Major League Baseball: Don’t lose the Field of Dreams game

If Thursday night’s Field of Dreams encore in Dyersville, Iowa, turns out to be the last played at the iconic movie site, Major League Baseball will have squandered a golden opportunity to underscore its most precious asset: its natural linkage to families.

The game, first played last August, enjoyed its second iteration when the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 4-2. But the idea that there may not be a third iteration of Field of Dreams is more than plausible. Construction at the site will prevent a 2023 version of the game, and MLB officials have not committed to a return visit to the corn in 2024 or any time beyond.

Leaving Dyersville and the Field of Dreams would be a major tactical blunder for MLB

The event provides an annual opportunity to remind fans — and especially casual ones — of the reason why the 1980s era movie resonated with so many people.

That reason? It used baseball to encapsulate core American virtues of family ties that resonate both powerfully and naturally in the broader society.

Baseball is unique in its position to highlight that encapsulation. “Hey Dad, wanna have a catch,” isn’t merely a movie line. Rather, it’s the kind of real-world backyard activity that has bonded American parents and their children for more than a century, and does so in a way that no other sport can replicate.

Football may have long ago passed baseball in popularity in this country, and other sports may be on a viewing par. But none of them possess even a vestige of the natural parent-child linkage that has always moved audiences to literal tears in the way that Field of Dreams does.

None allows a parent and son or daughter to engage in a simple activity in the same way that the parent did with his or her parent, a physical continuum that in some cases can be traced back for four or five generations.

In that sense, the Dyersville game site used Thursday by the Cubs and Reds is nothing less than a manifestation of America’s backyard. Whether it’s a childhood swing set, a place where the family dog ran or a 40-foot strip of grass for a game of catch, Americans get warm feelings about what transpires In their backyards. The Field of Dreams game touches upon those sentiments in a way that is nothing but good for baseball.

There is apparently discussion in administrative circles about other similar activities moving forward. The Cubs and Cardinals are already scheduled to play a game in London next summer, although that game is far more about extending baseball’s current minuscule reach in Europe than advancing its connections here.

There is also at least discussion — perhaps serious, perhaps not — of playing games at other historical sites … maybe an old Negro Leagues field or one of the fields used in the filming of “A League of Their Own.” The latter idea would be an attempt to play off that movie’s telling of the tale of the World War II-era All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Those are both good ideas and they should be pursued … but not at the expense of the Field of Dreams game.

Baseball plays a six-month season. At the rate of less than one such “jewel” game per month, that is plenty long enough to encompass both those worthy ideas — and others — and still continue a commitment to Dyersville.

Emotionally, the singular strength of baseball has always been its innate ability to touch core American values, the most essential of which is the family bond. Certainly those bonds are weaker today than they have historically been; in fact, their decline roughly parallels the decline over decades in the nation’s obsession with baseball.

That may or may not be coincidence.

But that very fact is precisely the reason why MLB should prioritize continuing to emphasize its unique ability to personify that family bond. The Field of Dreams game is a unique and singularly powerful tool for doing so. Letting such a demonstrated opportunity fade into obscurity would be a major tactical blunder on the part of the game’s leadership.