Members of the Oskaloosa High School baseball team will be playing under the lights at Chicago’s Wrigley Field next month as part of an extra special road trip.
Assistant coach and volunteer Nathan Johnson says the team and their families will be in the stands to watch an afternoon Chicago Cubs game versus the San Francisco Giants, and afterwards, the team from southeast Iowa will take the field for a nighttime intersquad scrimmage.
“I think we have about 26 or 27 kids total that’ll be going on the trip, and we have tickets for the parents for the Cubs/Giants game before we play,” Johnson says. “It should be just a great day to do team building, but also just to have an experience for these kids.”
With two sons on the team, Johnson says being able to play in one of the oldest and most distinctive stadiums in Major League Baseball promises to be an exceptional treat and a dream come true for the teens.
“This kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of these kids, and just to be able to step onto this iconic field, Wrigley Field,” Johnson says. “It’ll just be a really cool day for everyone, and hopefully a lot of good feelings and good memories going away from that day.”
High school teams from Oskaloosa and Ottumwa got the opportunity to play at Busch Stadium in Saint Louis last year, which Johnson says was a rare honor, but he notes, Chicago will be next-level different.
“No offense to Busch Stadium, but Wrigley Field is a historic venue,” Johnson says. “It’s not opened up very much to high school players to be able to play, and so just to have that opportunity to walk out, with the ivy, the history that’s there, it’s just a unique experience.”
Wrigley opened in 1914, making it the second-oldest active MLB ballpark behind only Fenway Park in Boston.
The trip is scheduled for May 7th and is thanks to Oskaloosa-based Musco Lighting. Musco has a long-standing relationship with the Cubs and Wrigley Field. The company installed new field lighting at the stadium three years ago and has since worked on additional projects, including lighting for the exterior and tower areas.