08/13/26 09:11:00
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08/13 05:00 CDT Field of Dreams nostalgia lives on through the Ghost Players
and their passion for Iowa and baseball
Field of Dreams nostalgia lives on through the Ghost Players and their passion
for Iowa and baseball
By DAVE CAMPBELL
AP Sports Writer
Nearly four decades after " Field of Dreams " brought a group of dead baseball
players to life with a homemade diamond on an Iowa farm, Keith Rahe and his
traveling troupers are still dedicated to keeping the cornfield mystique alive.
Once the long days of filming had passed and the fantasy flick had shifted from
movie theaters to video cassettes, the farmhouse and ballfield where those
idyllic scenes were shot was naturally becoming a tourist attraction.
Rahe lived near the site on the edge of his native small town of Dyersville,
with convenient access by way of a back road the Universal Studios crew had
made just for the movie shoot. He and his neighbors began showing up to make
sure the pitcher's mound and home plate were in place, mingle with the
visitors, and play catch.
Then one summer Sunday afternoon in 1990, Rahe persuaded a handful of his
friends to put on some old wool uniforms he'd found, walk through the
cornfields with him, and see what happened.
The young girl standing nearby sure was surprised.
"Mommy! Daddy! It's the ghost players!" she shrieked as she retreated to her
parents in the infield.
After playing catch with and pitching to the tourists for about an hour, Rahe
and his pals doffed their caps, waved goodbye and disappeared into the corn. An
enterprising newspaper reporter happened to be there, and in the next day's
edition of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids there was a headline touting the magical
appearance of the "Ghost Players" at the site. Just like in the movie.
The following week, Rahe answered a phone call from Al Ameskamp, the owner of
one of the two farms the movie ballfield straddled. He was wondering if they
were going to come back and play ball again.
"Well, not really. It was kind of a one-time deal," Rahe said.
Ameskamp replied, "Well, would you? There are 400 people out here waiting for
you."
Rahe has retold that origin story of the Ghost Players countless times, and now
at age 68 he's never been more in demand. His gregarious goodwill band of
ballplayers is a recurring feature for the public at the site, which he runs as
the executive director of Dyersville Events.
This has been an especially busy summer in this part of northeast Iowa, with
the completion of a permanent ballpark next to the filming location that will
host a Major League Baseball game on Thursday night between the Minnesota Twins
and the Philadelphia Phillies. MLB last staged a game at Field of Dreams in
2022, when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds in a temporary facility.
The Chicago White Sox faced the New York Yankees in 2021 in the inaugural event.
"The first time it happened, when we got to go into the stadium, I got
goosebumps and kind of teared up while walking through that corn," said Paul
Scherrman, another one of the original Ghost Players. "It's just a great place."
Baseball has a rich history in Iowa
The Ghost Players have visited 28 countries and dozens of states, Rahe said,
mostly by paying their own way and using their vacation time. There are
currently about 40 members, with half of those making more regular appearances.
Earlier this summer, they traveled to Chisholm, Minnesota, for the "Doc
Moonlight Graham Days" festival in honor of the film's heroic physician who
chose medicine over sport after getting in one major league game.
"A lot of the ghosts are much more loyal than some of the ghosts," said
Scherrman, who had a brief minor league career and had a cameo in the movie.
"The ghosts that come to the events that aren't as popular as Major League
Baseball games are the harder-working ghosts."
The Ghost Player experience, which allowed Scherrman to befriend the family of
Roberto Clemente on a trip to Puerto Rico, has been decidedly more rewarding
than serving as an extra in the film. He and the other locals spent 21 days on
the set for 12 hours at a time just waiting to be called into action. During
one scene, Scherrman appears for a few seconds as the catcher in a game
interrupted by Timothy Busfield, the disbelieving brother-in-law of Kevin
Costner's character Ray Kinsella.
For a state without any major metropolitan areas or a year-round climate
favorable to outdoor baseball, Iowa has produced its share of talented players
on a list that starts with Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller and his 1936 major
league debut at age 17 after training on the family farm in Van Meter. The
state is serious enough about the sport to place the high school season in
summer to avoid conflicts with spring sports and get better weather.
"I still see all my buddies from that team," said Cubs pitcher Colin Rea, who's
from Cascade, just 15 miles south of Dyersville. "We've loved baseball from the
time we started playing, and I think that's how it is for most kids around
there."
Rea, 36, wasn't quite born yet when "Field of Dreams" hit the big screens, but
he and his friends regularly watched their area's claim to fame while growing
up. The ballfield itself seemed like a fantasy that was impossible to visit.
"Once I got older, I was like, ?It's 20 minutes from my house. Why haven't I
been there?'" Rea said.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn is from Ollie, in the southeast part
of the state. His brother will be at the game, and he knows people on the
grounds crew.
"It's really sweet. Iowa's got a lot of baseball fans," Winn said. "Having the
game come there is really special to all of the people."
___
AP Baseball Writers Jay Cohen in Chicago and Janie McCauley in San Francisco
contributed.
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See AP's full MLB coverage here
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