Let me get this out there right from the jump, I love the movie Field of Dreams. It was a movie my mom (who is the reason I love baseball) would watch, and it made me emotional as a kid and continues to do so to this day. The movie truly stands the test of time, and I can’t wait to one day watch it with my kids.
However, I am also a person who gets emotional during movies… When Tom Hanks dies in Saving Private Ryan.. Cry every time. When Rudy finally gets in… Waterworks. When Mr. Holland finally gets to hear is Opus… Immediate tears. And, of course when Kevin Costner finally gets to have that catch with his day… Here come to streams of tears.
So naturally, I watched the movie leading into the game… So I was even more emotional and ready to go.
This is the first time the MLB & Fox did something perfectly. And, I mean perfect. The field looked amazing, the overhead drone videos were incredible. All of the detail that was put in was just second to none. The old timey scoreboard that those kids had to change the score using a latter was just in a word… Perfect.
Then, the entrance. And, if you haven’t see it yet… What are you doing? Watch it now (then come back and finish reading.)
WATCH IT NOW
If you didn’t watch the Kevin Costner entrance. Watch it. Wow
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) August 12, 2021
I mean.. COME ON.
But, I will give you this… Maybe Kevin Costner was out there alone a littttttttle too long, it felt like the opening to a broadway show, but whatever. The music made the whole thing so magical. If that music doesn’t mean something to you then you don’t have a heart.
I have watched the intro no less than 27 times and each time I know the players were coming out of the corn and each time when they start coming out its like the first time and I get chills all over again.
Then there was the game on the field. EIGHT HOME RUNS. Yes please. The corn shots just kept coming. But, of course they did with Heaney on the mound for the Yanks. Dude has given up about 10 home runs in his last 13 innings pitched. The fact that Gerrit Cole couldn’t pitch this game for the Yanks because of Covid was criminal.
There were some very questionable ball/strike calls, which made it even more of an authentic MLB game.
And then…
The 9th inning.
Yankees were down 7-4 and in came the best closer in baseball, Hendricks for the White Sox. I thought i was over, you thought it was over, everyone thought it was over.
Except for Judge and Stanton. Who BOTH it 2 run home runs in the top of the 9th to take the Yanks from down 7-4 to up 8-7 heading into the bottom of the 9th. The best closer in baseball crumbled in the cornfield.
But the magic still wasn’t over.
After getting 1 out with just 2 pitches, Britton started to miss the strike zone, like he does very often… And, he put a runner on for one of the best players in baseball, Tim Anderson.
And the rest is, what they say… History.
TIM ANDERSON WALK-OFF CORN BOMB WHAT A GAME WHAT A FINISH BASEBALL IS KING https://t.co/QdpL0gFN3N
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) August 13, 2021
I mean how majestic is that. A walk off into a cornfield on the field of dreams. Of course, at the expense of my New York Yankees which I hate. But, it was just so fitting. Almost too perfect.
Thank you baseball. Thank you for getting this one right. They could have so easily fumbled this like they have fumbled so many things. But they didn’t they hit it out of the damn park in every single way. I can’t wait to see what they decide to do with games going forward at the Field of Dreams, I only hope we continue to see Major League Games played there…
Also selfishly because I don’t want the Yankees to continue to be the only MLB team to ever lose a game in the state of Iowa forever.
They built it. And we came.
-Kmess