Whether the cancellation is logistics-related or COVID-19, if you really think Major League Baseball was going to host a game on our quaint Field of Dreams, the COVID-19 pandemic, well, I’m sorry for your disappointment.
The White Sox-Cardinals game (originally the White-Sox Yankees) scheduled for August 13 will not take up position according to reports, adding data displayed to the log. There were too many logistical disorders to resolve and little time to resolve them.
Two primary league groups will now host our Field of Dreams in 2021. They will play a game in a stadium that MLB paid about $6 million for construction, and then disappear at the sunset of the cornfield.
This special moment in our Iowa history deserved more than would have occurred next week, if the game had gone as planned. He deserved 8,000 spectators in the 8,000-seat stadium. This deserved all the interactions between enthusiasts and players that may not happen in this era of social estrangement involving their health. I deserved more than I feared they had provided me.
What about that? Watch August 11, 2021, when white sox is scheduled to play with the Minnesota Twins. Aim for the stars. Swap one of the Chicago Cubs-Twins on August 31 or September 1 from Minneapolis to Dyersville.
He’s talking about the sacred cow.
I’m sorry, White Sox fans, but it wouldn’t be much bigger than that. I’m also aware that the organizers will do everything they can to keep the story of the 1989 movie, meaning the White Sox will play against someone.
Even if the game is Red-Yankees, as one of my bosses on Monday afternoon, it will also be fine.
As long as there is the iconic scene of car headlights that extend into perceived infinity on the way to installation, that’s what we want.
As long as the kids can get autographs, that’s what we want.
As long as the other people in the Dyersville network can attract the crowds of the Iowa State Fair to their businesses and novelty stalls, that’s what we want.
And as long as the game can be played safely next year, that’s what we want. Waiting for that to happen.
There were too many questions between what would be a glorious confluence of major leagues and the state of Iowa.
Yes and no. Coming to Iowa for a few hours, even if it meant players took a bus from Dubuque Airport to the best-known cornfield in the states, they had to overtake the plane to Miami or Texas, right?
THE COVID-19 numbers of those states are endemic. Would you be in a city perfectly located in Delaware and Dubuque, Iowa or anywhere else?
The cardinals suffered a primary outbreak of COVID-19, forcing several parties to be postponed. Others have also undergone coVID-like programming adjustments, but there are more. According to a report released Monday through CBS Sports, 19 players and 11 referees withdrew from the season.
Some other people close to baseball even wonder how long it will be before commissioner Rob Manfred can close the season until 2021.
Everyone, if you leave them, or as triple-A head of the Iowa Cubs, Sam Barnabas, I on Monday:
“This is by far the highest number of ticket applications I’ve won from other people,” he said. “From the requests I won, they may have sold 100,000 tickets to this game seamlessly, and they’re not just the iowans. People from all over the United States have asked me for tickets.”
I’m not an anti-Field of Dreams game. I’m totally there. But this will have to be done well, and you will have to show one of the destination positions of our state the way it will be displayed.
Without loving the enthusiasts who fill the stadium, without young children getting autographs and selfies, without the sparkling exaggeration that this game justifies: the closer the date, the more the staging will be a cross idea.
Again, too many questions. Too much uncertainty.
Come back in 2021, when this game can be done correctly. The stadium goes anywhere.
Kevin Costner’s character in the film learned that patience is a virtue. People came.
People will be here in 2021.
Iowa state columnist Randy Peterson has been writing for the Des Moines Register for six decades. Contact him at [email protected], 515-284-8132 and on Twitter at @RandyPete.