This coming Monday night will be a historic one in the realm of Iowa High School Baseball: the first-ever IHSAA-sanctioned game to take place at the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville. The site of the 1989 blockbuster film that starred Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and the late Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster in his final screen appearance, captured the hearts of America with the intertwinement of baseball, family and the relationship between a father and son.
Since it’s 1989 release, the movie site has become one of the top tourists attractions in Iowa, with people from all over the world coming to see the place Shoeless Joe Jackson thought was Heaven. Major League Baseball would eventually give back to the place that was an inspiration to many of their current players and alumni in 2021, where the Chicago White Sox took on the New York Yankees, in one of the most-thrilling regular season games in the MLB since the turn of the century, ending with a Tim Anderson walk-off home run.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows head baseball coach Ryan Nail says he was among the lucky few thousand in attendance on that perfect August evening.
“I was actually lucky enough to get to go over to the Yankees and White Sox game the first year they had it over there,” Nail said. “The attention and the excitement when, we even went over there for that game on a different field, was at the movie site with people getting their pictures taken and having the old time players out there.”
The Field of Dreams host a series of old time baseball games every summer, where large crowds gather to watch men play the game as it was when the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Moonlight Graham were on the Major League diamonds. Now, the first high school game that will be played on the field came to fruition over the offseason, thanks to a fortunate link.
“Last year we went down to Principal Park, so we just started brainstorming a little bit this offseason,” Nail said. “One of our parents had a connection at the Field of Dreams, so we just put out a feeler call and it evolved from there.”
The matchup between Clarion-Goldfield-Dows and Fort Dodge, St. Edmond was announced back on December 7th of last year and upon it’s announcement, Nail says the buzz in the Clarion community has been essentially non-stop.
“It’s been non-stop, any conversation that I stop and have with anybody, they immediately bring up ‘Hey, I hear you’re playing at the Field of Dreams’,” Nail said. “It then evolves to ‘We’re buying tickets, we’re heading over there’, I’ve talked to a lot of people in the community that are in their 60s and 70s that have never been there and have been looking for opportunity to get over there, so we’re going to see them over there.”
Prior to Monday’s game, the only games played at the movie site or the recently-erected MLB field have been the Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees in 2021, the Quad City River Bandits-Cedar Rapids Kernels as well as the Chicago Cubs-Cincinnati Reds in 2022, and most recently Briar Cliff-Luther Colleges in September of 2022.
Despite the lore of the movie site and the rare opportunity at hand, Nail says the reaction amongst his players wasn’t unanimous when he first told them of the chance to play at the historic Iowa landmark.
“You know, it’s mixed. You’ll have the ones that know what it is, that have seen the movie and that have been there, and you can definitely see the excitement in there eyes,” Nail said. “You’ve got ones that know what it is, but have never been there, so you get some more inquisitive eyes come up rather than excitement, kind of wondering what is and why we’re going over there.”
The Cowboys opponent, the Gaels of Fort Dodge, St. Edmond, were one of the first opponents Nail reached out to in discussion of playing this game. The Gaels, who are one of the more successful programs in northern Iowa since the 20th century, jumped at the opportunity.
“We looked at our schedule and we had to fit into some different stipulations such as far as what day of the week it could be and times and things like that,” Nail said. “I gave a call to Mike Szalat over at Fort Dodge, St. Edmond and the conversation started there and it evolved into something lead to where we are now.”
Nail said while he doesn’t expect the red carpet to be rolled out like the major league games that have taken place in Dyersville, he still expects one of the biggest crowds they’ll see all season at one of baseball’s greatest cathedrals.
“There hasn’t been a whole lot of talk, and they’re still a business out there,” Nail said. “It’s open to the community and the public during the day, so not only will we have fans from CGD and Fort Dodge, St. Edmond, but I’m sure there will be people who were there during the day that’ll stick around and watch our game. I’m anticipating a very large crowd and awesome atmosphere.”
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows and St. Edmond will have first pitch at 7 PM on Monday night from the Field of Dreams in Dyersville. 95.7 KQWC will provide play-by-play action from Dyersville on Monday night.