It was an ordinary day. Reading about a local father by the name of Josh who, along with his son Joe, made the trek to Iowa recently to watch the game played by the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees on what today is known as "The Field of Dreams." "Field of Dreams" is a 1989 American sport's fantasy drama film based on a 1982 novel called "Shoeless Joe."
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| Movie Poster |
In the film, a farmer builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, among others, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. The movie's plot tells the story of Ray Kinsella who lives with his wife and daughter on an Iowa corn farm. John fears growing old without achieving anything so one evening, while walking through his cornfield, hears a voice that whispers to him saying, "If you build it, he will come." He sees a vision of a baseball diamond in his cornfield with "Shoeless" Joe Jackson standing in the middle of it. Ray tells his wife about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal who then agrees with her husband's dream. The story plot goes on and on and would take me paragraphs to tell it, but I will tell you that the movie was fantastic, especially for someone such as myself who loves the sport of baseball and who coached both his sons and now has the chance to see his grandson play "America's Game." The character of Ray Kinsella was played by Kevin Costner who was a perfect match for the movie character. So real that to this day, Kevin to me is actually Ray Kinsella. Filming for the original movie began on May 25, 1988 with scenes of the farm filmed on the farm of Don Lansing who lived in Dyersville, Iowa. In 2019, Major League Baseball announced that it would hold a special neutral-site regular season game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees at the Dyersville site on August 13, 2020, playing on an 8000-seat field constructed adjacent to the original field, with a pathway connecting the two. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball announced that the game was postponed until 2021. The game was finally held earlier this month between the White Sox and Yankees. And, sitting in the stands was Josh and his son Joe who made the trip from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Lancaster newspaper told Josh's story of playing baseball in his youth and how it has carried through into his fatherhood. Josh graduated from nearby Warwick High School in 1998 and now has three children, with Joe being the youngest at age 11. When Joe began playing, his coach was his dad Josh. Over the years, the two have watched the movie "Field of Dreams" many times. 32 years after the movie debuted, the first Major League Baseball game was to be played in Iowa on the newly-constructed diamond adjacent to the original Field of Dreams. Josh found out about the game days before it would happen, but hatched his plan of taking his son to see the game. He approached his wife who told him to "Just do it!" Before long Josh and son Joe were headed to Dyersville, Iowa, but had to stay in a hotel in Wisconsin due to a lack of rooms closer to the Iowa ballfield. They arrived at the Field of Dreams baseball diamond about 2 p.m. and had a chance to play catch on the same baseball diamond as in the movie. Josh said that he was rolling some ground balls to Joe at shortstop and they also got to walk into the corn.  |
| Josh and son Joe at the game. Photo submitted to local newspaper. |
The crowd of 8,000 got to see the players walk through the corn stalks in the outfield, just as in the original movie. And, they also got to see a fantastic game with the Sox beating the Yankees with a walk-off homer. Josh said that the game was overwhelming. Josh got the love of the sport from his dad and is now passing it on to his son, Joe. Josh actually took his dad's glove with him to the game. He said, "I wanted to bring that glove to have that experience and that moment to reflect as far as what fatherhood means in relation to baseball. This whole trip...baseball is just the connective tissue...I'm fortunate we were able to do this." I am one generation older than Josh, but also would have felt the same way had I been in his place. Having the love of baseball embedded in me by my dad as a child and having the chance to coach both my sons and now getting to revisit the game through my grandson...well, it's priceless! You would really have to have lived it in my footsteps to feel the same feelings that I have for the game of baseball and my son-father-grandfather relationship. I'm sure that Josh feels the same. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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