DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Major League Baseball returned to the Field of Dreams carrying a big piece of Cooperstown. The pregame pageantry before the Minnesota Twins played the Philadelphia Phillies, adjacent to the farmland where the 1989 fantasy was filmed, featured 26 Hall of Famers emerging from the cornfield just as the ghost players did in the movie. Mauer, the crowd of about 8,000 at the newly built baseball stadium in northeast Iowa soaked in the surreal atmosphere as the old stars walked to the infield for proper introductions. Fireworks were launched from the cornfield during the national anthem, and Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber followed with a big bang of his own: a shot to right on Twins starter Taj Bradley’s third pitch of the game that set the tone for a 7-1 victory Thursday night. After stealing the show at the 2021 inaugural event, which was played in the same space in a temporary setup that also hosted the 2022 game, Kevin Costner was a no-show. But the film’s star, as restless farmer Ray Kinsella who reunites with his late father playing catch on his front-yard baseball field, narrated the pregame video that helped instill some old-guard nostalgia through the new-school broadcast on global streaming giant Netflix. Both teams emerged out of the corn together to take their places as on Opening Day, and Twins All-Star Byron Buxton, who came off the injured list in the afternoon to play, took the microphone to evoke a line from James Earl Jones, who played author Terence Mann in the film. “The only constant through all the years has been baseball,” Buxton said before Schwarber followed with a brief script about an idyllic late summer night after heavy rain hit the area earlier that day. Then came the legends, and also the living ones, unlike the wool-clad boys in the movie. Schmidt and Steve Carlton wore Phillies uniforms along with Jim Kaat, who played for both teams. Mauer and Bert Blyleven wore Twins jerseys. The others (Andruw Jones, Harold Baines, Fred McGriff, Adrián Beltré, Andre Dawson, Larry Walker, Cal Ripken Jr., Iván Rodríguez, Jim Thome, Scott Rolen, Tony Pérez, Tony La Russa, Jeff Kent, Fergie Jenkins, Joe Torre, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Rollie Fingers, Lee Smith and Trevor Hoffman) helped form a half ring around the diamond to represent approximately one-third of the Cooperstown contingent that is This was the largest gathering of its kind in a stadium, not including the annual Hall of Fame ceremonies in upstate New York, since the 2008 All-Star Game held last season at the old Yankee Stadium. Phillies manager Don Mattingly enjoyed the brief pregame huddle before the big inning, with many in the group who were contemporaries of his as a player in the 1980s and ’90s and a few others in Jones and Kent. I was able to train with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “It was definitely good to see the guys,” Mattingly said. No place evokes baseball and family nostalgia more than the Field of Dreams. Before the game, Buxton played ball with his 12-year-old son at the nearby movie theater that remains open to the public free of charge on non-event days. Twins manager Derek Shelton did the same with his 78-year-old father, a former educator who coached him on his high school baseball team. Shelton later complained that his arm was weaker. “You don’t get old enough for an experience like that to not be emotional to be able to do something with your dad,” Shelton said. Mattingly, whose son happens to be the club’s general manager, found himself reminiscing about his childhood ball games in Indiana with his brothers as he arrived on the team bus. “This place reminds me of when I was a kid,” Mattingly said. “You were going down a dirt road and all of a sudden you saw a cornfield and then there was a field there.” Both teams wore vintage uniforms: the Twins at home from their first season in 1961 and the Phillies in away jerseys circa 1940, in tune with the manual scoreboard in right field. The permanent stadium built for all types of events, including the opportunity to host MLB games on a recurring basis, also features many amenities, such as a video board in left field, a state-of-the-art sound system and, of course, indoor plumbing. The farm feel was as strong as the stadium buzz, with natural sponsor John Deere pledging $100,000 for every home run to the hunger relief organization Feeding America. However, the special atmosphere did not erase the circumstances of the final stretch of the regular season, with the Twins and Phillies in the center of their respective wild card races. “We won’t be in Minnesota for three days,” said Phillies star Bryce Harper, “but we’re still playing the Twins three times and we still have to win some games.” Even in defeat, the Twins relished participating in something bigger than just the 123rd game on their schedule. “As you grow in this game, get older and play more games, the shine of being in the big leagues and walking on a big league field starts to wear off,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Moments like this bring that excitement and energy and goosebumps similar to the day you debut.”___See AP’s complete MLB coverage here
