Iconic 'Field of Dreams' game returns to MLB for 2nd season
The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will take to the cornfields of Iowa for a game fit for dreams on Thursday night in the second edition of the MLB’s homage to the 1989 classic film starring Kevin Costner.
The "Field of Dreams" game will feature players wearing uniforms modeled after the ones each club wore a century ago, and walking out of the cornfields onto a baseball field adjacent to the original movie’s location.
The Reds will be the designated home team for the regular season game. The showdown will take place in a specially built field that holds 8,000 fans.
Last year, the league started the tradition with a game between the Chicago White Sox, the team featured in the iconic film, and the New York Yankees, with Costner himself on the sidelines. The game was a rousing success, with White Sox star Tim Anderson hitting a walk-off two-run home run after Aaron Judge's three-run blast deep into the corn in the top of the ninth had appeared to set up a New York win.
Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel told MLB.com he wasn’t sure if it was possible to top the first installment of the tradition.
"I don't know if we can," Schwindel said. "It's going to be tough to beat, but we're going to show up like it's any other day, play hard and hope we put on a show for the fans."
Special care has been given to the player’s vintage uniforms.
According to MLB, the Reds will wear uniforms designed in 1919, when they won their controversial World Series title tainted by the Black Sox scandal. Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of those players thrown out of baseball for the alleged bribery scandal, was featured prominently in the movie.
For their side, the Cubs will have cream-colored uniforms styled after the franchise’s 1929 uniforms that include the old-school logo of a bear holding a bat inside a large red and navy "C."
"Watching homers go out into the corn, it's just something special," Schwindel told MLB.com. "It's going to be a lot of fun. We're very spoiled to play at Wrigley every day -- a lot of history, obviously. I think we're going to try to soak it all in when we get to that field. We'll walk through the corn, sit on the iconic bench out front."
Reds shortstop Kyle Farmer is also excited to play in such an iconic spot. Farmer told MLB.com he did a project in high school on Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 White Sox.
To celebrate the special night, country music star Walker Hayes will perform after the game as fireworks illuminate the cornfields.
