In some respects, the annual “Education Day” game – the annual exhibition game between the Normal CornBelters and their geographically-nearest Frontier League opponents, the Joliet Slammers, — was just what we needed: Bright sunshine, warm temperatures, and just enough baseball to get fans ready for the upcoming season.

Over 3,500 schoolkids from grade school to junior high from Normal-based Unit 5, Bloomington District #87, Heyworth, and LeRoy were in attendance for the game, as were kids from as far as Lincoln and LaSalle-Peru who enjoyed a field trip to The Corn Crib to take in some early baseball action. Benjamin Elementary School’s choir sang the National Anthem to get the day started.

But beyond providing enthusiasm and cheering, there wasn’t much the kids or other spectators could do to help the CornBelters as they struggled through an 11-3 defeat at the hands of the Slammers. Losing pitcher Michael Schweiss allowed five runs and five hits in the first 1/3 of the contest. Not that the youngsters would understand, maybe, but the CornBelters sent four pitchers to the mound to backup starting pitcher Schweiss – Jose Flores, Justin Collop, Victor Beriguete, and Anthony Kliniskie.

The contest is billed as the Education Game for a reason, with ‘Belters Broadcaster Greg Halbleib serving as public address announcer, tossing questions out to test their knowledge (and hearing some right answers, of course). Those questions included: What Illinois community is known as the birthplace of former President Ronald Reagan?; How many counties are in the State of Illinois?; What is known as the State’s official bird?; and What is the State’s official dance (yes, we have one….)? I’ll give you the quiz answers shortly.

Those pop quiz questions were mixed in with various musical breaks between half-innings, with the one song many of the kids enjoying the most was the theme from the cartoon show, “Spongebob Squarepants.”(And, no, I can’t explain why that is).

‘Belters Manager Brooks Carey couldn’t explain his team’s performance on the day, either, but said he’d rather such a loss happened in an exhibition game than either on Opening Day May 15 beginning a three-game set at River City, or on May 19 when the ‘Belters open at home for three games against the Gateway Grizzlies. Game start times on May 19 and 21 are 6:35p.m., while May 20’s game is another early riser beginning at 10a.m.

“I’ve seen these exhibition games before, and there’s usually more bad than good during them,” Carey said. “There are things we need to work on and we’ll be doing that over the next week. We’ll be working on defensive drills first, including situational defense.”

Offensively, Carey said the exhibition helped him see “enough guys swing the bat better and better and better. There are still some guys struggling at the plate, which makes my job actually easier” in terms of deciding who will not play here this season.

Carey, going into his third season as the club’s skipper, is looking forward to the season and finding 11 pitchers for the season, and having infielder Pat McKenna back and healthy after a couple years where injuries have either made him not available or only occasionally available. Under Frontier League rules, teams may have just one player over age 27 on their roster. McKenna will turn 28 in June.

With regard to pitching, Carey said fans should be prepared to seeing plenty of new faces on the mound this season. With the offense Normal anticipates putting on the field, if the ‘Belters have what Carey said is “just decent pitching, we could challenge for a championship.”

Let’s hope the pitching staff exceeds “just decent” levels and helps in Normal having a great season.

As for the answers to the quiz the schoolkids were tested on between half-innings, here are your answers: President Ronald Reagan’s birthplace – Tampico, Ill.; Number of Counties in Illinois – 102; Official State Bird – Cardinal; and State’s Offical Dance – Square Dancing (Bonus points to anyone who knew Illinois had an official State dance let alone what it was). How many did you get right?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2015 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Normal Cornbelters, The Normalite. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.