Field of Dreams

Based on the 1982 novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, the 1989 movie Field of Dreams starred Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella, James Earl Jones as Terrence Mann, Amy Madigan as Kinsella's wife, Burt Lancaster as Moonlight Graham, and Ray Liotta (as Shoeless Joe Jackson).

The plot revolves around Iowa corn farmer Kinsella, a baseball obsessive, who hears voices telling him to build a baseball field in his plot of land ("If you build it, they will come"). After he builds the field, much to the dismay of his wife, ghosts of past baseball players start appearing on the field, while Kinsella undertakes a cross-country trek to meet reclusive writer Mann and bring him to a baseball game, and eventually to the "Field of Dreams". The field helps Kinsella to mend his broken relationship with his father.

Like Costner's previous baseball movie, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams was a big success, both critically and at the box office. He later made a third baseball film, For Love of the Game.

The ballpark built in a cornfield for the purpose of shooting the film was preserved as a tourist attraction in Dyersville, IA. On August 12, 2021, Major League Baseball played the Field of Dreams Game at a temporary ballpark erected next to the original site, to commemorate the film. The game was originally scheduled for 2020 but was delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic. Just before the game was played, organizers said they wanted the event to go annual - and immediately after it, MLB announced a 2022 contest between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

Minor League Baseball got into the act on April 21, 2022, by announcing that the Quad Cities River Bandits' August 9th home game with the Cedar Rapids Kernels would be played at the Field of Dreams site. The Kernels are not only closer to the location than the Bandits but also its closest professional baseball team.

In September 2021, retired ChiSox slugger Frank Thomas purchased Go the Distance Baseball, the LLC that owned and managed the Field of Dreams properties and operations.

Further Reading

• Michael Clair: "11 Field of Dreams facts you never knew: There are more mysteries than just what is going on in that cornfield", mlb.com, August 10, 2021. [1]
• Adam Doster: "Field of Schemes", The Atlantic Monthly, April 2014, pp. 46-52.
• Adrian Garro, "If you build it -- even in France! -- it's a beautiful Field of Dreams", mlb.com, May 3, 2024. [2]
• W.P. Kinsella: Shoeless Joe, Turtleback Books, St. Louis, MO, 1999 (originally published in 1982). ISBN 978-0785729020
• David Krell: "Field of Hollywood Dreams: Actors and Their Baseball Roles Beyond the World's Most Famous Cornfield", The National Pastime, SABR, 51, 2023, pp. 116-118.
• Brett H. Mandel: Is This Heaven?: The Magic of the Field of Dreams, Diamond Communications, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2002. ISBN 978-1888698411
• Matt Monagan: "The woman who found the Field of Dreams: Movie magic was built from Sue Riedel's little snapshots in 1988", mlb.com, August 9, 2021. [3]

External Links

• Internet Movie Database information on the movie