24 hours later and people are still talking about last night’s Field of Dreams game between the Yankees and White Sox. In a world where everyone’s a cynic, Thursday’s game proved that even a sport as steeped in tradition as baseball, can resonate with audiences by trying something new.
From the beautiful aerial views, to Kevin Costner hopping back into the role of Ray Kinsella, the player entrances through the corn and more, if you didn’t enjoy some aspect of last night’s event you just don’t like baseball.
Not to be outdone by the pomp and circumstance around the event, the players did their best to recreate a Hollywood movie with their dramatic ending to the MLB’s first foray into Iowa. Trailing 7-4 heading into the 9th inning, the Yankees launched two 2-run homeruns off the bats of Judge and Stanton respectively to take the lead. Making the feat all the more impressive was that they did so off White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks who entered the contest with a sparkling 2.40 ERA and 0.72 WHIP.
But the baseball gods had one more plot twist to put smiles on the hometown fans’ faces (Chicago was technically the home team last night). The White Sox, suddenly finding themselves trailing in the bottom of the ninth inning of a contest that until that point they had largely outplayed their opponent, ended the game in the only logical way given the event’s location: a walk-off home run into the cornfield.
Tim Anderson (who somehow claims to have never seen Field of Dreams) took the first pitch he saw from Yankees reliever Zack Britton over the right field wall and into the cornfield to plate two runs and seal the victory for Chicago.
If you didn’t see the event live, you’d be forgiven for thinking the ending was dreamt up in some movie studio boardroom. But as Anderson was mobbed by his teammates, even the most staunch defenders of traditions and “the purity of the game” had to admit, that was a pretty special moment in MLB history.
Evidently audiences agreed as well. Last night’s Field of Dreams game proved to be the most watched regular season MLB game since 2005. #FieldofDreams was trending on virtually every social media platform, and the stands were littered with athletes and celebrities eager to take in this unique spin on America’s pastime.
So successful was last night’s game that even MLB commissioner Rob Manfred got in on the action telling MLB.com “I think the reception that this event has received has been so positive that we will be back…I think it’s pretty clear we’re going to be back next year and we’ll have to talk about it after that. But it’s just been so successful that it’s hard not to take the opportunity to do it again.”
So while the 2022 version may not have the appeal of the throwback jerseys and tie-ins to the iconic movie, there will certainly be no shortage of teams vying for a spot in the sport’s new midsummer classic. And much like the movie which Thursday’s Yankees vs. White Sox game drew inspiration from, the game itself was exactly that, a classic.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner