They don’t call baseball America’s Pastime for nothing. MLB’s Field of Dreams Game demonstrated, yet again, how no sport employs nostalgia and tradition as powerfully as the grand old game.
From Kevin Costner’s stirring narration to the Phillies and Twins players striding out of the cornfields in Dyersville, Iowa, MLB’s third iteration of the Field of Dreams Game was superb entertainment.
I got chills watching over two dozen Hall of Famers emerge from the same cornfields where the 1989 movie was filmed. Slugger Kyle Schwarber played the role of Shoeless Joe Jackson, belting two home runs into the corn during the Phillies’ 7–1 victory.
From the time we are kids, American sports fans learn the traditions of baseball. The pregame salutes to our military veterans. The ceremonial first pitch. Following Humphrey Bogart’s advice that a “hot dog at the ballpark is better than a steak at the Ritz.” The seventh-inning stretch. Singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Enjoying a relaxing day in the summer sun while listening to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” on the loudspeakers.
Most importantly, it’s about family and friends. Playing catch with your Dad. Sandlot games with your buddies. The camaraderie of Little League. Passing down rooting your interests from one generation to another.
As he did during Fox’s classic maiden telecast in 2021, Costner brilliantly set the table.
“The game of baseball has endured. It’s traveled all over the world with its irresistible intricacies and charm,” he noted. “It reminded us that the game belongs to everyone. It has stayed close to our hearts with memories made year after year, story after story.”
From movies like The Natural, Bull Durham, and Moneyball, to classic books such as Roger Kahn’s “The Boys of Summer,” no sport translates better to entertainment than baseball. Thursday’s game may have been one-sided, but the production was first-rate. The topper was Netflix contributor Roger Clemens replicating the flick’s father and son catch on the field with his own son, Kody. As the X/Twitter account BaseballHistoryNut wrote about the poignant scene: “Just sitting here and watching it and seeing the house in the background…MLB did it right.”
Meanwhile, Netflix host Elle Duncan was on top of her game. She was smart, funny, and entertaining. Duncan even coaxed a tear-jerking segment out of the stoic Barry Bonds as he recalled his late father, Bobby Bonds, who died in 2003.
“What did it mean to you to be able to share this great game with your father?” Duncan asked MLB’s all-time home run leader.
Bonds got emotional, recalling how his mother and father introduced him to baseball at 4 years old.
“What I wouldn’t do to have my Dad walk out that corn and play catch with [me]. I’d run the bases—and kiss my son at home plate,” said Bonds. “I can’t explain. It makes me emotional.”
There’s a great scene in the Mad Men episode “The Wheel” where fictional creative director Don Draper is pitching the Kodak Carousel account. Citing a Greek mentor named Teddy, actor Jon Hamm notes that there’s nothing more powerful than consumers forging a “sentimental bond” with the product.
“Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone,” says Hamm.
That’s how I felt watching the Field of Dreams Games Thursday night. I got a twinge in my heart. Yes, MLB was the product. But it was nostalgia and tradition that carried the day. Was it reality mimicking fiction—or fiction inspired by real traditions that date back to baseball’s origins in the 19th century? Either way, it worked.
This was MLB’s first Field of Dreams game since 2022. According to the Des Moines Register, the event is slated to return to Dyersville in 2027—although there’s still uncertainty given MLB’s pending labor negotiations. It would be a shame if the league’s newest tradition doesn’t last.
If MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is smart—and he’s making plenty of smart decisions lately with the pitch clock and ABS challenge system—he’ll keep this as an annual tentpole event. Like the NHL’s annual outdoor game, the Field of Dreams game is simultaneously out of left field and totally in keeping with the tradition of the sport. It’s a great spectacle. I expect strong streaming numbers for Netflix.
To paraphrase the mysterious voice speaking to Costner’s Ray Kinsella in the movie: “If you build it, they will come.”
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