Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA – Monday, May 27, 2013
Last Sunday (5/19), while watching the Indians play the Mariners on TV, the cameras showed movie star Kevin Costner in the stands. He was in Cleveland to film his new venture “Draft Day” and took some time-off to go see a game. Costner, of course, has been in several memorable movies, but none has impacted millions of people in quite the same way as the baseball classic “Field of Dreams” in which he plays the lead role. The movie was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture in 1989 and, nearly twenty-five years later, continues to enthrall new generations. We were especially thrilled to see Costner because we knew that a week later, the two of us would be in Dyersville, Iowa to visit the Field of Dreams movie site.
We arrived in Dyersville on Sunday evening (5/26) after driving for nearly four hours from Milwaukee. We checked into the hotel and after a quick pizza dinner, stayed up for a while to work on the blog before calling it a night. The next morning, we worked some more on the blog, had breakfast, checked out, and drove to the famous movie site that was less than ten minutes away. Boy, what a place! The house was still there, exactly as it appeared in the movie, and the baseball diamond in front of it looked surreal in the middle of the corn field. We can’t think of any other single movie site that gets this much attention from people and has such a deep emotional appeal. The best part of the trip was meeting complete strangers, talking baseball with them, and parting as friends, thanks to a common bond forged by a love of this extraordinary game. For instance, we met a family that let us borrow their softball, glove, and bat, while they took pictures of us playing on the field and running the bases. We also struck up a wonderful conversation with a retired couple, Mike and Jane, who took pictures for us and regaled us with awesome baseball stories and trivia. This was their sixth or seventh visit to this site!
After hanging out around the field for a while, we went in to buy the obligatory souvenirs. We knew that the Lansing family, which had owned the farm since 1906, went to great lengths to preserve this wonderful legacy before they sold the place in 2011. So we did not know quite how to react when the lady at the check out counter informed us that the new ownership had big plans for developing this place. As in $75 million big! That made us a bit nervous and sad because the Field of Dreams is just wonderful the way it is. Admission is still free, kids were playing with their families, and grown ups were walking around, as if in a trance, and enjoying the view. We just hope the new ownership doesn’t develop the charm right out of this magical place.
Finally, we drove to Chicago to drop off the car and make our way back to Waterville. We will check in with you after we get home. Bye for now!
