The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2, on Thursday, but that was hardly the purpose.
Major League Baseball had once more found its option to Dyersville, Iowa, for its Field of Dreams game, and a sport that sometimes struggles with its technological future got a reminder of how great the sport may be when it’s broken down into its simplest form.
“It’s really magic,” Cubs catcher Willson Contreras told reporters of the sector, which is a brief walk from the one utilized in “Field of Dreams,” the 1989 film starring Kevin Costner. “It has some sort of energy that I believe is real.”
The Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., a Reds alum, played catch together with his father — a reasonably good player for the Reds in his own right — before the sport, the scoreboard made Fenway Park’s seem modern and each teams wore throwback uniforms that harked back to the times when the rebuilding clubs were a bit more relevant.
“What they’ve done here is incredible,” Kyle Farmer, a 3rd baseman for the Reds, told reporters. “I believe every baseball player should experience this.”
As for the baseball, the Cubs stayed on the vintage theme by taking a 3-0 lead in the highest of the primary inning with a hit-by-pitch, two doubles and a single. Neither team homered into the corn stalks within the outfield this yr, and the one real reminders that the sport was being played in 2022 were that the teams combined to make use of nine pitchers and there have been 26 strikeouts. (Chicago’s Drew Smyly earned the win by striking out nine in five scoreless innings.)
Last yr, the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox had faced off in the primary of this now annual event, which is Major League Baseball’s answer to the N.H.L.’s outdoor games. While last yr’s game had a bit more sizzle, due to the matchup of contending teams, and a bit more pop with an exciting game, the passion looked as if it would carry over despite this yr’s edition not having anything of the kind.
The group of seven,823 people — nearly double the regular population of Dyersville — seemed thrilled with the event, and the players were excited to get their probability on the experience which, not less than for now, will come only every year for 2 lucky teams.
“A game like this — you simply feel like a child again,” Smyly said. “You’re just on the market playing baseball in the midst of Iowa.”
