Field Of Dreams

August 14, 2021  /  0 Comments
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“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled up like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

Thursday night’s Field of Dreams game was perfect. In the middle of a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa, it was the first regular season MLB game ever played in the state of Iowa and it was incredible! The recreation of 1920’s baseball was in full display from the wooden scoreboard, the game day crew’s outfits and both team’s uniforms. A true reflection of a time when life was still pure. It was a rare moment when real life got to tell the Hollywood story about a movie that has stood the test of time thirty years later.

“It you build it, he will come.”
The temporary 8,000-capacity ballpark was built next to the real Field of Dreams ballfield. (The field in the movie isn’t big enough for an MLB game, but it’s still a major tourist attraction in Iowa.) Tickets were sold through a public lottery open to those with Iowa zip codes. Tickets were the most expensive regular-season MLB game ever! And the 5th most expensive game of all time behind games 3,4,5, and 7 of the 2016 World Series. The average cost per ticket was $1,413.63. If you are a baseball fan, this was money well spent for the experience.

“Is this Heaven? No… It’s Iowa”
The New York Yankees vs. The Chicago White Sox put on a show, along with Kevin Costner who played Ray Kinsella in the 1989 film. Costner led the players through the cornfield and onto the field giving everyone watching goose-bumps as the players recreated one of the most iconic scenes in all of Hollywood sports movies. And a baseball field with a skyline of cornfields and Iowa sunsets; yes, the images were pretty close to heaven. Watch the intro below.

https://twitter.com/mlbonfox/status/1425959976607047686?s=21

“Go the distance”
Home runs into the cornfield are different. They seem more magical because you never actually see them land. And how cool for a kid to run around looking for balls in the cornfield. MLB couldn’t have scripted the ending any better. Chicago won 9-8 with a Tim Anderson walk-off into the cornfield.

“Ease his pain”
Field of Dreams was based on the 1982 novel, Shoeless Joe. It’s a movie about a farmer, Ray Kinsella who builds a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield after hearing the whispering voice “If you build it, he will come.” The story’s undertone is the guilt Kinsella has from the broken relationship he had with his late father and about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. The Field of Dreams is where Shoeless Joe and the other seven Black Sox players who were banned from MLB can play again and it’s where a father and son can play catch to heal old wounds.

There was never any proof that Shoeless Joe was involved in the scandal. Despite being acquitted by a trial jury, all eight Black Sox players were expelled from baseball for life by then Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

In November 1999, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution applauding Jackson’s sporting achievement and encouraged MLB to reinstate his ineligibility. Commissioner Bud Selig stated at the time that Jackson’s case was under review, but no decision was issued during Selig’s tenure. Now, it would only be fitting if Rob Manfred could really make this a Field of Dreams and reinstate Shoeless Joe.

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