After a four-year hiatus, MLB returns to “baseball heaven,” and they’re bringing the Phillies with them.
For the first time since 2022, a Major League baseball game will be played at the site where the hit 1988 movie “Field of Dreams” was filmed, Dyersville, Illinois.
This will be the third iteration of the Field of Dreams game. The first, in 2021, featured a dramatic walk-off win by the Chicago White Sox over the New York Yankees, 9-8.
The following season, the Chicago Cubs edged the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2. That year, Ken Griffey Jr. and his father, Ken Griffey Sr., re-enacted the iconic scene at the end of the movie in which Kevin Costner’s character ***SPOILER ALERT RIGHT HERE*** played catch with the ghost of his deceased father.
The Phils have been featured prominently in some of the sport’s biggest tentpole events of late, including the London Series against the Mets in 2024 and, of course, this year’s All Star Game festivities at Citizens Bank Park. Tonight’s game in Iowa is yet another, although it will test an exhausted team coming off a brutal series in miserably hot and humid St. Louis where the Phillies lost two of three and fell out of the NL’s third wild card spot.
Perhaps a little corn field magic is what the Phillies need right now.
The game returns after the owners of the land and facilities spent millions of dollars revamping the setup to accommodate staging a Major League Baseball game. Previously, pop-up stadiums had to be created on the fly, an unsustainable situation if the league planned to return on a yearly basis. Now, a complex of multiple stadiums has been created, while also maintaining the original field that made the location famous.
Tonight’s game will have a much different feel to it than normal. The current, more intimate setup, holds a maximum of 8,000 spectators. And there will be one additional quirk. The stadium is not set up to facilitate the new ABS challenge system, meaning teams will not be able to challenge balls and strikes, which is fine when you consider J.T. Realmuto is among the most infrequent challengers in the Majors and baseball has been played this way for about 150 years prior to this season.
The Phillies and Twins will emerge from the cornfields tonight wearing throwback uniforms from 1938.
First pitch is slated for 7:30pm ET and will be broadcast exclusively on Netflix, although there is a chance the game could be impacted by rain. The forecast calls for potential thunderstorms in the area this evening. MLB announced if the game is rained out, it will be played the following evening, on Friday night.
The Phils are scheduled to leave Iowa for the final two games of their series with the Twins in Minneapolis this weekend, but inclement weather could throw those plans into a tizzy.
The worst case scenario would be starting a game and burning pitchers only for it to be postponed and played the following evening, robbing the Phils of a much-needed day off and further stretching an already depleted bullpen.
Still, even in the rain, tonight’s Field of Dreams game should provide some breathtaking views and pangs of nostalgia for Phils fans watching.
On the latest Hittin’ Season podcast, I talked a bit about the Field of Dreams game as well as the Phillies’ miserable week in St. Louis, Bryce Harper’s knee, Zack Wheeler concerns and much more!
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