Diamonds and Ice

Jeff Johnson
Multi-media sports reporter for SourceMedia in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who has covered it all over the past 20-plus years. Particularly enjoy baseball and hockey.

Blog Posts

kernels

Beloit edges Kernels, 7-6

BELOIT, Wis. – Nick Rickles hit a pair of home runs to help the Beloit Snappers outlast the Cedar Rapids Kernels in Midwest League baseball Wednesday night, 7-6. Beloit pulled within four games of the Kernels for first place in the Western Division with the victory. The teams play again Thursday morning at 11. Beloit built [...]

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Kernels infielder Niko Goodrum high fives Kernels manager Jake Mauer after hitting a home run in the first inning at the Cedar Rapids Kernels versus Great Lakes Loons baseball game at the Veterans Memorial Stadium on April 25, 2013. (Kaitlyn Bernauer/The Gazette-KCRG9)

Goodrum tackles 1st base, gets big hit in 8-7 win

Shortstop plays first for first time in career

CEDAR RAPIDS — That really was first base Niko Goodrum was playing. You weren’t just seeing things. Goodrum is the most-day’s shortstop for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, where he’s considered a legitimate prospect for the Minnesota Twins. This first base thing has never happened, until Monday afternoon. “A couple of spring training games and instructs,” [...]

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Kernels Wider Web Logo

Kernels game Monday delayed until 1:30 p.m.

The start of Monday’s Cedar Rapids Kernels game against the Kane County Cougars will be delayed an hour until 1 p.m. Power at Veterans Memorial Stadium was knocked out by a severe thunderstorm Sunday night and not restored until late Monday morning. Additionally, part of the tarp covering the playing field was blown off by [...]

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Kernels outfielder J.D. Williams heads to first base during a game against the Lansing Lugnuts at Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)

Winter travels paying off for Kernels OF Williams

Kernels win again in walk-off fashion over Kane County

CEDAR RAPIDS — Most guys go to Mexico or the Caribbean to get in their offseason baseball work. J.D. Williams traveled a little farther. Half-a-world away, 14-hour plane ride farther. “I probably couldn’t do that again,” said the Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder, who doubled leading off the ninth inning and scored on a Dalton Hicks [...]

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Jose Berrios

Nice catch, Jose. Don’t ever do it again

Berrios gives great effort, but Kernels lose to Kane County, 4-0

CEDAR RAPIDS — So what are you thinking when you watch one of your best young pitching prospects sprint off the mound after a foul pop and dive head first onto the clay warning track near the opponent’s dugout to catch the ball? You’re talking about $1.55 million flying through the air and landing on [...]

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Cedar Rapids Kernels' Travis Harrison legs out a base hit during their game against Beloit Snappers at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 4, 2013, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Harrison’s walk-off hit really a single this time

Third baseman gives Kernels a 4-3, 12-inning win over Kane County

CEDAR RAPIDS — Travis Harrison rounded first base and turned toward his dugout, expecting to be surrounded by a host of Cedar Rapids Kernels teammates. But everyone ran toward home plate to celebrate with Jorge Polanco instead. Six of one, half-dozen of the other. You either mob the guy with the game-winning hit or the [...]

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A

A talk with the author of ‘Class A …’

Through the Iowa Writers Workshop, Lucas Mann spent a full season with the Clinton LumberKings of the Midwest League and has released a book about it entitled “Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere.” Here is a New York Times interview with Mann: Not Heaven; Iowa: Lucas Mann Talks About ‘Class A’ By JOHN WILLIAMS [...]

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Cedar Rapids Kernels' Byron Buxton (right) dives safely back to first base as Burlington Bees first baseman Wade Hinkle fields the ball during the first inning of their game at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Video: Buxton’s walk-off GS gives Kernels 7-6 win

Top prospect's sixth homer of the season gives Cedar Rapids series win

CEDAR RAPIDS – His first grand slam, his first walk-off hit, his first postgame shaving cream pie. Yet another step out the door here in Cedar Rapids and toward Fort Myers. Honestly, there’s probably not much more Byron Buxton can do at the low-Class A level. The 19-year-old phenom sent Veterans Memorial Stadium into a tizzy [...]

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Hudson Boyd of the Cedar Rapids Kernels lets go of a pitch during the first game of a Midwest League double-header Wednesday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium (Gazette/KCRG photo by Jim Slosiarek)

Kernels’ Boyd is the incredibly shrinking pitcher

Adjusting to 45-pound weight loss. Kernels split double-header with Burlington

CEDAR RAPIDS — You’ve never met Hudson Boyd, so you look for the real big guy in the Cedar Rapids Kernels clubhouse. You finally find his locker, but the dude sitting in a chair in front of it is this svelte kid nowhere near the 268 pounds the roster lists him. Hudson Boyd? Yep, Hudson Boyd. “The [...]

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A.B. Walker

Video: New Kernels topple old Kernels, 5-4

Walker hits 3rd grand slam as Cedar Rapids beats Burlington and a bunch of familiar faces

CEDAR RAPIDS — Just kinda weird. That’s for regular Cedar Rapids Kernels fans and seven of the guys they have watched play a lot of baseball. The Burlington Bees made their first visit of the season to Veterans Memorial Stadium Tuesday night, which could best be described as Reunion Night. Or the old Kernels versus [...]

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