 2012 view of the film set field, house and barn | |
  Field of Dreams Location in Iowa  Field of Dreams Location in the United States | |
| Address | Field of Dreams Way |
|---|---|
| Location | Dyersville, Iowa |
| Coordinates | 42°29′52″N91°03′18″W / 42.49778°N 91.05500°W |
| Owner | Go the Distance Baseball (since 2012) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Opened | 1988 |
Field of Dreams is a baseball field and pop-culture tourist attraction built for the 1989 movie of the same name. It is located in Dyersville, Iowa, within Dubuque County.
Universal Pictures built the baseball diamond in 1988 on two farms a few miles outside Dyersville, Iowa, for the 1989 film Field of Dreams . When production completed, the baseball diamond created for the movie was left behind. Most of the baseball field, including the diamond and the adjacent house, was on a farm owned by the Lansing family, but the left and center field were on an adjacent property owned by the Ameskamp family. The field was built across the two properties because the producers wanted to place the field in a location where sunset shots would have a clear line-of-sight.
After filming completed, the Lansing family kept their portion of the field intact and added a small hut where visitors could buy souvenirs. The Ameskamp family returned their land to farming for a year, but then restored the remainder of the field and opened up their own souvenir stand. The two owners had operated separate tourist facilities and had also been at odds regarding commercialization of the site.
In 1990, Keith Rahe, a neighboring farmer, put together a baseball team dubbed the "Ghost Players" to entertain the visitors at the field. [1] The team's presence at the field on Sunday afternoons once a month attracted thousands of additional fans to the field. In 1991 and 1992, the Upper Deck Company sponsored a celebrity game at the field. Executive producer Tony Loiacono, who later received the key to the city, brought Hall of Famers like Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson and Bob Feller to take on Hollywood stars like Kelsey Grammer and Meat Loaf in a charity game. The two games raised over $100,000 for local charities.
A 2002 book by author Brett H. Mandel –Is This Heaven? The Magic of the Field of Dreams –chronicles the story of how the once make-believe location has been turned into a real and tangible place that beckons people from across the world. The book, which has also been translated into Japanese, "offers readers a glimpse of this slice of heaven here on Earth and shows how it continues to affect people who step between the chalk lines." [2]
On August 11, 2006, Austin, Texas' Alamo Drafthouse "Rolling Roadshow" (which screens films in locations unique to each film) showed Field of Dreams at the Field of Dreams site in Dyersville. A giant, outdoor screen was set up adjacent to the field with seating, concession, and parking along left and center field. Only the property owned by the Ameskamp family was allowed to be used for this event; the Lansing property was closed to the public. Before the screening of the film, Kevin Costner and his band (unnamed at the time, now known as Kevin Costner and Modern West) performed for two hours for the attending crowd of close to 1,000 people. Costner and his band played a selection of original songs and popular covers, including a song about Iowa that he wrote during the filming of Field of Dreams 17 years earlier. The event was sponsored by a DVD rental company and hosted by Lisa Loeb.[ citation needed ]
In August 2007, Rita Ameskamp sold the land containing her portion of the baseball field to Don and Becky Lansing – the owners of the remainder of the field. As a result, the movie site was, for the first time, entirely owned by the Lansing family. [3] On May 13, 2010, the Lansings announced they were putting the farm used for the movie up for sale. [4] On October 30, 2011, it was reported that a sale had been agreed upon with a private partnership called Go the Distance Baseball, [5] who has owned and preserved the movie site since December 28, 2012.
Under Go the Distance, new events have been held at the venue. The Ghost Players returned in 2013. Over Father's Day weekend 2014, the field was home to a series of events to commemorate its 25th anniversary, including an exhibition game featuring Kevin Costner, Dwier Brown and others. [6] The events drew an estimated 12,000 fans. [7]
Under new ownership, visitor traffic has increased from 65,000 to 100,000 visitors per year, according to Go the Distance. [8] Additionally, in March 2018, Go the Distance began renting the house and ballfield to tourists at a cost of $2,200 per night on weekdays and $2,500 per night on weekends. [9]
Not long after buying the movie site, Go the Distance Baseball announced plans for a 24-field youth baseball and softball complex known as All-Star Ballpark Heaven. The project was initially intended to open in 2014, coinciding with the film's 25th anniversary, but confronted difficulties finding funding and legal action from neighboring property owners, who objected to the commercial re-zoning of the site. [8] Additionally, the cost has ballooned from the initially proposed $38 million to more than $70 million; while the Iowa state legislature passed a tax incentive for the project, developers failed to meet deadlines to secure it.
On September 30, 2021, Go The Distance Baseball announced in a press release that Frank Thomas purchased a controlling interest in Go The Distance Baseball LLC. [10] [11]
Major League Baseball (MLB) planned for a 2020 regular-season game to be held at a temporary facility constructed at a distance of approximately 500 ft (150 m) in the cornfields. [12] The contest was originally scheduled for August 13, 2020, between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. [13] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was rescheduled to August 12, 2021. [14] The game resulted in a 9–8 win by the White Sox over the Yankees. [15] After the game drew the highest regular season ratings in 16 years, MLB announced it would return the following year for a contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs. [16] However, Frank Thomas later indicated that no game will be played in 2023 because of the upcoming construction that is scheduled to take place on the site, although there is a possibility of MLB resuming the series in future seasons. [17]
MLB The Show has delivered an interactive version of the Field of Dreams in MLB The Show 21 , including dynamic cornfields that can be placed at will by the user.[ citation needed ]
The original movie set ballpark is 281 feet (85.6 m) to left field, 314 feet (95.7 m) to center and 262 feet (79.9 m) to right field, with 300 ft (91.4 m) to the power alleys. With additional temporary bleachers, the venue held nearly 6,000 spectators for the 2013 Team of Dreams celebrity game.
The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and plays its home games at Guaranteed Rate Field, located on Chicago's South Side. The White Sox are one of two MLB teams based in Chicago, the other being the Chicago Cubs of the National League (NL) Central division.
The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's corporate headquarters is located at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Dyersville is a city in eastern Delaware County and western Dubuque County in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is part of the Dubuque, Iowa, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,477 at the time of the 2020 census, up from 4,035 in 2000.
Field of Dreams is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, including Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago Black Sox. Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, and Burt Lancaster also star.
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, producer, film director, and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, commonly known as Camden Yards, is a stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium.
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MLB at Field of Dreams is a recurring Major League Baseball (MLB) regular-season game played in a ballpark adjacent to Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, a site popularized by the 1989 baseball film Field of Dreams. The first edition of the game was played on August 12, 2021, with the Chicago White Sox defeating the New York Yankees, 9–8. The second edition of the game was played August 11, 2022, with the Chicago Cubs defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 4–2. Both games were held on the second Thursday of August.
The 2021 New York Yankees season was the 119th season for the New York Yankees.
