DYERSVILLE – Kevin Costner put it best late Thursday afternoon.
“You don’t want to mess with a winning streak,” the “Field of Dreams” star said. “It does feel like all teams are going to want to touch this. There will be hot competition to be here. There’s nothing like tradition. And today it starts.”
The Field of Dreams Game will not be a one-off thing, Major League Baseball Commisioner Rob Manfred confirmed late Thursday afternoon, shortly before the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox played the first but not last regular-season game in Iowa. The inaugural had a thrilling ending, by the way.
Tim Anderson hit a two-run, walk-off home run to give the Sox a 9-8 win, after two-run homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the top of the ninth turned a 7-4 New York deficit into an 8-7 lead.
This was at an 8,000-seat ballpark MLB built roughly two years ago adjacent to the site of the iconic baseball movie starring Costner that was filmed here, about four miles outside Dyersville, 32 years ago.
You want irony? Anderson has never seen the movie.
“My wife has watched it. She was telling me a little bit about it,” Anderson said. “Now that I’ve been here, I might have to watch it now.”
The game originally was to be played last season but canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday night was, simply put, an event, a national event that probably ranks among the all-time best in Iowa.
“I haven’t been back since 2015, and when I walked out here today and saw the finished product, I was just blown away,” Manfred said. “The work that our people at Major League Baseball did is absolutely phenomenal, right down to the littlest detail. What the dugouts were going to look like, what the scoreboard was going to be, how it was going to be operated. I can’t say enough about the work that has been done, and we’re just excited to get to the game.”
About 15 minutes before first pitch, Costner emerged out of the cornfield just beyond the fence in right-center field to a rousing ovation, followed by players from both teams. It was a stirring scene right out of the movie, with little hint of pretentiousness.
Jose Abreu of the White Sox lined a home run just over the left-field fence in the bottom of the first inning and into the corn, the first of eight times that would happen on this humid night.
“I think the reception this event has received has been so positive that we will be back,” Manfred said, not divulging the teams that will be involved but saying it again will be in August. “I think it’s pretty clear that we will be back next year. We’ll have to talk about it in depth, but this has been just so successful, it’s hard not to take the opportunity to be back here again.”
The teams arrived at the ballpark via bus from Dubuque about 1 p.m. and immediately took a tour of the digs. Virtually all of the players, coaches, managers and other personnel had their cellphones out shooting photos and videos of the stadium.
Stanton of the Yankees plucked an ear of corn from the field and put it in the back pocket of his jersey pants. Dallas Keuchel and a bunch of other Chicago White Sox played a game of cornhole on the original field.
Fellow Sox Liam Hendriks toured the inside of the farm house at the movie site.
“My camera reel is pretty much full right now,” Hendriks said. “People who follow me on Instagram are going to get tired of all the corn photos I’m going to be posting.”
In the dog days of the season, this game created a diversion from the monotony of the day to day grind and sterile travel from one big city to the next. It seemed to be something players embraced.
“Guys were just glued to the windows (of the bus), checking out the scenery,” Yankees star Judge said. “A lot of guys from different countries have seen big cities, but they haven’t seen open fields like this. It was pretty cool dropping in and seeing everybody in town, standing on the sides of the roads with signs and cheering us on as we were coming in. It was a pretty cool experience that I know I won’t forget.”
Fans were allowed into the stadium at 3 p.m. for the 6:15 game, allowed to watch both teams take batting practice. The game was televised nationally on FOX, not blacked out in a state that seems to be blackout central.
Six MLB teams claim territorial rights to Iowa, which makes many of their games impossible to watch. Manfred said “it’s a complicated issue,” when asked about it Thursday, but pledged to work with regional sports networks to find a solution.
There was a hint of cruel irony here considering two nearby minor league teams in the state in Clinton and Burlington were eliminated from affiliated professional baseball in the offseason when MLB “streamlined” its minor leagues. Roughly 25 percent of the tickets sold to this game went to Iowans lucky enough to be selected in an online lottery.
The cost of those tickets was an un-Iowa-like $375 apiece. But it was difficult to find anyone here Thursday night who was griping about much of anything, especially after that dramatic ninth inning.
Was this heaven? For many, it was pretty close.
“It’s a special place for a baseball player and baseball fans,” said Yankees infielder D.J. LeMahieu. “They did an unbelievable job on the field. The clubhouse is great. Everybody seems to be having a good time enjoying themselves and taking in this experience.”
“I just projected (originally) that this movie had a chance to be great,” Costner said. “So many things have a chance to be great. There were movies that I’ve made that were great when they were written, but by the time so many hands get on them, they become different movies. This was a perfect little movie that leaned on its climax, this big car chase, this big crash (of) ‘Do you want to have a catch?’ And it worked.”
So did this game.
www.thegazette.com
“You don’t want to mess with a winning streak,” the “Field of Dreams” star said. “It does feel like all teams are going to want to touch this. There will be hot competition to be here. There’s nothing like tradition. And today it starts.”
The Field of Dreams Game will not be a one-off thing, Major League Baseball Commisioner Rob Manfred confirmed late Thursday afternoon, shortly before the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox played the first but not last regular-season game in Iowa. The inaugural had a thrilling ending, by the way.
Tim Anderson hit a two-run, walk-off home run to give the Sox a 9-8 win, after two-run homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the top of the ninth turned a 7-4 New York deficit into an 8-7 lead.
This was at an 8,000-seat ballpark MLB built roughly two years ago adjacent to the site of the iconic baseball movie starring Costner that was filmed here, about four miles outside Dyersville, 32 years ago.
You want irony? Anderson has never seen the movie.
“My wife has watched it. She was telling me a little bit about it,” Anderson said. “Now that I’ve been here, I might have to watch it now.”
The game originally was to be played last season but canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday night was, simply put, an event, a national event that probably ranks among the all-time best in Iowa.
“I haven’t been back since 2015, and when I walked out here today and saw the finished product, I was just blown away,” Manfred said. “The work that our people at Major League Baseball did is absolutely phenomenal, right down to the littlest detail. What the dugouts were going to look like, what the scoreboard was going to be, how it was going to be operated. I can’t say enough about the work that has been done, and we’re just excited to get to the game.”
About 15 minutes before first pitch, Costner emerged out of the cornfield just beyond the fence in right-center field to a rousing ovation, followed by players from both teams. It was a stirring scene right out of the movie, with little hint of pretentiousness.
Jose Abreu of the White Sox lined a home run just over the left-field fence in the bottom of the first inning and into the corn, the first of eight times that would happen on this humid night.
“I think the reception this event has received has been so positive that we will be back,” Manfred said, not divulging the teams that will be involved but saying it again will be in August. “I think it’s pretty clear that we will be back next year. We’ll have to talk about it in depth, but this has been just so successful, it’s hard not to take the opportunity to be back here again.”
The teams arrived at the ballpark via bus from Dubuque about 1 p.m. and immediately took a tour of the digs. Virtually all of the players, coaches, managers and other personnel had their cellphones out shooting photos and videos of the stadium.
Stanton of the Yankees plucked an ear of corn from the field and put it in the back pocket of his jersey pants. Dallas Keuchel and a bunch of other Chicago White Sox played a game of cornhole on the original field.
Fellow Sox Liam Hendriks toured the inside of the farm house at the movie site.
“My camera reel is pretty much full right now,” Hendriks said. “People who follow me on Instagram are going to get tired of all the corn photos I’m going to be posting.”
In the dog days of the season, this game created a diversion from the monotony of the day to day grind and sterile travel from one big city to the next. It seemed to be something players embraced.
“Guys were just glued to the windows (of the bus), checking out the scenery,” Yankees star Judge said. “A lot of guys from different countries have seen big cities, but they haven’t seen open fields like this. It was pretty cool dropping in and seeing everybody in town, standing on the sides of the roads with signs and cheering us on as we were coming in. It was a pretty cool experience that I know I won’t forget.”
Fans were allowed into the stadium at 3 p.m. for the 6:15 game, allowed to watch both teams take batting practice. The game was televised nationally on FOX, not blacked out in a state that seems to be blackout central.
Six MLB teams claim territorial rights to Iowa, which makes many of their games impossible to watch. Manfred said “it’s a complicated issue,” when asked about it Thursday, but pledged to work with regional sports networks to find a solution.
There was a hint of cruel irony here considering two nearby minor league teams in the state in Clinton and Burlington were eliminated from affiliated professional baseball in the offseason when MLB “streamlined” its minor leagues. Roughly 25 percent of the tickets sold to this game went to Iowans lucky enough to be selected in an online lottery.
The cost of those tickets was an un-Iowa-like $375 apiece. But it was difficult to find anyone here Thursday night who was griping about much of anything, especially after that dramatic ninth inning.
Was this heaven? For many, it was pretty close.
“It’s a special place for a baseball player and baseball fans,” said Yankees infielder D.J. LeMahieu. “They did an unbelievable job on the field. The clubhouse is great. Everybody seems to be having a good time enjoying themselves and taking in this experience.”
“I just projected (originally) that this movie had a chance to be great,” Costner said. “So many things have a chance to be great. There were movies that I’ve made that were great when they were written, but by the time so many hands get on them, they become different movies. This was a perfect little movie that leaned on its climax, this big car chase, this big crash (of) ‘Do you want to have a catch?’ And it worked.”
So did this game.
They built it, they came and will again next season
The Chicago White Sox beat the New York Yankees in MLB’s inaugural Field of Dreams game that will be held again in Dyersville in 2022.
www.thegazette.com
