MLB's Field of Dreams game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox in 2021 was a long time coming. It had been a long time since the movie came out, and an even longer time because of delays caused by COVID. Thankfully, the event was worth the wait. Before we see the thrilling end to this highlight-packed game, let's rewind.
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00:00It's August 12th, 2021.
00:02Up close, this looks like a tense,
00:05but ordinary baseball situation.
00:08Yankees up one run, White Sox at bat
00:10in the bottom of the ninth.
00:12One on, one out.
00:13Big moment.
00:15Only when you zoom out do you realize
00:18that big moment is taking place
00:20in the middle of a cornfield.
00:22Before we see if the White Sox
00:24can pull off some heroics,
00:26we need to understand what's going on here.
00:28We need to rewind.
00:30This episode of Rewinder is presented by T-Mobile,
00:33America's largest 5G network.
00:36So we should start with the corn, yeah?
00:40We're not used to seeing teams from New York
00:42and Chicago play amid rows of corn.
00:46Well, tonight we're in Dyersville, Iowa.
00:50To understand why, you've gotta go back to this guy.
00:54Yeah.
00:56W.P. Kinsella was a Canadian fella
00:59who loved to write about baseball.
01:02I didn't actually mean to rhyme that.
01:04In 1982, he released his most famous book,
01:07Shoeless Joe.
01:09A farmer hears voices,
01:10builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield,
01:13then meets the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson
01:16and the infamous 1919 Black Sox.
01:18Oh, and also the author J.D. Salinger.
01:21A few years later, it was adapted into a movie,
01:24Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner.
01:27The movie's got almost everything in common with the book,
01:30minus Salinger.
01:32You don't mess with J.D. apparently.
01:34To be honest, I hadn't seen the movie until recently,
01:37and it's a nice movie.
01:39Okay, but you're probably still asking
01:41why any of this matters.
01:43Well, one thing Field of Dreams does better
01:45than perhaps any other work of fiction
01:48is depict baseball as something pure and romantic
01:53and even holy, something you long for when it's gone.
01:57That's why the Black Sox play a part in the story.
02:00In real life, the 1919 Chicago White Sox
02:02were accused of throwing the World Series
02:05at the behest of big-time gamblers.
02:08Eight players were banned from baseball forever,
02:10among them Shoeless Joe Jackson.
02:12In the story, their ghosts spend eternity
02:15pining for the game that banned them,
02:18and our guy Kev misses his late father.
02:21It's all about baseball as a symbol of bygone youth,
02:24innocence, and opportunity,
02:27which is sort of darkly ironic
02:29given the events of the last two years.
02:33In August of 2019, 100 years after the Black Sox scandal
02:37and 30 years after the movie came out,
02:39MLB announced a plan.
02:41They had done some one-off neutral site games before,
02:45but this one would be even wilder.
02:47An official, regular-season, field-of-dreams game.
02:52One year in the future, August of 2020,
02:55the Yankees and White Sox would play
02:57in a custom-built ballpark
02:59right next to the still-intact film set
03:01in a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa.
03:04It would be quaint and old-timey and classic.
03:08It would be the state's first-ever MLB game.
03:11It would not happen.
03:13The White Sox of yestercentury could've told you
03:16the real world has a way of interrupting baseball.
03:19Shoeless Joe himself missed the 1918 season
03:22to serve in World War I,
03:24and the infamous influenza epidemic
03:26took a real toll on baseball.
03:28The 1918 World Series was basically a super-spreader event,
03:32and a famous umpire died of the flu later that year.
03:36Well, 100 years later, here we were again.
03:40The 2020 MLB season only kinda happened,
03:44but Dyersville remained on the schedule
03:46until the last minute.
03:49The venue was prepared.
03:50The matchup was switched to Yankees-Cardinals
03:53to fit the modified schedule.
03:55MLB really, really tried,
03:58but days before the game was supposed to be played,
04:00they pulled the plug.
04:02A year later, this game is finally being played
04:05as originally conceived,
04:07although I should mention we're still feeling
04:09the effects of the pandemic.
04:11A few weeks ago, the Yankees acquired Anthony Rizzo,
04:14recent hero of the 2016 World Series champion Chicago Cubs,
04:18beloved by many of these Iowans.
04:21But Rizzo is not playing first base right now.
04:24He tested positive for COVID a few days ago.
04:27The virus remains a major obstacle in our lives,
04:31and it's not the only force affecting this event.
04:34You see all this corn standing tall in the outfield?
04:38It's the most distinctive feature
04:39connecting this venue to the field in the movie,
04:42but it almost got ruined.
04:44Two brothers, Andy and Adam Ray,
04:46farm this land when it's not hosting a baseball game.
04:49Remember, this right here isn't the Field of Dreams set.
04:52That's over there.
04:54The place we're playing right now
04:56was custom-built just for this game.
04:58It was all corn until recently.
05:01The brothers helped immensely with making that happen,
05:04preparing, cutting, and moving their crops to make room.
05:07Then they replanted to make the outfield
05:10look as lush and impressive as it did in the movie.
05:12It all looked great until two days ago
05:16when a big-ass storm rolled through eastern Iowa.
05:19Severe winds knocked over
05:20something like 1,000 outfield corn stalks.
05:23To achieve the proper cornfield effect in time,
05:26the brothers had to work around the clock,
05:29zip-tying 1,000-odd fence posts to the stalks,
05:32a truly amazing achievement to pull off that fast.
05:35And hey, it looks great.
05:38You wouldn't even know.
05:39It's been worth it, too, because the corn
05:41is such an important feature tonight.
05:43The Yankees and White Sox followed Kevin Kosner
05:45onto the field for intros,
05:47appearing seemingly out of thin corn,
05:50just like Shoeless Joe and the gang did in the movie.
05:53Aside from the fact that it implies
05:54all of these people are dead, it was a really cool visual.
05:58And the outfield corn's gotten plenty of in-game play.
06:01This game has featured seven home runs so far,
06:04including two from Yankees star Aaron Judge,
06:08who drove in most of New York's runs tonight.
06:09One was this opposite-field bomb
06:12to pull the Yankees ahead in the third inning,
06:14gone into the stalks.
06:16Then, when the Yankees fell behind again,
06:18Judge ignited a late rally with this jack to center corn.
06:23Easily the most exciting play of the night
06:25came right after that.
06:26Moments after Judge's second homer closed the gap to 7-6,
06:30Giancarlo Stanton had one last chance.
06:33Ninth inning, two outs to save the game,
06:36and boom, that thing was smoked.
06:40If you search behind the left-field fence,
06:42you might find some popcorn.
06:44So, that is why we're playing a bottom-of-the-ninth.
06:48The White Sox had this game wrapped up
06:50until the Yankees' massive slugging lads flipped the script.
06:56This guy has a chance to flip it back.
06:59With a man on, one big swing for the Stalks
07:01would end this game on a walk-off.
07:04Nobody better for the task.
07:07This is Tim Anderson.
07:10Anderson was a two-sport athlete
07:12who shifted his focus from basketball to baseball,
07:15but only played at the JUCO level
07:17and went undrafted in 2012.
07:19Only after a ridiculous breakout sophomore season
07:22did Anderson get attention.
07:24Beginning in 2013, he worked his way up
07:27the White Sox farm system,
07:29then debuted for the big league club five years ago.
07:32Since then, Anderson has worked his way up
07:35to regular shortstop, dynamic leadoff hitter,
07:37silver slugger, and this season, all-star.
07:40Anderson is super talented,
07:42and a big reason the Sox have a shot
07:44to win the AL Central for the first time in over a decade.
07:48There's more to Tim Anderson's role
07:50in this game and moment, though.
07:53Field of Dreams conjures nostalgia
07:55by conjuring the literal ghosts
07:58of a time when baseball was perhaps more simple,
08:01more pure, more...
08:04Hey, has anyone noticed that all the players
08:06depicted in this movie are white?
08:08Yeah, when we exalt these classic,
08:10old-timey elements of baseball history,
08:12the old architecture, the old jerseys,
08:15we are referencing a time when baseball was segregated.
08:19And then there's today.
08:21More than 70 years since Jackie Robinson
08:24broke the color barrier,
08:26baseball hasn't fully integrated Black players.
08:29Decades ago, MLB was nearly one-fifth African American.
08:33Today, it has regressed to well, well below that number,
08:38and below most other major American sports leagues.
08:41There's just no arguing with the fact
08:44that MLB has fallen short in outreach,
08:47scouting, and community investment.
08:50That lack of Black representation
08:52has felt particularly stark over the last year or two,
08:55when tragedies like the police killing of George Floyd
08:59stirred the US into protest,
09:01and MLB didn't really know how to respond.
09:04So much of that burden fell on the shoulders
09:07of the league's few prominent Black players.
09:10On opening day last year,
09:12Anderson felt obligated to join in peaceful protest
09:15by kneeling during the national anthem.
09:17It takes courage to speak out in a league
09:20with so few Black players,
09:22but Anderson's not afraid of the spotlight,
09:24even when it's controversial.
09:26That's true when he's playing, also.
09:28During Anderson's rise to stardom,
09:30he's drawn some ire for his expressiveness on the field.
09:34Showboating, celebrating,
09:36generally enjoying himself in a sport
09:38that's still pretty stodgy compared to others.
09:42Anderson insists on having fun.
09:44Controversy be damned.
09:46He performs for very important reasons.
09:49Fair or not, Tim feels pressure
09:51to help make baseball more accessible to people like him.
09:56It can be a lonely campaign at times.
09:59Anderson's outspokenness and his exuberance
10:01re-entered the conversation before this season,
10:04when Chicago hired Tony La Russa,
10:07a manager known for being successful and, well,
10:11also kind of a mascot for that stodginess in baseball.
10:14La Russa was, on the record, disparaging athletes
10:17who kneeled during the national anthem.
10:20La Russa was also, on the record,
10:21disparaging baseball players who committed sins
10:24as grave as swinging when their team had a big lead.
10:28Rarely does a baseball manager in 2021
10:32feel compelled to inventory his skeletal racism levels
10:36in his introductory press conference,
10:39but such is Tony La Russa's reputation.
10:41Anderson came out quickly and clearly
10:44to say he would not change his style
10:46or his approach in deference to his new manager.
10:49And he's proven as much this season.
10:51When La Russa publicly criticized Jermaine Mercedes
10:54for the grave injustice of continuing to play hard
10:58and that the White Sox were winning by a lot,
11:00Anderson came to his teammates' defense.
11:02And it wasn't the first time he had done so.
11:05Anderson favors brashness and personality and fun.
11:09Old-fashioned manners be damned.
11:12This isn't some major conflict in the clubhouse.
11:15They get along in spite of their disagreements
11:17and, you know, the Sox are having a great season so far.
11:20La Russa sadly couldn't participate tonight.
11:23He's attending a family funeral.
11:25In his absence, his team has risen to the occasion,
11:28joining in the home run barrage
11:30that, if not for that big Yankees rally
11:32in the top of this inning,
11:33would have already won them the game.
11:38Add all of the above together
11:40and you're left with a truly unique scene.
11:43It was supposed to happen a year ago,
11:45but devastating world events intervened.
11:49This scene honors the nostalgia
11:51and romance of baseball history,
11:53as depicted in a beloved classic movie.
11:56But it also references a period of baseball history
11:59defined by prejudice,
12:01and it underscores a racial imbalance
12:03that hasn't really been fixed.
12:05Tim Anderson is accustomed to standing out and speaking out.
12:08He goes out of his way to do so.
12:10Right now, Anderson is wearing a uniform
12:13that no Black players ever got to wear.
12:15He plays for an organization and a league
12:18still shamefully underpopulated with Black employees.
12:22As much as this occasion honors baseball's past,
12:25Tim Anderson is here to push baseball into the future,
12:28as uphill a battle as that may be.
12:30For now, he could snatch the spotlight once more
12:33with a single big swing.
12:36Let's see if Tim Anderson can walk off
12:38the Field of Dreams game.
12:40Welcome to A Moment in History.
12:43Anderson hits it in the air to right,
12:46back at the wall, and the White Sox win it!
12:49Anderson wins the game!