Tim Anderson ended the first Field of Dreams game with a two-run, walk-off shot that magically disappeared into the right-field corn, and for five years, that has been the sentimental argument for playing baseball in Iowa. Nothing since has come close to that drama.
Thursday night at least they tried.
MLB brought out 26 Hall of Famers to appear out of the corn stalks, the most at one game since the 2008 All-Star Game. Players from both teams read the monologue from the movie reminding everyone of how baseball is the constant through the years in America. Brand-new Hall of Famers Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent threw out the first pitches to Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez and Joe Mauer.
All of it happened in a new, permanent ballpark that seated 8,000 Thursday
night.
Dyersville has about 4,500 people living there. Thursday night close to twice that many were at the game on the outskirts of downtown, waxing poetic about the town's new tourist attraction.
The game started out with drama, Kyle Schwarber launching the third pitch of the game into the cornfield. The Twins couldn't keep up as Schwarber hit two homers and Brandon Marsh had one and Philadelphia won 7-1.
Here is who came out of Dyersville Thursday night winners and who left as losers.
Winners
Kyle Schwarber
His first at-bat ended up with a 369-foot, lead-off home run. In the fourth inning he did it again with a little help from Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall, who had it bounce off his glove and into the corn. Aaron Judge is the only other player to homer twice in this game. Judge did it in 2021 and left as a loser. Schwarber left as the game MVP, rewarded with a hot dog and cob of corn.
Brandon Marsh
He reached base four times, going 2-for-2 with two walks, stole a base and drove in two runs. His seventh-inning home run off Travis Adams was his 17th of the season, a career high with 40 games still to play.
Aaron Nola
Nola went five innings, holding the Twins to one run and he struck out a season-high nine. He came in 3-9 with a 5.47 ERA in a season that has been a grind.
Dyersville
A lot has happened since MLB was last in Iowa. A plan for an $80 million development with nine ball fields, an amphitheater, a boutique hotel and an RV park ran into cost overruns and supply chain issues. Dyersville Events, a local nonprofit, bought the whole site for $27 million in 2024 and cut the plan down to a permanent ballpark and youth fields.
The ballpark they played the 2021 and 2022 Field of Dreams games on was temporary, this new permanent stadium opened in June and next summer will host a Northwoods League collegiate wood-bat team. According to the Des Moines Register, the stadium will get another MLB game in 2027, if the labor strife doesn't wipe out the season.
LOSERS
Taj Bradley
He's been one of the Twins' most reliable players and he just didn't have it Thursday. He went four innings and gave up five runs on seven hits, including Schwarber's two homers. His ERA climbed to 3.98.
The Twins' bats
They went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on. They struck out 12 times on the night, three from Kody Clemens. Eight hits, one run, and Minnesota dropped to 60-63 with the season leaking away.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens
Bonds was there as part of the Netflix pregame show. Clemens was there to see his son play for the Twins. Both watched as 26 Hall of Famers, many of them their peers, came out of the corn field and were honored for their part in the history of the game. And both know they will likely never get that love from the sport. Their time on the writers' ballot for the Hall of Fame ran out in 2022 and the eras committee passed the same December. The committees can come around again, but nobody expects the answers to change.
Luke Keaschall
Sure he had the Twins' only offense, hitting the home run that put them on the board. He also gave one away in the fourth inning. He had his glove on Schwarber's' second homer, but he helped it get over the fence.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Field of Dreams game winners and losers: Kyle Schwarber king of the corn
