Field of Dreams is a movie filmed in Dyersville Iowa in 1989, starring Kevin Costner.
Tom Hanks turned down the part, and he’s still kicking himself to this day for not taking it. Luckily he has a very thick wallet to absorb the kicks.
We had driven past the area on a previous family loop trip and decided to make the stop this time.
I had never seen the movie, but got some rough idea of the plot before we stopped.
Cool to see. Once.
The site would be cool to visit if you have young kids that play baseball, but it’s just an overhyped tourist trap.
$20 "Donation" to enter? If you make it an entry fee I’ll pay. If you make it a donation I’ll ask what it’s for.
Site maintenance, road upkeep, nothing that makes me cough up twenty bucks when I can clearly see the rest of their money-making operations here.
Turns out that the original family that struck the deal with Universal Studios no longer owns the property and it’s owned by an LLC run by a former MLB player. Not getting my $20 to drive in and take a couple photos.
But – they have a separate pole barn with some seriously-priced swag you can buy, $20 house tours, an overpriced food truck, and an onsite bar.
Must. Sell. Merch.
This very modern barn is chock-full of all of the overpriced shirts and memorabilia that you could ever want.
I’d donate for a couple beers, but it wasn’t open by the time we arrived.
Now that I’ve gotten my negativity out of the way – it is cool to see how many people show up with their kids to hit some balls on the field. We thought maybe there was a game happening with all of the cars streaming in and kids in full baseball gear.
Turns out, you can just run out on the field and play your favorite position – 7 kids in left field, 12 shortstops, 8 catchers, everybody seemed to do a good job taking turns and enjoying themselves.
We read up on the film and found some interesting nuggets like how they filmed the last scene with all the cars arriving, and then we actually watched the movie at Don and Leone’s a few days later.
Pretty cool.
Worth twenty bucks?
If you have young kids that play baseball I’d say it’s worth the stop 110%. If you’re old and miserly, I’d save the cash for the next tourist trap because there’s plenty of them out there still to see.
Field of Dreams
Gotta have a photo op with the sign!
If You Build It
… they will come
Number 38
I thought this number 38 would be Shoeless Joe Jackson because of his prominence in the movie, but that does not appear to be the case.
