DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — David Bell’s grandfather, father and brother all played in the majors. Bell spent 12 years in the big leagues and worked as a coach and front office executive before taking over as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.
So yes, “Field of Dreams,” a movie about family and baseball, comes off a little differently.
“Baseball is a big part of our lives,” Bell said, “and I thought the movie did a great job of telling the story of how important baseball can be to families and just for the general public.”
“Field of Dreams” gets another tribute Thursday night when the Bell’s Reds take on the Chicago Cubs in a ballpark throwback to the cornfields of eastern Iowa, just a short walk from the field where Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Amy Madigan filmed the film. 1989 movie.
Under clear blue skies with a few clouds, workers put the finishing touches on the major league ballpark on a warm Wednesday afternoon. A pair of youth teams played on the field in the movie as Cubs and Reds fans wandered the grounds.
The game comes 2 1/2 months after Liotta, who played the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, died in May at the age of 67.
Each team will wear special uniforms inspired by the look of the franchises in the early 20th century, and Cincinnati first baseman Joey Votto and Chicago outfielder Ian Happ will be on two-way microphones for the broadcast on FOX.
The Reds are considered the home team, and the three-game set concludes with games in Cincinnati on Saturday and Sunday.
But first, Iowa.
“Very excited,” Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki said through a translator. “It’s not a field where you can play every day.”
It’s the second round for Major League Baseball in Dyersville, population about 4,400, after the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox put on a show last year in Iowa’s MLB opener .
After Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton gave New York the lead in the top of the ninth, Tim Anderson lifted Chicago to a 9-8 victory with a spectacular two-run homer, sending the energetic shortstop on a trip memorable for the bases. fireworks exploded across the night sky.
“He looked amazing. He looked full,” Reds second baseman Jonathan India said. “It’s in the middle of nowhere, which is kind of crazy, to have a game like that. We’re going to go out there and enjoy ourselves.”
As Jones’ wise auteur Terence Mann tells Costner’s Ray Kinsella in the film, the people will surely come.
The makeshift parking lot holds only about 8,000 fans, fewer than each team’s spring training homes. The Cubs have strong ties to the Hawkeye state, dating back to the franchise’s days at WGN-TV and continuing today with their Triple-A club a couple of hours away in Des Moines.
“There are times in the season when you get something different that’s exciting, and making sure you appreciate that I think is the biggest thing for me,” Cubs manager David Ross said.
“We’re ready to play.”
While people will come, will they look at home? This could go a long way in determining whether the “Field of Dreams” site becomes an annual date on the major league calendar or perhaps just an occasional date.
Last year’s game, featuring two star-studded playoff contenders, drew nearly 6 million viewers in what MLB said was the most-watched regular-season game on any network since 1998.
But the lowly Cubs and rebuilding Reds aren’t exactly the Yankees and White Sox of yesteryear. Playoff hopes for NL Central clubs evaporated long ago. There aren’t many big names around either.
But there’s nostalgia for the movie, an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, and the sure-to-be-picturesque landscape that surrounds the game.
“It’s a popular movie that resonates with a lot of people, and I’m no different,” Votto said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
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AP sportswriters Steve Megargee and Andrew Seligman and AP freelance writer Matt Carlson contributed to this report.
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Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap
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