By Devon POV Mason & JR Gamble | Shadow League Staff
The saying in the movie “Field of Dreams” was “If You Build It He Will Come.
After the scintillating finish in the inaugural Field of Dreams Game in an Iowa cornfield on Thursday night, it’s clear that African-American players brought the entire bag and showed up ready to dominate the situation.
Ask Alex Rodriguez.
The announcer took note of the cultural significance of the game, particularly at a time when Black baseball players are scratching and clawing their style of play back into the game.
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— MLBbro.com (@MLBbrodotcom) August 13, 2021
Kevin Costner, the star of the 1989 classic film, was in attendance as well and even spoke to the 8,000 in attendance. Costner was heavily featured throughout the day leading up to the evening’s matchup.
The pre game show was very nostalgic and harkened to a tiem when baseball was pure as the driven white snow. To see the players emerge from the corn field before entering the field of play to start the game was nothing short of amazing.
But once the game jumped off, it was all about three African-American superstars — the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox and their theatrics and heroics.
Both teams gave the millions of viewers their money’s worth and then some as the Yankees and White Sox battled into the ninth-inning. The bats came alive and six runs were scored.
Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge (2 homers) and Giancarlo Stanton both went yard into the corn as the Yanks cut a 7-4 lead to lead 8-7, only to be upstaged by White Sox star Tim Anderson who hit a walk-off two-run homer to cap a great night for the event.
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— MLBbro.com (@MLBbrodotcom) August 13, 2021
Again MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and his staff hit this one into the corn as well.
Manfred, says the game will return in 2022 with the participants to be named.
The films star Costner was asked about this being a one-off and his response was pretty simple:
“You never mess with a winning streak.” It does feel like all the teams wanna touch this.”
If the goal was branding outside of its normal realm, then MLB hit a home run. The contest was one of the most talked-about regular-season baseball games in recent memory. A branding similar to how NHL handles the Winter Classic seems inevitable.
