Field Of Dreams Game Between Yankees-White Sox Still On As Ballpark Construction Continues

Major League Baseball has yet to determine whether there will be a season because of the spread of the coronavirus across the U.S. 

But construction continues on the tiny Iowa ballpark where a game is still scheduled to be played between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox this coming Aug. 13 at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, a source told Boomskie on Baseball this week, and confirmed by MLB.

Thus far, there’s been no change in status of the Iowa game.

Construction continues under strict adherence to CDC and state protocols, including social distancing, washing hands, and temperature checks on construction workers before arriving at the site. 

Safe guarding public health is MLB’s top priority as the project moves toward completion. 

In addition to that construction, grounds keepers and maintanence crews are attending to the 30 big-league fields and stadiums throughout North America in the remote case that baseball eventually will begin.

“Yeah, yeah, they’re all doing standard daily maintenance on the grass,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous because MLB has centralized the distribution of information through the Commissioner’s office. “Grass is a living, growing breathing organism. It needs to be taken care of whether we’re playing or not.”

So do the pipes that carry the water to the field and electricity that runs each ballpark, including spring training and minor league facilities in the case that baseball is again played.

A decision in some shape of form about playing the season should come sometime next month with various plans under consideration like opening in Arizona spring training camps.

“You can’t let it go because then in comes the ants and weeds and bugs and critters in the building,” the source added. “It’ll be more costly in the end if you don’t take care of it.”

Thus far, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancelation of international games scheduled this season for Mexico, London and the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The World Baseball Classic qualifier, slated to begin March 13 in Tucson, Arizona, was indefinitely postponed when Commissioner Rob Manfred stopped baseball from being played everywhere the previous day.

The main tournament is slated for March 2021, with the semi-finals and finals set for Marlins Park in Miami.

It’s still to be determined whether any of the cancelled international games will be rescheduled next year.

While the nation went over 50,000 deaths Friday directly tied to the coronavirus, Iowa thus far has had 4,445 cases of which 107 people have perished, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. Iowa is not one of the states where strict stay at home and business restrictions have been implemented, but the City of Dyersville has closed its Memorial Hall, social center, library, playground equipment and basketball courts at least through the end of April.

Dyersville is 33 miles due west of Dubuque, which is on the Iowa/Illinois border. 

Construction on the 8,000-seat temporary Iowa ballpark adjacent to the Field of Dreams attraction began shortly after the game was announced by MLB this past Aug. 8, and was delayed by winter weather conditions.

The original cost estimate was set at about $6 million. A path through a 9-foot high wall of cornstalks from the Field of Dreams is projected to be one of the main features.

MLB has an agreement with Go The Distance LLC, which owns the Field of Dreams site where the baseball movie of the same name was filmed over the course of 14 weeks during the summer of 1988. It’s been a tourist draw ever since bringing more than 1 million people to the area, Go The Distance says on its website. 

The Field of Dreams was set to open to the public April 1, but is also still temporarily closed.

The ballpark is expected to be torn down when and if the game ultimately is played either this year or next. The remaining diamond has been proposed for high school and minor league games.

“We’re still working on [the ballpark],” the source said. “But the game’s in limbo. Everything is in limbo.”