Field of Dreams
Dyersville, IA
Review by Gary
If you build it, they will come. It took me 27 years, but I finally went to the site of the 1989 baseball movie, Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner. If it were not for a cross-country road trip across the U.S., I would probably never have gone there, but since it was on the way, why not? The baseball field is actually located in the middle of miles upon miles of Iowa cornfields.
After what seemed like days to drive here, arriving seemed more like a relief than the culmination of the anticipation of actually seeing the place, but once we got out of the car and took in the surroundings, we could imagine something magical happening, like Shoeless Joe Jackson showing up.
Was it heaven? Nah, it was still Iowa, but visiting the Field was cool because the owners of the place (or was it the tourists?) left balls, bats and gloves laying on the field for anyone to take a spot and play some baseball. THAT was the coolest part. People simply stepped on the ball field and played for a few minutes with complete strangers.
With respectful reverence, there was no yelling or shouting during the whole time I was there. Just folks who had driven from everywhere else to see where a baseball movie had been filmed at a ball field cut out of rows upon rows of corn. The field is smaller than today’s standards, measuring 281 feet to left field, 314 feet to center and 262 feet to right field, with a wall of corn in the high season that provides a great back drop.
This field and adjacent house have stood pretty much undisturbed as the home of Ray Kinsella, save for a makeshift souvenir stand and gravel parking lot. In August of 2019, Major League Baseball announced that it would play the first ever major league game in Iowa at the Field of Dreams. This game will take place in August 2020 and feature the Chicago White Sox (fittingly) hosting the New York Yankees (marketingly) and would be played at a temporary 8,000 seat ballpark on the site. So, fans wanting to “go the distance” and see this game will probably have to drop a pretty penny to do so. I was glad to have seen the Field of Dreams, as it was when the movie first came out.
2016
88
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