It’s worth thinking about how the game turned out.
August 12th, 2021. Chicago White Sox vs. New York Yankees. It was ‘The Field of Dreams” game. The game took place in Iowa, where Major League Baseball built a stadium in an Iowa cornfield. The game honored the Hollywood film, which was set in Iowa.
In April 1989, Field of Dreams was released about Shoeless Joe Jackson coming to Iowa from heaven to play baseball. He was nicknamed ‘Shoeless Joe’ because he took off his baseball spikes (hurting his feet) to play a game. The film, which starred Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta, and Timothy Busfield, features Ray Kinsella (played by Costner) who believes that if he builds a baseball field in his corn, then Shoeless Joe Jackson will play ball again. Throughout the movie, Ray keeps hearing voices for a very emotional climax. The film is also about the love of baseball and a boy having ‘one final catch’ with his dad.
A famous line emerged from the film, uttered time and time again over the years: “If you build it, he will come!”
This year, Kevin Costner was on hand to introduce the White Sox and Yankees. He also made a great speech about how the film has stood the test of time and how MLB kept its promise to honor the film and baseball tradition.
The game came down to the wire. The Sox Tim Anderson ended it in dramatic fashion with a blast in the bottom of the 9th–a walk-off HR–that won it for Chicago, 9-8. And that’s where I believe fate stepped in.
Anderson hit the 19th walk-off home run between the two teams. But do you know who hit the first? It was none other than Shoeless Joe Jackson and the year was 1919. It can’t just be a coincidence. Field of Dreams was about Shoeless Joe. The movie was based on W.P. Kinsella’s book called Shoeless Joe. The final score, 8-9, mirrors the year of the film’s release, 1989.
Is it all just a coincidence? No, I believe it was fate–a higher power at work.
