50171
by Keith Brake
The Field of Dreams Game had been magnificent.
It needed just one more touch, and it was at hand.
Tim Anderson swung and launched a two-run home run into the corn beyond right center field, giving the “first place Chicago White Sox” an 9-8, story book win over “the mighty New York Yankees.”
My wife, Linda, and I absorbed that picture on TV and I thought, “He didn’t just DO that, did he?”
He did! A perfect ending to several unforgettable days in Dyersville, Iowa.
That home run set off a howling among 7,800 or so fans in attendance, and a fireworks show to rival the one at the end of the Robert Redford baseball movie, “The Natural.”
Our apartment is exactly 45.6 miles from The Field of Dreams. Out the window, I heard bellowing, from far away.
It was cows. From well, not so far away.
But, I hadn’t heard cows at night in the two years since we moved to Cuba City. We’re located toward the middle of town.
Cows are supernatural beings in Wisconsin, kind of like pigs are in Iowa. Maybe THEY heard that bellowing.
Baseball – and Iowa – got a needed boost.
I thought the FOX telecast was superb. They said nice things about Iowa and made it look even better than it does. (They were careful not to show many of the wires, etc., near the fields.
The view from above was Amazon rain forest green, fading to black as the sun set. The Dyersville area happened to get one of those gorgeous purplish sunsets on Thursday, Aug. 12, and it looked great on TV, too.
Food and drink establishment owners have been gushing about the week and were really excited after Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the Field of Dreams Game will return in 2022. (Cubs vs. Reds, you read it here).
“Our World Series,” screamed a headline over a story by Dubuque Telegraph-Herald Sport Editor Jim Leitner in the Saturday, Aug. 14 issue.
I don’t know if anyone from Montezuma attended the game, but many from Monte, including myself, have visited the adjacent movie site.
And an awfully lot of us were riveted to that telecast on Thursday.
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge seemed particularly thrilled by just the experience, and probably did more for Iowa tourism than anyone who was paid to do it has in years. It was his first visit to Iowa.
Slugger Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees grabbed a couple of ears of corn and stuffed them in the back pockets of his uniform.
A White Sox player bit off a kernel of corn and tried to chew it. That didn’t work.
Baseball has suffered recently, from COVID last year and some this season, from player suspensions, to television blackouts of areas within 200 miles of major league cities.
This was a positive step toward re-boosting the game’s image.
Ballpark prices
The ballpark outside Dyersville was up to Major League standards, and so were some of the concession prices. Tim O’Neill of the Telegraph-Herald wrote, “The Heartland chicken sandwich topped the menu at $14,” and he noted that a nacho complete with pulled pork and avocado cream cost $13.
Premium beer cost $10, and domestics were $9.
Pop was $6. Water was $5.
Polish sausages and hamburgers cost $10 and a vegetarian wrap was $12.
A bucket of cheese curds was $18.
O’Neill wrote, “On Wednesday, Chevrolet unveiled an ‘apple pie hot dog’ created in coordination with Guy Fieri, and a supply of these were offered – for free – starting at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the stadium.”
Be ready for adversity
“Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet” are things we can relate to in Montezuma and all over Iowa, which still has “town teams” playing baseball in many corners of the state.
We’re happy to be outside doing things again.
I believe we haven’t heard the last from the COVID menace.
A few questions to ponder:
What if you were to prepare mentally for the same things that happened last year?
Are there good things you could do for others that you didn’t do last year? How would doing those make you feel? Could that behavior start a trend?
For student-athletes: Can you be in control of what you can control? That’s really all you can do anyway, isn’t it?
For adults: Do you use medical advice from doctors? Or from politicians?
Why?