Iowa

• Capital: Des Moines, IA
• Largest City: Des Moines, IA
• Area: 56,272 sq mi
  • Rank: 26
• Population (2010): 3,046,355
  • Rank: 30
• Admission to Union: December 28, 1846
• Time Zone: Central

Iowa-born players include Hall of Famers Cap Anson, Dave Bancroft, Fred Clarke, Red Faber, Bob Feller and Dazzy Vance.

Iowa is the site of the baseball field used in the movie Field of Dreams, which takes place in the state. On August 13, 2020, the Field of Dreams Game, the first major league game to be played in Iowa - not counting the National Association - was scheduled to take place next to that field, located in Dyersville, IA, although it was postponed until August 12, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. There was a National Association team based in Keokuk, IA in 1875 - the Keokuk Westerns - who played 8 home games before disbanding.

Iowa has hosted a number of minor league teams however. The state's largest city, Des Moines, IA, has hosted AAA baseball for decades, while the Midwest League includes a number of teams from the state. The independent American Association includes a team in Sioux City, IA. There was also an Iowa State League and a short-lived Iowa-South Dakota League in the 1900s.

Further Reading

• Don Doxsie: Iowa Baseball Greats: Sixteen Major Leaguers Who Were in the Game for Life, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2015. ISBN 978-0-7864-9894-9
• W.P. Kinsella: Shoeless Joe, Turtleback Books, St. Louis, MO, 1999 (originally published in 1982). ISBN 978-0785729020
• W.P. Kinsella: The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY, 2003 (originally published in 1986). ISBN 978-0618340804
• Joan Wendl Thomas: Baseball in Northwest Iowa, Images of Baseball, Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC, 2017. ISBN 9781467125147