendors -- eventually crumbled. Throughout it all, Davenport's Municipal Stadium emerged as the center of pro baseball in the Quad Cities.

In 1971 the ballpark was renamed for longtime Davenport Times-Democrat sports editor John O'Donnell, a booster of baseball in the area. It did not go unchanged throughout the years. It was extensively renovated in 1989 to the tune of $4.5 million, adding office space to the second level of the grandstand and installing six rows of stadium-style seats along the field. In addition, there have been several additions down both lines.

Here's our visit to the old ballpark.

Before
Downtown Davenport is an interesting area in terms of architecture: the city obviously boomed during the 1930s and 1940s, and as a result there are many older buildings downtown that are worth seeing on a short drive or walk.

And what caused that boom? The economic rise of agribusiness and the implements needed to compete efficiently in that era. For most farmers, that meant farm machinery. For many kids growing up in the Upper Midwest, the name Moline meant one thing to me -- farm tractors. As it ends up, the Quad Cities was the seat of modern farming machinery, and there are many ways you can learn about the history of said machinery.

Two major farm-implement companies had their starts in the Quad Cities. Minneapolis-Moline -- the company that made the orange and yellow tractors -- had its roots in the Moline Implement Company. There's no tribute to the Moline Implement Company, unfortunately; it basically ceased operations in Moline when it merged with two Minneapolis companies to form Minneapolis-Moline in 1929. A smaller tillage-tools operation stayed in Moline, while the main manufacturing plant and corporate headquarters moved to the Minneapolis area.

Instead, you have several shrines to John Deere -- the implement company that stayed behind in Moline. (For those of you who identify farm equipment by its color, John Deere makes the green tractors, and International Harvester makes the red ones.) Downtown Moline's riverfront has been extensively redevelopment in recent years, and part of that redevelopment is the addition of John Deere Commons. John Deere's history is told at the John Deere Pavilion, which features exhibits on the history of John Deere, and the John Deere Collectors Center, designed to look like a classic 1950's John Deere dealership. Park in the abundant free parking next to the Commons and devote a couple of hours wandering through the complex.

Tractors were stored in machine sheds, so here's a perfect transition to the restaurant that sums up all food Midwest: Machine Shed (7250 Northwest Blvd., Davenport; right off I-80 at the 292 exit). The angle here is that Machine Shed honors the American farmer by serving traditional farm-style fare. We're talking burnt ends (barbequed beef tips), fried chicken, pork chops, country-fried steak, roast-beef sandwiches, steaks of every size and cut, and more. Definitely not the sort of thing you can chow down for every meal, but mighty tasty.

If you didn't consume enough cholesterol at the Machine Shed, you also should check out Whitey's Ice Cream, found at 12 locations throughout the Quad Cities. Iowa rules when it comes to real ice cream: Wells Blue Bunny is best mass-produced ice cream on the market, and most larger communities in Iowa will have their own ice-cream shops. Whitey's has been serving up ice cream since 1933, and that good Iowa milk makes Whitey's ice cream a special treat. The various Whitey's locations sell sundaes, malts, smoothies, and a host of funky flavors (like White Tiger Paws and Peanut Butter Pretzel).

After the Game
Gambling has been linked to river towns since before the turn of the century; it's no accident that Meredith Wilson chose to place The Music Man in the midst of River City, Iowa (which is supposedly based on Mason City, located in northern Iowa). In a quirk that shows the capriciousness of the voting public, Iowa doesn't allow gambling on dry land, but does allow riverboat casinos. There are three riverboat casinos in the Quad Cities: Bettendorf has the Isle of Capri Casino, Rock Island has Jumer's Casino Rock Island, and Davenport has Rhythm City Casino. Rhythm City is located directly upstream of Modern Woodmen Park and is within walking distance. . (To give you an idea of how serious the May floods were in downtown Davenport, Rhythm City had to close for a week because people couldn’t get there due to the parking lot being under water. The River Bandits took their home games to Clinton, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. The gamblers were out of luck.)

Otherwise, there's not much else within walking distance of the stadium. Consider driving back up River Drive and head for the small village of East Davenport. The area around Jersey Ridge Road and 11th Street features a number of neighborhood bars, including the Bier Stube.