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A night out at the ballpark is only a short drive for fans now that the Southern Illinois Miners have brought minor league baseball to Rent One Park in Marion, Illinois. Thousands of people from across the region fill the stadium each week for old-fashioned fun and a spectacular fireworks display after the Miners' Friday night games. But did you know that the Miners aren't the first minor league team to play in Southern Illinois? Last summer, Debby Whitlatch talked with baseball fan Toby Brooks, an SIUC professor of kinesiology, about his book on the West Frankfort Cardinals minor league baseball team, Seasons of Change, and the team's 1948 Illinois State League championship win. Brooks was at Rent One Park in Marion to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the historic game, and to honor the occasion, the Southern Illinois Miners and their opponents, the River City Rascals, wore 1940s-era replica uniforms.

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