MLB’s Field of Dream spectacle is a massive lift but still worth the trouble

It’s not easy to get to Dyersville, Iowa.

For those not within driving distance, the most common route involves a flight to Chicago, a three-hour drive across Illinois and a hotel in the quaint riverside city of Dubuque. From there, Dyersville, home of the Field of Dreams site and stadium, is a 45-minute jaunt down Route 20. Convenient it is not.

And yet, 7,163 ballfans, 54 active ballplayers and 26 Hall of Famers made the journey on Thursday, congregating beneath the cornstalks and the rolling hills for a night of pomp and circumstance and nostalgia laid on as thick as butter.

MLB unveiled the Field of Dreams Game back in 2021 to great fanfare. The inaugural edition delivered on cinematic spectacle, as the White Sox and Yankees battled in a topsy-turvy affair that concluded with a dramatic walk-off homer from Tim Anderson. The 2022 version, played between the Cubs and Reds, was a tad sleepier but still featured a memorable pregame ceremony that involved Ken Griffeys Senior and Junior.

Then, for three seasons, the game went on hiatus, as MLB turned the stadium from a temporary structure to a permanent one. And this year, the event returned, this time on Netflix.

The game Thursday was one-sided, a 7-1 Phillies blowout against the Twins. There were a smattering of remarkable moments, chief among them Kyle Schwarber’s two home runs, but none as epic as Anderson’s highlight-reel blast. Then again, this game isn’t really about the game, even if Netflix’s broadcast was significantly more focused on the field than its two previous forays into baseball this season (opening night and the Home Run Derby).

The pregame ceremony was particularly moving, with 26 living Hall of Famers emerging from the rows of corn like the ghosts in the movie. It was great theater — Ripken alongside Pudge alongside Schmidt alongside Thome. There was something particularly hilarious about Larry Walker, Adrian Beltre, Jim Thome and Scott Rolen popping out of the corn with phones in hand. Here we are, mythologizing these titans of the sport, literally presenting them as higher beings from another realm, and Scott Rolen is holding his cellular like a very uncool dad.

As usual, the theme of fathers and sons was emphasized throughout the evening. Circumstance gave the Netflix broadcast a lot to work with. There was a pregame interview with Phillies manager Don Mattingly and his son, Preston, the club’s general manager. Kody Clemens did an in-game interview with his dad, Roger, who spent an inning in the booth. We got baby photos of Phillies outfielder Justin Crawford, whose dad, Carl, spent 15 years in The Show.

But the most touching, enduring moment of the night came during the pregame broadcast, when Netflix host Elle Duncan asked panel-mate Barry Bonds about his father, Bobby. The elder Bonds was a generational player in his own right, one of just eight in MLB history to compile 300 steals and 300 homers. It’s no coincidence that Barry is also a member of that club. Bobby died from lung cancer and a brain tumor at just 57 years old in 2003, a few years before Barry broke the all-time home run record. The two were close, and Barry’s contentious relationship with the media was occasionally framed as retribution for what he believed was unfair treatment of his father by reporters. 

Asked Thursday about his dad, Bonds’s voice got soft. Tears welled in his eyes.

“What I wouldn’t do to have my dad walk out that corn,” Bonds said. “Play catch with my father ... can’t explain it, would make me emotional.”

That was really the first instance in Netflix’s MLB experiment that fully capitalized on the star power of the assembled players. Bonds has lived a singular baseball life, much of which is uncomfortable. This brief back-and-forth only scratched the surface. But it was powerful and far deeper than much of the saccharine-sweet content that usually coats all things Field of Dreams.

And that stuff, overwrought as it might be, has value, too. The vignettes, the images, the emotions of this game make the immense cost worth it. MLB constructed a big-league quality stadium in a darn cornfield and paid every player $20,000 just for being on the roster. You better believe those Hall of Famers got a piece, too. For all the headaches this event probably causes, from logistics to travel to concessions to broadcasting, it’s worth it in the end to see Bryce Harper walk out there dressed head-to-toe in corn-themed paraphernalia.

At the end of the day, baseball is about relationships. It’s as important as it makes you feel. And the Field of Dreams Game undeniably evokes feeling for so many baseball fans — the ones in the crowd, the ones on the diamond and the ones in the Hall.