Baseball has been ingrained into the fabric of Iowa since it’s earliest days. The game has been played in the state since it’s inclusion into the Union in 1846, but the sport took off like a wildfire after the Civil War, when Iowa’s Union soliders returned home, bringing the game back home from the East Coast.
As towns were settled across Iowa, the first two things most communities built were a church and school, but the third was often a baseball field. Iowa’s town teams became a part of the fabric of Iowa as the state, and the sport, grew up together.