“People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by 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.”
-James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams, 1989
I will never forget the night I got to spend at the famous Field of Dreams. As a kid that was fully consumed in the game of baseball, I would watch just about any movie that involved it. But not all movies can be considered classics. For every Bull Durham, there’s a Mr. Baseball, and for every Field of Dreams, there’s Little Big League.
But Field of Dreams had this aura surrounding it. It was released before I was born but yet I connected with it. I can’t even pinpoint what it is, maybe just the way it portrayed baseball to be this authentic game that was so pure anyone can enjoy it. Maybe the little bit of mystery surrounding that field, but either way it was something that so many people had related to. It seemed you either loved it, or didn’t see it. I don’t know anyone that didn’t enjoy it.
And then there’s the last scene. As someone that has lost my father, that last scene really resonated with me more than it did as a kid. It’s something that just tugs at the heart strings. Having a catch is the most pure moment in a father-son relationship, and something that can be enjoyed for any length of time and at any level of talent and at any age. If not for that final scene, maybe the movie doesn’t capture the hearts and minds of so many people.
That takes us to the movie site. I’ve heard that the field was still in tact and that it was open to visitors. But as a New Yorker, you never really pay too much mind to the midwest, especially the corn fields of Dyersville, Iowa.
When the Yankees played the White Sox in August, like most baseball fans, I was enamored. Baseball has been notorious for messing up marketing to youths for years. But they absolutely nailed it. They hit all the right chords. They had Kevin Costner throw out the first pitch, they had the players of both teams walk out of the cornfields and most of all – the game counted. If it was a Spring Training game, or a regular season game between the Diamondbacks and the Pirates, maybe nobody is as interested. But it was two first place teams in a meaningful game and the White Sox won on a walk-off. It was actually perfect.
After that, I wanted to visit the site. As of 2018, you are allowed to rent the house. So my wife surprised me and rented the house. To be clear, this is exactly how it sounds. The house is in the same condition as it was in the movie, it is like being in a time machine. There are three bedrooms but we had the house to ourselves and watched the movie. We also got to sit on the swing and overlook the field. Obviously, the best part of all was turning on the lights and running around the field like kids, having a catch and running the bases.
We had it from 5pm to 9am – so it’s not even like we were rushed. The only downside was trying to hail a cab from the middle of nowhere, but after an hour wait we were able to make it work.
It was an incredible experience. We basically lived inside of a movie set. There’s nothing that can match that experience. What I would love to do, is host an Axcess All Star Game at that field. Now, that would be an experience.
