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.”
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.”
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AP Baseball Writers Jay Cohen in Chicago and Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed.
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