Surprisingly, I had never seen the movie Field of Dreams until about a week ago. I figured that if I was going there, I really should watch the movie first. I remember trying to watch it on a long flight once, but I fell asleep (from being tired, not from boredom). So I had seen parts of the movie, but never the whole thing. I bought it on Amazon for $5 and finally watched it. Really good movie. My biggest problem was that Shoeless Joe Jackson bats right-handed and throws left-handed in the movie. He really was the opposite of that. I didn't really notice that he threw with the wrong hand until I googled it, but I did know that he was hitting the wrong way because I've been watching the Ken Burns Baseball documentary recently. That documentary also refutes the idea that Jackson wasn't involved in throwing the World Series. He did hit well, but he fielded terribly. So Field of Dreams depicts Shoeless Joe Jackson inaccurately, but it still is a very good movie.
My route to the Field of Dreams took me through Charles City, Iowa. My dad worked at a camp there many years ago so I decided to stop there. I went to Dairy Queen and called my dad to tell him I was in Charles City. He told me his address when he lived there so I drove by the house.
After that I was back on my way to the Field of Dreams. It looks just like it did in the movie. People can visit for free and toss around a ball or even hit a few on the field. It's pretty awesome. It made me think of Tom Verducci's Summer Game idea. It's a baseball version of the NHL Winter Classic. It would be the only game on the Thursday after the All Star Game and it would be played at a unique location. The ones he mentioned as possibilities: the foothills near Mount Rushmore, the mall in Washington DC, the Field of Dreams, Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, the Rose Bowl, Michigan Stadium, TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. I love all of those ideas except for Michigan Stadium. At many of those places you'd be sacrificing a lot of seating. Apparently the Field of Dreams had celebrity games in 1991 and 1992 with 2,500 fans. Unfortunately, there are other problems with the Field of Dreams. The dimensions are tiny. It's 281 to left, 314 to center, and 262 to right. Maybe you could put up a huge net that hitters would have to hit it over for a home run. The other problem (which I think is the easiest to fix) is the field conditions. The outfield is definitely not level as you approach the corn, but then Houston has that hill. The grass is way too high, but that can just be mowed. And the dirt is way too hard. It would definitely take some work to get the field ready, but I think it could be done. I really really love Tom Verducci's idea, but I doubt it's ever going to happen. Even if it did happen, they probably wouldn't use the Field of Dreams.
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| A panoramic shot from behind home plate |
In the movie when asked if it was heaven, Kevin Costner's response was, "No, it's Iowa." So this visit made me think of how heaven would look if I was in charge of designing it. I think I would be on Long Island, but be able to walk to Notre Dame and any sporting venue (past and present) and be able to watch games. I'd definitely want to be able to go to Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Old Yankee Stadium (as in pre-renovation Yankee Stadium). I'd want to check out Boston Garden as well (I took a tour in the summer of 1995, which was right after the final season of play there). And I'd be able to have New York pizza from Little Vincent's, Jimmy's, Chef's, John's, or whatever whenever I wanted it. It would be great.
So that was Iowa. I'll cover three states in my next post. Enjoy some more pictures.
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| Looking in from the pitcher's mound |
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| Looking in from center field |
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| Kyle's brother told me a story about this. Apparently when Kyle and his brother visited as kids, they were Bart Simpson and the Field of Dreams Guest Register was Moe's Tavern. |
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| A panoramic shot from the bleachers on the first base side |
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