July 9, 2018: This is not Sioux City. It is CAL’s baseball diamond in Alexander. I happened to pass by when the team was having its last practice, ever. The tie-in to this post is that a district so small that it metaphorically couldn’t keep the high school’s lights on still managed to provide lights for baseball.
Sioux City’s three high school baseball diamonds will get lights in time for next season, the Sioux City Journal reports. Baseball was the only high school sport in the city that did not have lights for night games. Major League Baseball is chipping in nearly a third of the total cost to provide lights.
The fact Sioux City’s diamonds didn’t have lights was stunning news to me. North Tama has them*, and so do NICL schools. It wasn’t until somewhat recently, when I learned that Iowa Star Conference games were being played as varsity-then-JV doubleheaders starting at 5, that I even became aware that some of Iowa’s smallest schools don’t have lights at their diamonds.
*Based on the construction of the athletic complex, North Tama could play night baseball games before the Chicago Cubs.