Today, Thursday, August 12, the New York Yankees will face the Chicago White Sox in the “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa. This is where the movie “Field of Dreams” was filmed.
The movie was made in 1989 and featured Kevin Costner, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and the old-school Black Sox and Iowa cornfields. Kevin Costner and Dwier Brown plan to be at the game today. In the movie, Costner or “Ray” began to see ghosts in the cornfields and heard a voice saying “if you build it, he will come.” Now players and spectators around the world are coming to watch this event.
For one, the MLB actually seems like they’re doing a good job with this. There will be 8,000 fans in attendance for the 7:15 EST start time on FOX. Both teams are going to be wearing throwback uniforms. But what shouldn’t get lost in this game, is how important this game and every game heading down the stretch is to both of these teams fighting for playoff chances.
The White Sox are looking much better with their chances but they can’t let up now. This park is a tourist destination in Iowa and an MLB game couldn’t be played using those actual dimensions. They hope that the nearby field constructed for this event will still capture the essence of things. Take it into consideration for your MLB odds.
This is a specific park for the game and it looks very nice. There’s no seating in the outfield and the 8,000 spectators will all be watching from the front of the ballpark. The playing dimensions are 335 feet down the lines, 380 feet in the alleys and 400 feet to dead center.
If you look closely, in the right field, there’s a unique design that accentuates the corn through a fine mesh seven-foot high green chain link fence with offset vertical support posts. The posts will literally be corn, which is pretty interesting. Back beyond the ballpark is a corn maze that has the MLB logo basically engraved into the corn.
For those looking to buy tickets, they were hard to come by. The MLB actually conducted a public lottery for the opportunity to purchase tickets. Only those with Iowa zip codes were involved. This will be the first MLB game ever played in Iowa. For those re-selling, the average ticket costs 1,413.63 which is basically World Series prices. This should be lots of fun and knowing we’ll get a game between two teams pushing for the playoffs makes it even better.
Andrew Heaney will get the start for the Yankees while Lance Lynn will get the call for the White Sox. Off the bat, the White Sox are favorites for the MLB picks with Lynn on the mound but despite the White Sox hitting lefties well this season, none of those batters have had much success against Heaney in their careers.
According to top sportsbooks, it’s hard to know how this game will play out but I’m sure the betting handle will be massive for this game. This game was supposed to happen last season but thanks to COVID-19, it was pushed back to today. The game would’ve included the Cardinals and not the Yankees because even though the Yankees were the team MLB wanted, due to travel restrictions, the Yankees wouldn’t have been able to get to Iowa.
Anyway, the MLB got their wish. They’ll have the game tonight and while I won’t have any wagers on the game, I’ll be excited to see what it’s all about. If you’re a baseball fan or just a sports fan in general, it’ll be exciting to see this gameplay out.