Some of the sporting world’s most famous ghosts are finally going to get some official recognition from Major League Baseball, with the organization announcing that it’s going to celebrate the 31st anniversary of Field Of Dreams with an actual MLB game held at the movie’s cornfield baseball diamond—or at least next to it. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees will play an official regular season game on August 13, 2020, in Dyersville Iowa at a special 8,000 seat ballpark being built next to the Field Of Dreams field, with a path cut through the cornfield that fans can walk through and some aesthetic touches on the temporary park paying homage to the White Sox’s old Comiskey Park home (which was torn down in the ‘90s and replaced by a modern facility with a terrible name).
The White Sox connection comes from the fact that the 1919 “Black Sox” team that threw that year’s World Series plays a big role in Field Of Dreams, especially Ray Liotta’s Shoeless Joe Jackson, so this whole thing doubles as a nice tribute to a tragic part of White Sox history. As for the Yankees, they’ll be there because nobody’s going to pay money to see the White Sox play baseball in Iowa. People barely pay money to see them play baseball in Chicago. (Yes, Kevin Costner’s dad wears a Yankees jersey in the movie, so that’s probably the real reason for this particular matchup, but we’re not going to ignore a good opportunity to make jokes.)
Speaking of jokes, there’s at least some sweet irony in the fact that this will be Iowa’s first Major League Baseball game ever and it’ll involve the Chicago White Sox instead Iowa’s precious Chicago Cubs. They’re big shots now, Iowa! Their owners are too busy backing Donald Trump and other right-wing motherfuckers to care about you! Now’s the time to join Barack Obama and Chance The Rapper in the sweet, frustrating, and lonely embrace of Chicago’s terrible South Side team!
Anyway, tickets to the Field Of Dreams game next August will be available at some point in the future.