Tag: Field of Dreams

Former Vols to play in second Field of Dreams game

Former Vols to play in second MLB Field of Dreams game.

Major League Baseball will hold a Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa for the second consecutive year.

The contest will take place on property where the movie “Field of Dreams” was filmed.

Major League Baseball first hosted a game on the field last season. The White Sox and former Vol Garrett Crochet defeated the Yankees.

The 2022 contest will feature the Cubs against Cincinnati. Former Vols Nick Senzel and the Reds (44-66) will play Yan Gomes and Chicago (45-65).

Senzel was the No. 2 overall pick by Cincinnati in 2016.

Gomes played for the Vols from 2008-09.

Follow us at @VolsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of University of Tennessee athletics. 

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11 gorgeous Field of Dreams photos, videos to get you ready for the 2022 Reds and Cubs game

The MLB game in Iowa is back again, and the field looks amazing.

Major League Baseball has built it again. And, again, they will come to Dyersville, Iowa to watch two Major League Baseball teams play surrounded by corn.

The Field of Dreams Game will be on Thursday, Aug 10, with the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs — check out the special uniforms they’ll wear for the contest — facing off.

It doesn’t matter that they’re two mediocre teams who aren’t in contention. Last year’s game was amazing, with Kevin Costner showing up, and the players entering through cornfields. Oh! And there was Tim Anderson’s walkoff!

So as we did last year, let’s show you what the field looks like with some photos and videos:

See the old-timey Cubs and Reds uniforms they’ll wear for the 2022 Field of Dreams game

MLB nailed it with these jerseys that connect back to the movie’s plot

The inaugural Field of Dreams Game in 2021 was everything MLB could’ve hoped for.

The New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox put on an electric display of baseball culminating in Tim Anderson’s walk-off home run to right field. A Hollywood ending for a contest straight off the movie screen.

We aren’t guaranteed to get similar fireworks in 2022 when the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds meet in the Iowa, but we do know they’ll both look spectacular when they emerge from the cornfields.

MLB released the uniforms each team will wear on August 12 and, just like last year’s threads, they absolutely crushed it.

Those will do!

This is a perfect example of a retro look brought into modern times. The Cincy uniforms, in particular, has large place in baseball lore. Those were the jerseys they wore in 1919 when they “won” the World Series against a White Sox team later found to have been paid to throw the championship.

That Sox team featured Shoeless Joe Jackson—and his story would become a key part of the plot to the film Field of Dreams.

Now, of course, we’ll probably see a handful of commercials promoting betting on baseball throughout the Field of Dreams Game. Times have certainly changed.

Whether or not you should trust your money with two teams who are each about 20 games under .500 is an entirely different question.

At least we know they’ll look great.

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The best moments from Tim Anderson’s insanely cool walk-off home run in the ‘Field of Dreams’ game

Tim Anderson is the coolest player in baseball.

Tim Anderson was already the coolest player in baseball, but Thursday night’s game against the Yankees just solidified it.

Anderson hit a walk-off home run to send the White Sox to a 9-8 victory over the Yankees. It was Anderson who put the spectacular finish on the game in the bottom of the 9th with the most appropriate ending for Major League Baseball’s ‘Field of Dreams’ experience.

He also did it in the coolest way possible. He knew as soon as the ball left the bat. He just started walking the bases, signaled ‘it’s over” and made it back to home to celebrate with his team.

The experience couldn’t have ended any better. Well, at least if you’re not a Yankees fan, anyway.

Here’s a look at the coolest moments from Anderson’s walk-off.

Yankees, White Sox entered onto the ‘Field of Dreams’ through the cornfield and it was awesome

They did build it, and they did come.

Major League Baseball’s Field of Dreams Game has been a long time coming, and now it’s officially here!

The New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox both made the trip to Dyersville, Iowa for a once-in-a-lifetime baseball event to celebrate the 1989 movie. A 8,000-seat stadium was specifically built for the occasion, featuring the iconic cornfields of the movie that backdrop the film.

(A cornfield which some New York players got lost in before the game too!)

On Thursday, at the start of the event, the Yankees and White Sox both entered the field through the cornfields after Field of Dreams star Kevin Costner had the honor of stepping out first. The entire sequence was set to the movie’s score, which made the scene all the sweeter.

Is it a cheesy entrance? Sure! But very much in the spirit of the original film, which I have to applaud. Bravo, MLB!

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A few Yankees pitchers briefly got lost in the corn maze at the ‘Field of Dreams’ site

Didn’t see that one coming.

While it’s a bit strange to see Major League Baseball dedicating an event to a 32-year-old movie and treating the game like it’s on the level of an All-Star or postseason game, there’s corn. And the field looks cool.

The Yankees and White Sox were in Dyersville, Iowa, on Thursday to participate in the Field of Dreams Game. MLB built a big-league-ready field at the movie’s site, installed temporary stadium seating and brought the two teams to play the first regular season game in Iowa.

They also built a corn maze at the site. And, well, we all know what happens with corn mazes: People get lost.

Just ask the Yankees pitchers.

According to a pregame report from Ken Rosenthal, Yankees pitchers Zack Britton, Chad Green and Lucas Luetge couldn’t find their way out of the maze. Apparently, Britton went on his own and had the three struggling to get out of the maze.

The rest of the team managed to get through without issue. They were even instructed not to steal the corn.

Honestly, it would have been hilarious if the journey through the corn maze had extended close to game time and required MLB intervention. But they managed to escape with plenty of time to spare. Crisis averted.

Kevin Costner showed up to play catch at the ‘Field of Dreams’ site

This will make fans of the movie smile.

Want to have a catch at the Field of Dreams site for Thursday’s New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox matchup in Iowa?

Kevin Costner liked that.

With Dyersville hosting the game, the actor who starred in the 1989 film is there, and on Wednesday, he had a catch, with the music from the movie playing while he threw.

If you’re a die-hard fan of Field of Dreams, this will make you smile.

Here are videos of the moment, along with some other Costner-related stuff — an interview with Bob Costas is down there — that’s happened this week as Thursday’s game approaches:

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MLB actually got something right with tonight’s ‘Field of Dreams’ game

This should be pretty neat.

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In recent times I’ve been known to be a little sour toward MLB and the way things are ran by the head guy over there.

I’ve said Rob Manfred is the worst commissioner in sports.

I’ve said he should be fired.

I’ve said he should be embarrassed by the many umps who continue to be bad at their jobs.

And while I do still believe in all of those things, I have to give Manfred and MLB credit for doing something cool and outside of the box – tonight’s”Field of Dreams” game in Dyersville, Iowa between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox is going to be pretty neat.

The game, of course, is taking place on the farm where the classic baseball movie was shot. If you haven’t seen what the field is going to look like then you need to check out these awesome photos.

The “stadium” will seat just over 7,900 fans, which is also pretty cool. And they’ll be able to eat an apple pie hot dog concoction created by Guy Fieri, which is something I’d definitely try.

There’s a corn maze behind the right field wall and there will be audio from the movie on the path the fans will take to the game.

Both the Yankees and White Sox will be wearing some sweet throwback uniforms, too.

So yeah, this is going to be different and fun, which isn’t usually how MLB does things. And the game will be aired nationally on FOX at 7 p.m. ET so we can all watch it, which is great.

This is a good thing for baseball, even though it might be a little corny, no pun intended. The game needs to stick out more and doing something like this – an event that is hard to criticize and likely easy to enjoy, is great for the game.

MLB invested $5M bucks into the field and the locker rooms so everything will be good for the players, which is important, and both teams will then head to Chicago after the game to play the rest of season.

So here I am, tipping my cap at Rob Manfred for doing something cool.

For once.

Quick hits: Jenny Taft rightfully crushed Skip Bayless… 2022 NBA mock draft… Trae Turner’s smooth slide into home… And more. 

– Things got heated on “Undisputed” yesterday and host Jenny Taft was brilliant in blasting Skip Bayless for saying really dumb things.

– Bryan Kalbrosky has his first 2022 NBA mock draft in which he makes all all 59 picks, starting with Chet Holmgren.

– Trea Turner’s beautiful slide into home was very meme worthy.

– Former NBA player J.R. Smith is going to college with where he’s going to try to play on North Carolina A&T’s golf team, which is awesome

– A Little League hitter had a hilarious reaction to umpire’s really bad strike call. Poor little fella deserved much better on that call.

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Ignore the haters: Why ‘Field of Dreams’ is still a great movie

This piece originally ran on Midway Minute, a daily newsletter about Chicago sports. Sign up for free here. There are two kinds of people in this world. The type that enjoys watching a good sports movie and cheers at the end. And the type that …

This piece originally ran on Midway Minute, a daily newsletter about Chicago sports. Sign up for free here.

There are two kinds of people in this world.

The type that enjoys watching a good sports movie and cheers at the end.

And the type that watches the same movie and writes an article on the Internet two decades later that you were an idiot for cheering at the end.

Some people out there don’t like “Hoosiers.” Others like to mock “Rudy.”

But the movie that far and away draws the most digital scorn is “Field of Dreams.” Indeed, bashing the 1989 Kevin Costner baseball cornfield fantasy has become a cottage industry for baseball bloggers over the past decade.

Google “Why Field of Dreams actually sucks” and you’ll get a full page of results from contrarians and cranks.  Even Jerry Blevins gets in on it.

Those results will likely only grow this week as the baseball world returns to the Dyersville, Iowa farm for the MLB game between the White Sox and Yankees. In fact, I’m certain there are others working on similar pieces as I write this.

To which I say, “(Yawn).” If your first instinct after seeing John Kinsella play catch with his dad while the sun sets and the music soars is “meh?”

Well, that says more about you than it does the “Field of Dreams.”

That’s not to say I think ‘Field of Dreams’ is immune from criticism.

The first half-hour is pretty pedestrian, and I’m here for it if you want to argue the film doesn’t start getting good until Terrance Mann stands in the path of the Volkswagen van in Boston.

I will also accept these valid takes:

  • The next movie Kevin Costner carries will be the first. He plays John Kinsella the same as he does Crash Davis and Robin Hood. Costner seems like a nice guy, a great baseball fan and I’m overdue to watch Yellowstone. But … he’s basically a VORP actor in this one.
  • Ray Liotta showing up as Shoeless Joe Jackson doesn’t help matters. Much is made of Liotta batting right-handed while Jackson hit left, but the bigger mistake to me was having Henry Hill play a ballplayer from South Carolina. I can’t watch Liotta’s first scene without hearing the opening narration of “Goodfellas” or picturing Shoeless Joe shiv Billy Batts in the trunk of a car. Thankfully, Shoeless Joe is in this movie the perfect amount. Any more Liotta and I’d be arguing the other side.
  • The opening 30 minutes is basically a boring mixture of great cinematography, a disembodied voice doing ASMR 30 years before that was a thing and Costner trying to convince every town person and Timothy Busfield that he’s not crazy.  Oh, and there’s an awkward school board meeting that would’ve been much better had it ended with Jimmy Chitwood showing up and saying it was time to play some ball.
(Universal Studios)

The rest of the movie slaps, though.

Three words: James Earl Jones.

Three more: Burt Freakin’ Lancaster.

If “Field of Dreams” ever threatened to careen off into full-on cheeseball territory, these two Hollywood legends showed up to make sure that it didn’t. Jones as Mann, the J.D. Salinger avatar who fights through Nixonian-induced disillusionment to reconnect with his childhood.  Lancaster as “Moonlight” Graham, the small-town Minnesota doctor with a single plate appearance that always left him wondering.

Watching Jones and Lancaster do their thing is still a simple pleasure 30 years later. The gravity of their performances could’ve laid the shortcomings of the script bare. They instead pull the loose strings together, not demeaning the material and giving the audience permission to believe in what’s going on out in the field.

(Frank Whaley also later shows up as Young Moonlight Graham, which proves “Field of Dreams” is a good movie. Go ahead: Try and name a bad Frank Whaley flick. You can’t.)

But it’s not just the presence of Jones and Lancaster that gives “Field of Dreams” its armor against the haters. It’s the film’s simple emotional core, its fulfilling end, and the refusal to let much else get in the way. That setup is viewed as a sign of weakness in these embittered times, but in 1989 it was a callback to a different era in both Hollywood and America.

Has the 21st Century been so bad and turned us so cynical that we can no longer sit back and find a win in one man’s goofy quest to plow over his crops for reasons even he won’t fully understand until his ghost dad takes off his catcher’s gear?

I’d like to think we can still can.

Here’s what the great Roger Ebert, a critic who was smart enough to let his guard down when warranted, wrote in his 1989 review of the movie:

As “Field of Dreams” developed this fantasy, I found myself being willingly drawn into it. Movies are often so timid these days, so afraid to take flights of the imagination, that there is something grand and brave about a movie where a voice tells a farmer to build a baseball diamond so that Shoeless Joe Jackson can materialize out of the cornfield and hit a few fly balls. This is the kind of movie Frank Capra might have directed, and Jimmy Stewart might have starred in — a movie about dreams.

What’s interesting is that writer/director Phil Alden Robinson wanted Stewart to play Moonlight Graham, but wasn’t able to get him. It makes for a fascinating what-if.

Whether or not Robinson had designs on emulating Capra is uncertain, but putting “Field of Dreams” in the same ever-optimistic frame — if not the same rank — should heighten your appreciation for the move if you’re willing.

Look, “Field of Dreams” is far from a perfect movie. It’s certainly not the best baseball movie, and it may not even be the best baseball movie with James Earl Jones in it.

But it’s still a great baseball movie and a reminder of when we used baseball movies to tell different stories about ourselves. If you’re not a puddle by the end of “Field of Dreams,” I don’t know what to tell you.

Kevin Kaduk is a ListWire contributor and the founder of Midway Minute, a daily newsletter about Chicago sports. You sign up for free here.