The Field of Dreams in 56 Hours
Baseball and baseball history have been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I didn’t fall in love with baseball on my own. My grandmother watched the Phillies every day when she was still with us. I grew up playing KYAA Little League baseball, coached by my father and we still talk Phillies every week. My office houses more than 23 autographed baseballs, each one with its own special story to me. And one of my bucket list memories was when my Dad and I visited Cooperstown, NY in 2024, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. For me, as for so many others, baseball has been a part of every phase of my life. It’s nostalgic. Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones) says it beautifully in Field of Dreams: "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball... Baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”
So, when I learned that the Phillies would be playing the Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa this year, I knew how special it would be to experience it with my Dad. A few weeks ago, I decided we were going to make it happen. And so we did.
I was away from my family for exactly 56 hours.
In those 56 hours, there were:
- 8 hours spent in airports.
- Another 8 hours on airplanes.
- 5 flight delays.
- About 14 minutes of competitive speed-walking and people-dodging from Gate B22 to F1 at Chicago O'Hare, trying desperately not to miss our connection.
- 3 missed meals?
- 2 unplanned Uber rides, including one in a car that was inexplicably wet.
- 1 botched Turo key handoff.
- 1 panicked rental-car reservation.
- And, eventually, 1 last-minute rental-car cancellation.
It was exhausting and it was stressful. Often, it just felt ridiculous. But that's not what I'll remember about those 56 hours.
I’ll remember the Dodgers fans who traveled all the way from LA to see this game and then got stuck with us in Chicago, passing the time at the gate by sharing baseball stories and experiences.
I'll remember playing a 68-minute game of Haasy on an airport countertop with Dad and the many baseball trivia questions asked and answered between us as we passed the time together.
I'll remember one star-struck handshake, a few other surreal encounters, and handing my phone to a pretty prominent Philly figure (who is actually FROM Iowa) who proceeded to take the picture you see here.
I'll remember celebrating 2 Schwarbombs.
I’ll remember standing in silence, staring at the white farmhouse with the porch swing, such an iconic visual of the Field of Dreams and thinking “I’m really here.”
I'll remember watching 26 Hall of Famers emerge from the corn before the first pitch.
I'll remember being two of only 7,136 people inside a ballpark surrounded by Iowa cornfields, watching the Phillies play baseball in a place that, until you see it for yourself, doesn't quite feel real.
I'll remember seeing fathers and sons everywhere, teary eyed but smiling, playing catch, taking pictures, walking through the corn. So many of them there, I imagine, for some version of the same reason we were.
But most of all, I'll remember 8 minutes. Eight minutes when my Dad and I walked onto the original Field of Dreams movie site with our gloves and a baseball. And we had a catch.
I don't know how many thousands of throws passed between us when I was a kid; him and his trusty softball glove and me and my black Rawlings mitt. Baseball always felt like it was one of the things we always experienced together. And all these years later, there we were, tossing a baseball back and forth again, this time on the Field of Dreams. For 8 minutes.
There are many ways to spend 56 hours. And few less frustrating than being in the middle of botched travel plans. But I can't imagine a better way to have spent these 56 hours. Because I was with my Dad, experiencing baseball things.
Baseball marked the time, as it always has. And I’ll carry those 56 hours with me for the rest of my life. Especially those 8 minutes.
Photo Credit: Nick Nurse
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Ticket #T011331
