DYERSVILLE — The ghost players made way for some major league games on Thursday at the city’s shiny new stadium.
The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds stopped by for just the day to entertain a national audience hungry for a bit of nostalgia along with their baseball. They tuned in to see heroes of the past emerge from the corn, hear the late Vin Scully recite a stirring speech from a fictional character about what was once good (and can be again), and see millionaires in Retro uniforms like to play a game in a place neither of them ever dreamed of growing up.
The weather was perfect, as was the pageantry surrounding the second modern major league baseball game ever played in the state.
Even Rob Manfred, the sport’s lightning rod, managed to stay out of the way and stay away from media interviews as he strolled through the familiar outfield at the Field of Dreams film lot hours before the game, gracefully posing for photos with fans and even ignoring the fact that one of them wore a replica jersey of banished former major league star Pete Rose.
“They’ll probably make me delete the photo later,” the young fan said to his companions afterwards with a smile as he watched Manfred and his entourage walk to a red barn that doubled as a souvenir shop where Clydesdale Horses paraded in front of the door.)
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Yes, everything seemed original and an early 20th century aesthetic prevailed.
The fans seemed enthralled, crowding 7,823 into the cozy stadium, where people stood two meters high in the stands. There were equal amounts of Chicago Blues and Cincinnati Reds and respectful applause from both sides for every good play that came up.
The game itself wasn’t nearly as compelling as last year’s extra-innings showdown between two American League playoff teams, the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees.
These aren’t old Cubs and Reds teams as they battle with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the bottom of the National League Central (the Cubs are winning that stalemate at the moment). Chicago took an early 4-0 lead, but Cincinnati caused some drama with a seventh-inning rally before losing 4-2. Fans were on their feet throughout the at-bat as Cubs closer Rowan Wick defeated Cincinnati’s Matt Reynolds to end the three-hour, 21-minute game.
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Earlier, Cubs All-Star Outfielder Ian Happ commented how grateful he was for the chance to play a Major League Baseball game in front of people who wouldn’t normally be that close to one.
“The more we can do to bring baseball to everyone who wants to watch, be here and be a part of it, the better we will be as a sport and as a community,” he said.
Still, this was professional sport in 2022, meaning the Field of Dreams has a corporate sponsor and those Clydesdales weren’t present to help with the farm work.
It was a welcome opportunity for the locals to absorb this temporary ball diamond in which they are not allowed to pursue their favorite pastime. But that’s fine with them. There are many other worn out stadiums nearby.
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For example, the Field of Dreams game was just an interlude in the ongoing 72nd Annual Whitehawks Baseball Tournament being played here at Commercial Club Park. The championship is on Saturday. This is the type of baseball that’s prevalent in deep northeast Iowa, where about 17 “town” teams compete in two leagues every summer. All cities in Dubuque County host annual “semi-professional” tournaments.
And that’s where the ghost players come in, guys like Randy Olberding and Jim Offerman who have made ball fields in this region their personal haunt for decades. On Thursday, they were among 25 players who donned Chicago White Sox uniforms in the style of a century ago and greeted fans at the film site, playing tag with eager children and sharing stories about the sport that is consuming them.
The ghost players, key scenes in the 1989 film Field of Dreams, have been ambassadors for the sport ever since. Offerman, 53, said he has traveled as far as Japan three times to play screenings for avid baseball and movie fans.
The ghost players volunteered their services on Thursday and even had to buy a ticket if they wanted to stay to see the big league spectacle.
And that was fine with them. They knew they would soon return to their routine of weekend ball games against their usual rivals.
“I think overall it’s going to be more positive,” said Offerman, a Dyersville Beckman High School graduate, of his neighbors’ reaction to the uproar sparked by the new corn-built stadium.
“Years ago it wasn’t so much because people wanted the quiet of the field and didn’t want to look there to see that.”
Offerman was delighted to be joined by his 19-year-old son Nick in the group of ghost players for the first time on Thursday.
He said it was ghost players, like himself, who kept the Field of Dreams legend alive years after the film’s release, until the day MLB took notice. He still competes occasionally but is excited to see a new generation of East Iowans staying and enriching the tradition here. There’s nowhere else in Iowa, or really the Midwest, that clings so closely to the small-town baseball competition.
“We are all good friends. We must. We’ve traveled the world together,” Offerman said of the ghost players of his year.
“I usually play outfield now because I can run a little bit better than some of the older guys I think.”
Olberding is 66 and also from Dyersville. He was amazed to see MLB visit his city twice and was excited to be a small participant in the action.
“I don’t hear too many bad things about it,” he said. “It’s great for the community, Dyersville, Dubuque County, the entire state of Iowa.”
Olberding started playing city ball at age 16, was a pitcher and first baseman, despite being right-handed, which made things a little awkward on this side of the diamond.
“We only have so many left-handers,” he explained.
Olberding tells a story that shows how passionate people growing up in Northeast Iowa are about baseball.
As a kid, he was rooting for the Big Red Machine teams in Cincinnati in the 1970s.
But that ended when he started competing against the team at Cascade, also known as the Reds.
Now?
“I’m a baseball fan,” Olberding said simply.
Go The Distance, the company that owns the Field of Dreams website, has previously said MLB won’t be returning for a game in 2023, though there’s a possibility of coming back here after the next wave of construction.
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It would be a shame to see the tradition end after just two games considering the amount of attention sport has given to this event and how embraced the local community has been.
But die-hards like Offerman and Olberding make it clear: baseball will thrive in this region, with or without the sport’s big stars landing here once a year.
It is woven into the fabric of life.
Olberding charts baseball’s growth in this region by the number of participants in the Eastern Iowa Hawkeye League and the Prairie League. And he said that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the popularity of “Field of Dreams.”
“Cities that didn’t have a team three or four years ago now have a team,” he said. “A lot of college kids are staying here now and playing ball in their hometowns in the summer instead of going to a bigger city.”