MLB at Field of Dreams – page 2

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The Design

While there are many similarities between Fort Bragg Field and MLB at Field of Dreams, there are certainly differences. In Fort Bragg, MLB decided they wanted to accommodate a crowd of 12,500, which meant a few chairback seats behind home plate, aluminum benches all the way to the foul lines, and artificial berms (they were platforms, not grass) beyond the outfield fences.

In Dyersville, the thinking was different. There wasn’t going to be any berms so that the corn could be right up to the outfield fences. They felt that any more than 8,000 fans would simply overwhelm the parking, concessions and, well, port-a-potties. So for this park, there were 10 sections of seatback chairs (not super comfy, because keep in mind, they need to collapse for storage) and seven much-taller sections of aluminum benches. The seatback sections surround the infield, while all of the bench seats were behind third base. Why? Because this permitted an unobstructed view across the tops of the quarter mile of corn stalks all the way to the movie-set lights and farmhouse. Fantastic thinking … but the fans in those sections were packed in like sardines. “The bleachers were quite tight,” observed lifelong Iowa resident Matt Nelson, whose seats were high up on the third-base side. “I would compare it to major college football games where the space allotted on the bleachers is simply not enough.”

Another example of brilliant planning (credit Populous) was the various structures surrounding the seating bowl. All of these, of course, were portable – with one exception. You needed really large tent structures for the two team’s clubhouses (which included everything a big-league team wants, including indoor batting cage, video room, coaches’ office, showers, etc. The Yankees’ locker room is shown above), umpires, security command center, catering, media work room, grounds crew, X-rays, all of the satellite and production trucks, offices for MLB officials, storage, supplies, not to mention the numerous concession and merchandise tents.

And my favorite – a weather tent. With the way severe storms can pop up in this part of the country, you must stay on top of the weather.

Hey, Knuckles, what are ya throwin’ at the kid for?  — Chick Gandil He winked at me.  — Eddie Cicotte Don’t wink, Kid.  — Chick

Here is the exception about what’s portable:  the light towers. At Fort Bragg – and frankly whenever additional lighting is desired (like when the Blue Jays played regular season games in Dunedin) – the light towers were on large flatbed trucks. The towers would be flat on the trucks when transporting them, then cranked from a horizontal to vertical position for the games. They would then be lowered to truck them to the next event. Here, though, they were permanently mounted into the ground. Now, whether this was because there wasn’t a way to have the flatbed trucks in the middle of the cornstalks, or MLB knew going in that they will want to do this game in future years (so why NOT mount them permanently?), who knows? But at the tops of the towers were special LED lights that can twinkle or shut off and on. On the poles themselves were different colored lights that could be coordinated remotely.

And the company responsible for these very high-tech lights? Musco Lighting of Oskaloosa, Iowa. And it probably won’t surprise you that Musco was the company that mounted and controlled the lights at the movie-site ballfield while filming was happening in 1988.

Now, those first two were high and tight, so what do you think the next one’s gonna be? — Shoeless Joe Well, either low and away, or in my ear.  — Archie Graham

A really nice touch involved the visuals and graphics. The batters eye was in the shape of a huge barn, and the signage and walls looked to be on aged wood. Further, there was a hand-operated scoreboard in right field that appeared to be made of distressed timbers. In the photo below, you see the batter’s eye on the left, the hand-operated scoreboard toward the center and the movie site in the distance on the right.

There was a definite attempt for the park’s dimensions and arrangement to be reminiscent of old Comiskey Park, since Shoeless Joe Jackson (a key character in the movie) played for the White Sox until he and seven other players were banned following the Black Sox scandal. This included the two bullpens being beyond center field.

The playing surface was positively beautiful when the two teams lined up for the National Anthem. In fact, it was so perfect that it almost looked like it was artificial. But it wasn’t. It started as sod in 2019 after 30,000 cubic yards of dirt were trucked off so the field would be perfectly level, and then was carefully maintained ever since by Cook and his crew. The grass itself is a blend of three different Kentucky Bluegrass seeds.

Honestly, you simply can’t say enough about Murray Cook (see photo). His work is exceptional, so it’s no wonder why MLB has leaned heavily on him as their field consultant for years. Commissioner Manfred feels, though, that this is his best work. Referring to him only as “Murray” in the pre-game press conference, he told reporters that he’s gone all over the world for MLB, always ensuring the players have a tremendous surface to play on. “But this, I believe, is Murray’s masterpiece.”

By the way, the first pitch in the MLB at Field of Dreams park is shown at the top of this page. The White Sox’ Lance Lynn delivered the pitch to Yankee lead-off batter D.J. LeMahieu.

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The Essentials

So what was it like to attend this very, very special event?

Well, there wasn’t a public sale of tickets in the traditional sense. MLB had announced that there would be a lottery for the tickets. It wasn’t until July 15, though, that it was announced that only individuals with an Iowa zip code could enter it. That made a lot of people outside of Iowa angry, including a New Jersey woman I interviewed for my preview article who had already booked a hotel room on the assumption that she would have as good a chance as anyone to be picked in the lottery. She was unhappy.

As it turned out, only about 2,000 of the 8,000 seats were available for purchase through the Iowa-resident lottery. The rest went to quite a long list of entities, including some White Sox season ticket holders (they held their own lottery), MLB, Fox, all of the 30 MLB teams, sponsors, local organizations and workers, the 14-and-under players from Chicago and New York who played a game the previous day on the movie-site field, the big-league players’ families, etc., etc.

People will come, Ray. — Terence

For those lucky enough to purchase tickets at face value, they were allowed to buy two bleacher tickets at $375 apiece or, if available, two chairback seats in the infield for $450 apiece. Now let’s think about this. At Fort Bragg, there was NO ticket revenue, because all 12,500 tickets were given away to military families living on the base. That was an absolutely fantastic gesture, and whether MLB covered its $5 million construction cost there with sponsor money and rights fees didn’t matter. It would be impossible to do too much for our military families, and MLB received tremendously positive publicity for doing that. Good for them. Further, because the Minor League ballpark used for the MLB game at the Little League World Series in Williamsport is so small, there is no sale of tickets at all. The LLWS players and their families get to sit in the seats. Again, good for MLB for doing it that way.

But why charge such a high price for these Field of Dream Game tickets? I suspect MLB would say that these are commensurate with the prices on their most special events, like All Star Games and playoffs. And this is a very special event – and besides, why let scalpers pocket most of the mark-up on the secondary market for an event where demand will far, far, far exceed supply?

Because it feels like price gouging. Why collect zero ticket revenue at Fort Bragg and Williamsport and feel the need to charge so much here? Just because you can? I say, charge $50 a seat and let the farm families in Iowa keep a few more dollars in their wallets.

For it’s money they have. It’s peace they lack.  — Terence

But while we’re at it, let’s talk about the astronomical prices on concessions and merchandise. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald ran an article entitled “MLB stadium offers ballpark fare at big-league prices.” It decries the $10 cans of beer, $14 chicken sandwiches, $14 tenders, $5 bottles of water, $6 Cracker Jacks and $8 popcorn. Are these the kinds of prices you’d see at Yankee Stadium? Sure, but if you want to bring a Major League game to Iowa, you shouldn’t bring along New York prices.

Same thing on merchandise. I spent more on a cap than I ever have at $40 – and it was adjustable, not fitted. T-shirts were all $45 (the same shirts were $10 less on MLBShop.com), the small game program was $10 and out of the thousand or so lapel pins I’ve bought in my life, the one here was the most expensive ($15).

Yes, people were paying these prices, and the lines were long, so nobody was boycotting the vendors. But I contend for all of the good will that MLB stands to generate by bringing a game to America’s breadbasket, they shouldn’t tarnish it by charging so much for tickets, food and souvenirs.

Nelson was willing to tolerate the sky-high pricetags. “It was an incredible experience and I would have greatly regretted not being in attendance. The prices were high but the moment was quite unique. I will certainly consider attending again in the future.”

I spotted a father and son in the packed bench-seating area with a cute sign. I asked if I could take a picture (see the photo), then asked them about their experience. Derek Ball explained they got to pay face value for their tickets through the lottery. Since his son David had just become old enough to drive, Derek figured out that they could pocket about $1,500 if they sold their tickets and parking pass on the secondary market. He told David that the money could go toward buying him a car. Impressively, David said no thanks. He wanted to go with his father to this very special experience. It seems like the son has learned the lesson of the movie. (They posted a wonderful video about their experience that evening.)

Many others, though, decided to cash in on their good fortune of winning the ticket lottery or getting seats through sponsors. On the secondary market, StubHub reported that the average price paid per ticket was $1,400, while SeatGeek said the average topped $1,500. Reportedly, these are records for regular-season baseball games.

Setting aside the prices, the gameday experience at this event was phenomenal, but was never over-the-top. After fans waited in a long, winding line to go through security, they found themselves at the movie site. They could play catch or simply bask in the knowledge that their favorite movie was filmed right there. There were concessions there, as well as souvenir trailers.

Then to reach the pop-up ballpark, fans were ushered into the corn in the ballfield’s center field. No path had been cut to make access easier. Fans walked between the rows of corn for about 20 feet to an opening with a path that led straight to the stadium. This was brilliance.

As you walked, the movie’s soundtrack and favorite lines from the script were played through speakers in the corn. On your left was an entrance to a multi-acre corn maze. Seen from the air, the maze formed the shape of MLB’s logo. A rumor made the rounds during the game that three Yankees pitcher got lost in the maze and had to be guided out of it. Afterwards, we learned the rumor was true.

The path from the movie site reaches a T near the back of the big park’s batters eye. Here you either headed left to get to the seats behind first base or home plate, or right to the huge bleachers behind third base.

Almost all of the concession tents and the sole merch stand at the stadium were on the third-base side. Quite a few of the port-a-potties were cleverly tucked behind a row of corn near the left-field foul pole.

This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. — Terence

The pre-game ceremonies were magical. There’s no other way to put it. Kevin Costner (shown below in a pre-game meeting with the press — he is kind of a handsome devil, isn’t he?) appeared from the corn beyond the right-field fence. He took his time as he wandered toward the infield as the lovely soundtrack from the movie played. Before he said a word, players from the White Sox and Yanks started appearing from the corn. The leisurely pace of all of this was perfect, as many spectators fought back tears.

As the two rosters lined the basepaths between first and second, and second and third, Costner finally spoke (see photo at the beginning of the next section below). “Thirty years ago – thirty – on the other side of that corn, we filmed a movie that stood the test of time. Tonight, thanks to the enduring impact that the little movie had, it’s allowed us to come here again.”

He added, “It’s perfect. We’ve kept our promise and Major League Baseball has kept its promise. The dream is still alive.”

As one commenter said under highlights of the above on YouTube: This to me is one of the single greatest things any sport has done for their game. This blew me away!

After player introductions, Iowa native and American Idol winner Maddie Poppe sang the National Anthem from the movie-site field. As the final notes echoed, the deafening roar of four A10 Warthog jets screamed overhead.

Even the weather cooperated. After three straight days of afternoon deluges, the day was thankfully dry. And the sunset was so beautiful (see it on the home page of this site) it looked like it had been created in Photoshop.

The game itself was marked by the way the ball flew out of the ballpark and into the corn. The walk-off winner by Tim Anderson seemed fitting on a night when magic was felt throughout the pop-up stadium in the middle of a cornfield.

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Summary

Before the game’s first pitch had been thrown, Manfred had confirmed what everyone assumed (especially those of us who had noticed that the light stands were permanently installed): there would be another game on this field in a year, with teams to be announced later.

What are you grinnin’ at, you ghost?  — Ray If you build it, he will come.  — Shoeless Joe, gesturing toward the catcher

While the fans who attended the game seemed to revel in the experience, perhaps the best barometer of the game’s success came in the TV ratings: it was the most-watched regular-season MLB game on any network since 2005. The following afternoon, Amazon announced that Field of Dreams had zoomed to become the #1 movie on its site.

Clearly, it was worth all of the trouble and expense to MLB. I was told that $6 million was spent in preparing the facility, plus another couple of million had to go to compensate the White Sox for losing what would’ve been a sold-out Friday night home game against the Yankees.

A very happy Iowan attending the game was 81-year-old Glen Hardin. For 60 years, he’s worked for the same accounting firm in Dubuque. This is a man who loves baseball with a passion. In fact, the last time the area had a Minor League team back in the 1970s – the Dubuque Packers of the Midwest League — he acted as the franchise’s GM while still holding down his accounting job.

The day he learned he was getting to attend the game, he told me “I’m 5’10”, but right now I feel 6’5” because of my excitement.”

He added that “I’m a baseball nut. Baseball is in the fabric of my life, so I am proud and excited. It’s a great thing for the state of Iowa.”

Hey, Dad. You wanna have a catch?  — Ray I’d like that.  — John Kinsella

Sitting next to Glen at the game was his 20-year-old grandson, Derek Hardin (see the two in the photo). He’s a pitcher for the University of Dubuque Spartans. Glen isn’t just a wonderful grandfather for bringing Derek to the game, he also rarely misses watching his grandson pitch. “Getting to take my grandson to a Major League game here in Iowa is a great, wonderful experience,” Glen explained. “It’s something you couldn’t even think would happen. It’s a dream.”

Which is reminiscent of what Ray Kinsella’s father John tells Ray at the end of the movie. “It’s so beautiful here. For me, it’s a dream come true. Is this heaven?”

Everyone in attendance at the Field of Dreams Game knows Ray’s beaming response: “It’s Iowa.”

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