This evening, following White Sox-Athletics, fans in attendance at Guaranteed Rate Field can hang around to watch "Field of Dreams."
A year from now, select fans will be able to watch the White Sox play at the Field of Dreams complex in Dyersville, Iowa. They'll take on the Yankees at a temporary, 8,000-set ballpark situated on the farmland that provided the movie set on Aug. 13, 2020.
The Dyersville site is the latest in alternate game location to stage an official Major League Baseball game. This year alone, the Mariners and Athletics opened the season in Japan, the Red Sox and Yankees brought baseball to London, the Tigers and Royals played in Omaha, and the Pirates and Cubs will meet in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa.
While the White Sox are the sensible choice for the Field of Dreams site given the movie's subject, it very well could have included the Cubs and Cardinals because they fight over that territory. Never take for granted people remembering the White Sox exist. As a reminder, here's ESPN again:
There are a couple points of tension, or at least dissonance, that will play out in the process.
*Field of Dreams forces the White Sox to acknowledge Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 team, something they don't seem all that inclined to do for reasons that are understandable. The Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal tells us what little the Sox have planned:
To date this season, the team has included an article on what Chicago was like in 1919 in its annual yearbook. A story on Black Sox scandal myths written by a Society for American Baseball Research expert is set to appear in the game program sold at the ballpark beginning Aug 22.
That’s it.
*Major League Baseball is very hard to watch in Iowa otherwise, as Mike Duncan points out:
It should be a satisfying spectacle, however it happens, and if this helps bring attention to MLB's ridiculous blackout territories, it'll be worth all the rehashed arguments over how good or how terrible the movie is.
(My stance: "Field of Dreams" is a very effective movie emotionally, and it would've been far more effective as a baseball movie had Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston come out of the corn. "Sugar" ranks atop my list of best baseball films.)
Spare Parts
It's not often you see Deadspin cover a story that reflects positively on the White Sox -- "Blight Sox" is their brand -- but thanks to Anthony Swarzak's wife, Ariana Dubelko Giolito and Bria Anderson got the job done.
Many of the foreign-substance scandals of recent history stem pitchers trying to get a better grip on the ball, not load it up. MLB is trying to render it unnecessary by coming up with a baseball whose cover requires no rubbing, but it turns out that the mud that's been used for decades can't be so easily replaced. You probably won't read a more interesting story about mud all year.
One way Iván Nova might make a difference before his time in a White Sox uniform is through? Urging Reynaldo López to conduct scrum interviews in English. He's offered López $300 if López handles it in English, but charges López $100 if he reverts to use of a translator. López has paid him $300 so far.
Steve Stone will get the Aug. 15-18 series in Anaheim off, and Bill Walton will be taking his place alongside Benetti during one of them. For one game, it should be a lot of fun.
