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August 13, 2021

About The Field of Dreams Game

Watching The Field of Dreams Game is a nice reminder that baseball does not belong to Major League Baseball. It's something of an obvious tautology, but it’s a true one — and even though the corporate spotlight of Major League Baseball hovers brightly over the idea of a game based on a movie, the idea of this particular game is shining on something true: baseball does not belong to Major League Baseball. It is part of the landscape. It’s something casual. It’s Lawrence Ferlinghetti reciting a poem about the San Francisco Giants.

But of course the monotone stentorian voice of Joe Buck and the relentless sameness of how baseball is shown on television will create a dissonant effect when corporate America gives us a taste of what baseball actually is. Of course a game like this makes us wonder about why Rob Manfred was so keen to go after Minor League Baseball over the past few years, because a setting like this — a cornfield in Iowa — is so clearly Minor League Baseball.

Because baseball — to paraphrase James Joyce — is a shout in the street. It’s Tim Anderson sending everyone home. It’s the territorio libre.

Or — at least — it ought to be.

Twitter avatar for @dakern74
Doug Kern @dakern74
Tim Anderson: Fifteenth walkoff homer ever hit by White Sox against the Yankees. The first? Shoeless Joe Jackson, Jul 20 1919. You can't script this. Oh wait, they did.
retrosheet.orgRetrosheet Boxscore: Chicago White Sox 2, New York Yankees 1
3:11 AM ∙ Aug 13, 2021
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