Is this an Iowa Connection?

 For loyal readers of this blog (really mostly myself), you know that I have a fast and loose interpretation of what qualifies as an Iowa Connection.  There are the obvious categories:

1. Born in Iowa (i.e. Joe Burrow)
2. Went to an Iowa College (i.e. Tyrese Haliburton)
3. Lived in Iowa (i.e. Jim Harbaugh)

Those categories are pretty impeachable.  Then there are the categories that stretch the rules a bit

1. Coached in Iowa (i.e. Ryne Sandberg)
2. Fictional Character from Iowa (i.e. Captain James T. Kirk)
3. Played semi-pro ball in Iowa (i.e. Ozzie Smith)
4. Played pro ball in a 2nd tier league like the CBA (i.e. John Starks)
5. Played for a youth league in Iowa (i.e. Alec Bohm)
6. Named for the state of Iowa (i.e. U.S.S. Iowa)

Today I look to see if I want to stretch the rules even further.  

Our first category is the Quad Cities.  For those unaware, the four cities that make up the Quad Cities are Bettendorf, Davenport, Moline and Rock Island.  Bettendorf and Davenport are located in Iowa and Moline and Rock Island are located across the Mississippi in Illinois.  The combination population of the 4 cities is around a half million which makes it a pretty large metro area.  The largest of the four cities is Davenport, a little over twice as big as the 2nd largest (Moline). 

Now, with a large metro, they have some professional teams, including the Quad Cities Steamrollers (Arena), the Tri-Cities Hawks (NBL), Rock Island Independents (NFL), Quad City Thunder (CBA), and the Quad Cities River Bandits (MLB minors).  

So, the quandary here is thus: If a sports team represents the Quad Cities (slight majority Iowans), but play their home games in Illinois, are the considered Iowa Connections?  

When I lived in the Omaha area, the Omaha Lancers (a USHL team) moved from Omaha to Council Bluffs and renamed themselves the River City Lancers.  They still hoped to pull traffic from Omaha, and I assumed did to some degree, but I don't know how successfully since they only stayed for 2 seasons before moving back.  My point is, they still considered themselves a part of Omaha despite not being in Omaha.

I have no verdict on this yet.  I think where I lean is that I need to come up with a good term for a looser connection to Iowa.  I think I used one for my minor league connections (i.e. players who played the Iowa Cubs) so I'll have to review that process.

Our second and last question for today involves the Chicago White Sox.  Yes, I know that Chicago is in Illinois, but did you know that the White Sox originated as the Sioux City Cornhuskers?  Charles Comiskey bought the team and moved them to St. Paul before moving them to Chicago. 

So, remember the first part of this post where I listed the obvious categories for inclusion in the Iowa Connection collection?  Number 1 was "Born in Iowa".  The Chicago White Sox were born in Iowa!

Now what?  Well, I can't collect every White Sox player of all time.  In order to be a part of this collection, it has to be something more obtainable.  I've decided that it will be team cards, sticker cards of the team logo, and things of that sort of nature.  I'm not sure how hard that will be to do in TCDB, but I look forward to trying.