It’s not heaven, it’s Iowa.
Major League Baseball returned to the baseball movie version of heaven on Thursday afternoon, with the now-traditional Field of Dreams game. A tribute to one of the most iconic baseball movies in film history, this time featuring two teams fighting for postseason spots: the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins.
Broadcast on Netflix for 2026, the game started with a fitting, and fantastic, tribute to both the movie’s famous cornfield, and the history of real world baseball. After the two teams walked through the corn to enter the field, Kyle Schwarber and Byron Buxton introduced a group of 26 Hall of Fame players who followed suit.
“As the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ reminded us, the one constant through all the years has been baseball,” Buxton said. “Inspiring us and connecting generations.”
“Tonight we are honored to share this special field with many of the legends who shaped our careers and whose amazing careers took them all the way to the Hall of Fame,” Schwarber added.
Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt represented the Phillies, while Joe Mauer, Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat represented the Twins. Other players included Billy Wagner, Tony Perez, Scott Rolen, Paul Molitor, Jim Thome, Cal Ripken Jr., Andre Dawson, Rollie Fingers and Fergie Jenkins.
Some other more modern players included CC Sabathia, Trevor Hoffman, Ivan Rodriguez, Larry Walker, Fred McGriff, Adrian Beltre, as well as new inductees Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent.
Can’t start it off any better than that. Unless you’re Kyle Schwarber.
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Leading off the game, Schwarber launched a massive home run deep into the right field corn.
The Phillies added another run in the first to take a 2-0 lead, but the Twins battled back in the bottom of the second thanks to Luke Keaschall reaching the cornfield for a solo homer of his own. But Schwarber answered back in the top of the fourth, hitting his second homer of the game that quite literally bounced off Keaschell’s glove at the right field fence.
Phillies starter Aaron Nola had one of his best performances of the season, striking out nine hitters over five innings with just one run allowed on the Keaschall homer. And his team’s offense just kept adding on, with Brandon Marsh adding a two-run homer of his own in the top of the 7th, expanding the lead to six.
Minnesota never got much of a rally going against the Philadelphia bullpen, as the Phillies cruised to the 7-1 win.
Many fans on social media did point out the irony of MLB adding a “FanDuel” advertisement, essentially a betting platform, at the Field of Dreams stadium. Advertising a gambling site when the plot of the movie the game celebrates centers on the “Black Sox” gambling scandal and Shoeless Joe Jackson is a sign of how the times have changed.
But the story of the game, as always with this special event, is the incredible visuals and atmosphere created by playing a regular season Major League Baseball game in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. Yes, it’s become an expected start of the midsummer schedule, and yes, Netflix’s pre-game hosting choices left something to be desired. But with the movie now somehow 37 years old, it’s a wonderful way to connect the classic to younger generations.
Baseball is the American pastime for a reason, it connects fans from different eras in a way few other sports can. This tribute to the movie and its place in baseball history has been an overwhelming success, to MLB’s credit. And the continuing popularity of it shows it’s true that if you build it, they will come.