To that end, Grow arranged for a winter solstice gathering in a frozen cornfield near What Cheer, Iowa, where a few shivering players danced with Wiccan members of the Keokuk County affiliate of Witches, Bitches, and Warlocks. "I was glad when they finally got the bonfire going," remembers Scott Rolen. "But then I saw when they had in mind, I cut out of there fast." Rolen wasn't not alone. Among the players, only Carlos Delgado and Andruw Jones stuck around. "I grew up on voodoo," said Jones, "so it was no big deal to me. Cold though." As it happened, only effigies and totems were burned, though Delgado did have to sacrifice his Armani jacket to the purifying flames.
For the millennium, Grow arranged for a spelunking trip
If Wind Cave brought home a version of culture that they had never before experienced, then the club's field trip to Cabrini-Green gave them a reminder of their good fortune. Cabrini-Green is well-known both in Chicago and across the country as an example of the devastating effects of concentrated and isolated poverty in a distressed public housing community. Under heavy guard, a dozen members of the Greens staff toured the facility and ate lunch with representative impoverished residents Webb Jones and Thelma Allen. "That was some heavy shit there," said outfielder Manny Ramirez. "I seen poor in New York, but nothin' like that." Most amazing to the visitors from Moline were the gardens and farm operations of the Cabrini Greens, an agricultural and social club attached to the notorious housing complex. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," said Kelly Green, "I would not have believed it. Here were these absolutely destitute people farming in the worst part of the city. And so many of them were black. Black farmers?" Said Stuart Depp in reply, "I'd say you need to get out more, Kelly, but I don't know if I want you around my people."
The regular season limits the cultural offerings that Grow can offer the organization, what with travel days and few open dates. Still, some scheduled events are already exciting front office personnel. The sign-up sheet for the April 15th team trip to the Spring Warm Up & Swap Meet III at Cordova Dragway Park in Cordova is almost full, but there are still several spots open for the group tour of "Green Woods and Crystal Waters: The American Landscape Tradition Since 1950," opening April 16 at the Davenport Museum of Art, 1737 W. 12th Street, Davenport.
For the Greens' championship offseason of 1999-2000, Dineen Grow pushed the cultural liaison envelope. Sure, Grow oversaw the October team awards ceremony at the Eureka Lodge of Masons in Milan. Sure, Grow insisted that team caterer Alice Rushforth pull out all stops and find some stops no one expected, among which were broiled marmot topped with a carrot and elephant garlic sauce, a big hit with the carnivores in the crowd until someone told. Sure, the Dickeyville Grotto snow domes for all banquet attendees were widely and rightly cheered. And, sure, complementary one-year subscriptions to Green Magazine for every member of the Moline organization was a fine way to celebrate a championship season.
But these were all part of Grow's traditional duties as the team's cultural liason. At such a momentous crossroads, Grow saw the need for some off-season cultural conditioning as well, saw no better answer to team success than renewed challenge: stretching the boundaries of culture. "Culture is necessarily plural," explains Grow. "And at the beginning of a new century, with a championship finally won, I thought it was time to challenge white bread notions of art, culture, and experience."
to Wind Cave in South Dakota. Only six members of the organization joined Grow, but it was better that way. "We had a lovely meal in the Muddle Room," remembers Grow. Lots of candles, good wine, champagne, fruit, cheese. We were absolutely alone. It was chilly (always a steady 53 degrees), but warmer than it was outside." Derek Jeter was excited and amazed at the underground culture. "It was beautiful: the candle light playing off the boxwork and frostwork formations. The ashen subterranean glory of timeless geological forces. And if the alarmists had been right and the world had ended at midnight in the world above, we'd never have known it."