This is an excerpt from the latest edition of the Ben's Biz Beat Newsletter, bringing Minor League Baseball business and culture news to your inbox each and every Thursday. Check out the full newsletter HERE.

The following ballpark road trip recap is presented by Wyndham, proud sponsor of Minor League Ballpark Guides. Start planning your 2025 road trips today!

Excepting eternity, everything ends eventually. My 2024 ballpark travels culminated in northern Indiana on Aug. 28, with a visit to the Midwest League¡¯s South Bend Cubs (High-A affiliate of, you guessed it, the Chicago Cubs).

Upon arriving in South Bend I checked into a downtown hotel and, befitting my status as an influential mover and shaker, was bestowed a room featuring a commanding view of the city. (You can see my view from that room in the photo at the top of this story.)

• Subscribe to Ben¡¯s Biz Minor League Newsletter

It was different on the ground, however. The short walk from hotel to ballpark felt more suburban than urban. Idyllic and timeless with a tinge of the ramshackle.

Approaching the ballpark towards its outfield side, I passed an ivy-covered Baptist church as well as a residence with a ¡°You Are Under Surveillance¡± sign on the windows and a ¡°Deplorables¡± label on the mailbox.

Across from the home-plate side of the ballpark stands the former home of Claeys Candy (the company has since relocated to a bigger facility). While I didn¡¯t recognize the Claeys name, I looked them up and realized I have indeed bought their product. They make hard candies that I associate with old-fashioned gift shops.

Four Winds Field opened in 1988 as Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium, named in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Stanley Coveleski (a spitball pioneer who lived in South Bend after retiring). Some fans still call it ¡°The Cove.¡± You can call it that too, if you want.

The Cove¡¯s construction brought Minor League Baseball back to South Bend for the first time since 1932 (the last professional baseball team to play in the city had been the South Bend Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional League, whose final season was 1954). The ballpark has always been home to a Midwest League team, beginning with the 1988 South Bend White Sox. The White Sox changed their name to the Silver Hawks in 1994, referencing an automobile produced by the South Bend-based Studebaker company. The Silver Hawks became an Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate in 1998.

This photo, featuring an inflated likeness of recently retired mascot Swoop, is from my previous visit to South Bend in 2013:

South Bend¡¯s Cubs affiliation began in 2015, complete with the comparatively rare move of a uniquely named Minor League team switching to the moniker of its parent club. The logo, designed by Dan Simon of Studio Simon, is modeled after Studebaker signage.

The Studebaker plant, which closed in 1963, is located along the first-base side of the ballpark. This massive structure -- one million square feet! -- has been renovated and is now home to a variety of schools and businesses (with plenty of space still available).

Union Station sits between the Studebaker building and the ballpark. Trains haven¡¯t run from here since 1971, but the city of South Bend bought the building earlier this year -- it had been adapted into a data center -- with the hopes of once again making it functional.

How cool would it be to take an Amtrak train to a depot located just steps away from the ballpark?

In short: The area around Four Winds Field is fascinating, telling an American story of prosperity and decline and reinvention with baseball at the center of it all. This facility was ahead of its time when it opened -- how many other ballparks built in the 1980s have an open concourse? -- but it has been renovated and added to many times over and more change is coming.

Ballpark improvements went into overdrive once current owner Andrew Berlin purchased the team prior to the 2012 season. One of the most remarkable changes, certainly the most remarked upon, was the conversion of the abandoned Sons of Israel Synagogue into the Cubs Den team store.

This is what the synagogue, which held its last service in 1991, looks like from the outside of the ballpark.

The entrance, now located on the left-field concourse, has a different aesthetic.

On the inside, it presents the unprecedented opportunity to purchase a souvenir while standing underneath a majestic chandelier.

The 121-unit Ivy at Berlin Place apartment complex, located near the team store, opened in 2018 and includes a bleacher seat rooftop group area reminiscent of Wrigley Field. The coaching staff and roughly half the team live in these apartments (the guys with cars tend to live in nearby Mishawaka). In 2020, Four Winds Field was the Cubs¡¯ alternate training site, and pretty much everyone resided here.

The right-field concourse is home to the Performance Center, a practice facility and event center utilized by the Cubs and 16 youth travel teams. It¡¯s also open to the public. You can take some hacks during the game.

This was the view from the upper level of the Performance Center, captured during a pregame tour with Cubs president Joe Hart. The space is adaptable and can accommodate a variety of training scenarios.

I was in town for the second game of the Cubs¡¯ final homestand of the season. Less than a week later, work started on a massive, multi-phase $48 million renovation project. The field is being replaced ¨C a process overseen by ¡°Sodfather¡± Roger Bossard -- with some seats removed and tables added. Another major component: The concourse roof has been torn down so that a second level can be added to the ballpark.

Fare thee well, slanted roof.

Here¡¯s a rendering of what that second level will look like. It includes 10 suites and an event space on each end.

And what might those rendered people be pointing toward? That¡¯s a new building in left field, which won¡¯t be constructed until later in the renovation project. It includes an indoor event space and a rooftop deck.

This many words in, and I still haven¡¯t gotten to the game yet. Perhaps I¡¯ve been extra loquacious because this is my final ballpark road trip recap of the season, and I don¡¯t want it to end. Maybe it¡¯s because Four Winds Field provides so much to write about. I think it¡¯s a bit of both.

So, I'll save the rest -- including a concessions roundup and introductions to some of the South Bend faithful -- for next time. If you don't want to miss it (and of course you don't), subscribe to this newsletter.