Iowa's Field of Dreams
If Your Build It They Will Come
By: Susan Cohn - Mar 06, 2017
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME … AND PLAY A PICK-UP BASEBALL GAME, AT THE REAL FIELD OF DREAMS IN DYERSVILLE, IOWA.
For longtime fans of the 1989 Kevin Costner baseball fantasy movie “Field of Dreams,” there is
a corner of Iowa that holds the Promised Land, or at least the
promised infield. The film, based on William Kinsella’s novel Shoeless
Joe, tells of a young Iowa farmer who hears a voice directing him to
build a baseball diamond in his cornfield (“If you build it, he will
come.”) In the movie, the magical clearing attracts the ghosts of the
scandal-ridden 1919 Chicago White Sox, but today, in real life, it is
hopeful visitors who come, by the thousands, from around the world.
From the moment they drive up the long winding country road and first
see the ballfield in the distance, their excitement builds. They park
their cars and walk out onto the grass, amazed that the field remains
just as they imagined it would be. Many bring their own bats and balls
and gloves. Young and old alike are encouraged to take their turn at
the plate, play a little catch or run the bases. They sit on the
wooden bleachers and on the top seat plank find the slightly faded,
carved heart inscribed “Ray Loves Annie.”
THE PUREST FORM OF BASEBALL THERE IS, IN THE MOST FAMOUS BALLPARK IN
THE WORLD.
The Ghost Players who emerge from the cornfield in the
movie are re-enacted at the movie site by local residents in period
White Sox uniforms. They greet visitors and serve as traveling
ambassadors for The Field. Marv Maiers, who for the past 27 years has
been the Catcher and Road Manager for the Ghost Players, said: “I’ve
been fortunate to travel worldwide and across the United States with
the Ghost Players. With that being said, my favorite ball field is
still the Field of Dreams. I have been asked countless times ‘What
makes people come here?’ The only common denominator is that there is
none. Everyone comes for a different reason. I tell people that this
may be the most famous ball diamond in the world. Please understand, I
didn’t say the best in the world but the most famous. This is the only
ballpark in the world that never has a game scheduled but always has
“players” on the field. In the summer, there is an almost endless pick
up game with players from all over the country. Players will leave and
the next set of visitors will take their place. As far as I am
concerned that is the purest form of baseball there is. Maybe that’s
what makes the field so special.”
FIELD OF DREAMS PARTICULARS.
The Field of Dreams Movie Site is located
at 28995 Lansing Road in Dyersville, Iowa. There is no charge to visit
the field, which is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily April to October. The
1906 white two-story farmhouse, on a slight rise near the first
baseline, has been restored to resemble the movie set. The first floor
is open to the public by timed tickets for guided 30-minute tours that
tell the house’s story, from its early days as a farm homestead to its
role as the set for the Kinsella family’s story. Souvenirs are
available. For more information visit fieldofdreamsmoviesite.com, call
(888) 875-8404 or email info@fodmoviesite.com.
SHOELESS JOE JACKSON COMES TO IOWA.|
The Iowa Literary Walk in Iowa
City connects a series of set-in-the-sidewalks bronze relief panels
that feature the words of authors with ties to Iowa. Author William
Kinsella, who spent two years studying creative writing at The
University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, is memorialized on the Iowa
Literary Walk by a baseball-diamond-shaped plaque that reads, “Three
years ago at dusk on a spring evening, when the sky was a robin’s-egg
blue and the wind as soft as a day-old chick, I was sitting on the
veranda of my farm home in eastern Iowa when a voice very clearly said
to me, ‘If you build it, he will come.’”
AND REMEMBER: “Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game
in the world.” — Babe Ruth.
Susan Cohn is a member of the North American Travel Journalists
Association, Bay Area Travel Writers, and the International Food, Wine
& Travel Writers Association. She may be reached at
susan@smdailyjournal.com. More of her stories may be found at
ifwtwa.org/author/susan-cohn.