DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Major League Baseball spent the day and night building up Thursday's game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox. The pregame festivities at the specially constructed stadium near the Dyersville diamond from the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams" had plenty of Hollywood-like moments, with star actor Kevin Costner and players from both teams even emerging from the Iowa corn in the outfield before lineups were announced.
The Yankees and White Sox spent the night dazzling the fans in the 8,000-seat stadium and the nationally televised Fox audience at home, launching ball after ball into the tall Iowa corn with eight total home runs. The final came on a walk-off two-run shot by Tim Anderson in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the White Sox a 9-8 win. Thursday's spectacle was the first regular season MLB game in the state of Iowa. The whole idea of playing a game in Iowa was inspired by the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams" starring Costner.
He plays an Iowa farmer who plows over his corn and builds a baseball field for the ghosts of banished "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and other members of the disgraced 1919 White Sox to play on. That's what landed the White Sox in the game that was first scheduled for 2020 but was pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It turned out to be worth the wait, with players and fans soaking up the sights and sounds of the site. “That was as special and breathtaking a setting for a baseball game as I’ve ever been part of,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said afterward.
Palestine condemns Israel’s strategy to build new settlement units
Dengue fever in Sri Lanka: 7 people dead, over 17,000 infected: Report
'Victory for Britney:' Pop star's father agrees to step down from her conservatorship