Like most baseball-loving kids, Aaron Judge watched “Field of Dreams” as an adolescent. Much to his dismay, a few decades after the fact he would get to grace the diamond stone close to where Kevin Costner shot the famous 1989 film in the Iowa cornfields.
“It’s kind of a dream come true,” the Yankees outfielder said over Zoom on Wednesday, following a 5-2, series-clinching victory over the Royals. “You never think you’ll get a chance to play at the Field of Dreams. But getting this opportunity, the chance to walk through the corn, it’s going to be a big moment, a special moment.”
Judge’s partners and manager repeated that sentiment, that this game against the White Sox — whose 1919 Black Sox team figured conspicuously in the film — Thursday night will be not normal for some other they play this season. It will be played at a 7,911-seat stadium that was assembled only north of where the film was shot. The original field is a tourist attraction. A corn maze was developed external the outfield walls and a path connects the two fields. The dimensions are like that of old Comiskey Park, where the White Sox played from 1910-90. The two groups will wear throwback uniforms dependent on their 1919 threads, adding to the game’s nostalgic tenor.
Reliever Chad Green said his partners have been discussing it for the last week, energetically visiting about the chance that anticipates them in Dyersville, Iowa. The game should be played last season, however it was pushed back a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s going to be kind of cool to do the whole experience,” Green said. “Take a tour of the field and see the house and just kind of take it all in. Guys are definitely looking forward to going there.”
Aaron Boone has been able to encounter a couple of these oddities. In the first place, as a director when the Yankees played the Red Sox in London in 2019. Then, at that point, as a telecaster, he had the opportunity to call a game for ESPN in 2016 at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and furthermore had the option to call the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. He generally envisioned as a child of arriving as a player.
“To see it was pretty cool,” Boone said. “Field of Dreams will be similar to that.”
Judge just has one issue with the extraordinary occasion. After Thursday, the two groups have a free day, then, at that point continue the series in Chicago on Saturday.
“I wish we were playing three games there,” he said. “Everyone’s putting in all this work building the stadium, doing what they need to do, and it’s all for one game. But I know everyone in this clubhouse is excited for it.”
