If you enjoy any combination of baseball, people-watching, and socializing outdoors, then there are really few better entertainment options in downstate Illinois than a night of Danville Dans baseball. The Dans are a collegiate summer league team that features mostly freshman and sophomores playing with wooden bats. The talent level is wide ranging — Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon was a Dan not too long ago — and so the play on the field can range from above-average to beer-league softball level. You may see a ball go through the shortstop’s wickets on one play, then see that same player make a nice diving stop in the hole on the next.
What makes a Dans game so fun is the diversity of the crowd (blue hairs, kids in Little League unis, and high school girls dolled up and trying to impress the players), the semi-professional vibe (the players sit on upturned ball buckets and hose down the field themsevles), the affordability ($5 to get in, plus $2.50 draft beers, including Goose Island), the atmosphere (clichés galore, from Fogerty’s “Centerfield” to Chicago-style hot dogs), and the stadium itself (a wooden single-decker built in the 1940s by the Brooklyn Dodgers).
See the Dans schedule online. This year the team has joined up with another summer league with teams based as far away as Western Pennsylvania. So, on any given night you may catch the Dans playing the Jack Clark and Danny Cox managed Springfield Sliders, the Hannibal Cavemen, or the Chillicothe (Ohio) Paints (check out their logo).
Everyone I’ve ever taken to a Dans game has been impressed. So plan a trip to Danville this summer for the best baseball environment around.