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The "Field of Dreams," a nearly 200-acre parcel of Iowa land made famous in the 1989 Kevin Costner film of the same name, will live on and give young people a lesson in life.
An investment group led by Oak Lawn, Iowa-based couple Denise and Mark Stillman closed the deal last week after more than two and a half years.
Denise Stillman on Wednesday recalled the moment she told her husband they should buy the property.
"[It was] over pizza by a swimming pool the night that he told me it was for sale. I said we should build a Cooperstown facility like that at the 'Field of Dreams' movie site," she recalled.
In the future, the site will be a sprawling complex built specifically for youth sports, including 24 baseball diamonds and 60 clubhouses.
"We're going to do things like build a summer camp where kids from the inner city came come to Iowa and learn about how to be a great human being through sports," she added.
Costner's 'favorite place on Earth'
There are some eerie coincidences between the film and the site's real-life purchase.
"We've actually talked about the similarity between the movie and real life except the tables are turned in the genders. The wife is that one that's proverbially the crazy one," Stillman said with a laugh.
She said she knew convincing her husband wouldn't be difficult, recalling their early days together in college at Bradley University.
"['Field of Dreams'] came out on tape and we watched it in the dorm and he cried, so I thought he was pretty OK," she said.
Stillman also has the support of actor Kevin Costner. She said the star lauded her effort and thanked her for keeping the dream alive.
"He just chuckled and said, 'I'm so glad that someone is saving that. It's my favorite place on Earth,'" Stillman said.
The first phase of the $40 million project should be complete in the spring of 2014. Stillman said youth baseball teams from as far away as California and Florida are already signed up to compete in tournaments.
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Well, I guess that I'll just have to say it....
"If you build it, he will come."
They may not sing, but if you build it, they will hum.
There is nothing particularly original, nor unique about this story, or the thought process behind it. There are numerous "Field of Dreams" - theme ballparks around the country, including the Cooperstown Dreams Park in Milford NY, just outside of Cooperstown, where little leaguers play in week-long tournaments during the summer.
This is just some couple of "yuppies" making money off of someone else's idea, and someone else's movie production.
Doesn't impress me at all. GO GET REAL JOBS, GO WORK FOR A LIVING!
I think thats great. Use it for the kids.
This might be a little off beat but why is IOWA fast becoming a stronghold of the liberals? Ive been watching this state go liberal for years now and cant understand it. Its a farming state, not much different than Nebraska, Kansas etc. How does the center of the breadbasket become so LIBERAL??? Iowa is openly asking for illegal aliens to come there, they vote for communists. Iowa, get out of your funk and become the conservative state you were always meant to be.
ZMan, this is the REAL 'Field of Dreams' from the movie. THAT is why the article is a sense of news.
The field was kept as is after the movie and alot of events are held there. W
These people just want to make it into a bigger complex.
Will "live on"? This story is missing the why - why was it for sale?
Probably some corn farmer is retiring and needs a few dollars to fund the RV purchase.
The story is about the purchase of the land, not the sale of it.
The movie was a man's dream....a dream of being with the generation of baseball greats of another time. A modern day complex will not do justice to "the dream"; it will only erase memories of a different time.
It's good to know I wasn't alone in getting on my man-cry from that great movie.
They said they will build a "Cooperstown facility" so I would imagine they will have some sort of tribute to the past. Maybe a corn maze with wax figures throughout
by Cooperstown facility, they mean, Cooperstown Dreams Park. It is a baseball facility with 22 fields thats has weekly tournaments for 12 year olds with 100 teams a week. It really is a fun place to go for youth teams. Bringing something like this to the Midwest will be a great venture.
BTW...I took W. P. Kinsella's dream to be a reflection on the importance of the past; about fathers and sons; and about the way baseball creates connectivity across the generations. For Costner, I sensed it about closure too.
My parents are from the area and 95% of our family still lives in Jones Co. Whenever we are back for a wedding or, yes, even a funeral, we set aside a afternoon to go to Dyersville and play on the Field of Dreams. For that reason, and some other more personal, the movie and site have a very special place in my heart. They have a guest book for people to sign and there have been from visitors from as far away as Japan and Australia. While I am sad that we won't be able to go and have "a catch", it will be for a good reason. The kids will think they're in heaven, but it will be Iowa!
My favorite movie. Ripped my heart out and stomped that sucker flat.......
There was a time that sports figures were heroes not for their SALARIES but for their accomplishments. Teach kids THAT.
Accomplishments like Ty Cobb's? Major league baseball at the turn of the century was a brutal business. Read Field of Screams.
Why? Because those 200 acres of cornfield looks nothing like the 200 acres of cornfield to the left of it and nothing like the 200,000 acres of cornfield to the right of it. So the woman with all the good intentions would never dream of lifting a finger unless the very spot where the movie was shot became available?
I am a 74 yrs. young Red Sox fan. Saw the movie with my son quite by accident. (We had gone to see another which was sold out) What a movie! Every time I watch it I get choked up. I agree that the theme of Dads/sons/ Baseball connection is the meat of the movie along with all of America's love of the game and its history. My wife and I drove to Dyersville from CT 20 or so years ago and had a catch. There were folks there from all over the country. Hopefully the new owners will preserve in some way the meaning of the film. Think that it is time to view it again!
The new owners will be catering to the vanity and poor character of
"baseball parents"
Despite its preachy liberal overtones, not to mention a few outright lies about trying to equate those who believe in traditional American values, (like parents having the right to protect their kids from specific material those parents might find as being personally offensive), and thus portraying those parents as being some kind of crazed "Nazi fascist", because those who worship at the altar of big government think that some subversive POS idiot in the government who deems that material to be just fine, should have the ability to override the authority of the parent (and that's just one example of several in the film).... Field of Dreams is still one of my favorite movies.
go back on your meds
Liberals never can handle the truth. They live in a world of lies and delusions. If my accusation is so crazy as to require meds, why don't you point out where in the assessment of my description that I'm wrong. Go ahead. I invite you to tell me where I'm not telling the absolute truth about what is portrayed in the movie. As I said, liberals can't handle the truth. And I doubt you'll have the guts to take me on.
The first problem is, you spout a bunch of disconected ambiguous rhetoric and then demand we conclude it's the truth. That's just juvenile and smacks of liberal tactics.
Then you state that no liberal dare take you on? Take you on over what? You haven't said anything to take issue with because no rational human being can make sense of your rambling, partisan babbling that never really does give the reader any clue what you are talking about.
I've been to "The Field of Dreams" in Dyersville, too, about 20 years ago. At the time, the 2 adjacent properties with 2 different owners used in the film were being maintained through a joint effort on the part of those owners to keep the site intact. There was a guest book we signed, and as it was a crummy, cold & wet late September day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Posters were still hung that told of an Old Timer's game held there earlier in the summer with those retired baseball greats still around at the time. I sat on the bleachers and beheld in my mind's eye the great actors from the film--I'm a particular fan of Burt Lancaster. The movie started something that lives on in the hearts of its audience. I wish them great success in their vision, and I hope to make it back someday.
Fine idea, if it meant a continuation of some form of the field vs. having it plowed under when the land was sold, but it won't look a thing like the movie; just another big sports complex like you can find in any city. I may need to take my son there this summer before it's gone.
Maybe a generation ago, but today, there's very little that sports can teach us that help us to be even "good" human beings, let alone "great" ones.
I never played baseball in some gigantic sports complex. My ball was played in a dusty field with just me and my friends. What is being proposed here is just another monsterland. That's a lot of corn taken out of the market, but I guess if you build it big big business will finance the killing of it.
"Field of Dreams" came out a couple of months after my father passed. Many of my times with my dad centered around sports, and mainly baseball. Many things changed between my dad and I as I grew up in the 60's and I resented many of his values. "Field of Dreams" brought back to focus many of the positive values my dad had imparted to me and helped me appreciate more how I was raising my sons. On a month long motorcycle odyssey a decade ago, I visited the movie site, sat in left field on the warm grass, and called my sons....
You should see the republican welfare package these morons are getting to build this.
This does my old heart good today. Field of Dreams is no doubt one of the top 3 movies that were great in my life. Fascinated, emotional, laughing, anticipating, and then crying when "he came". I never had a father who played catch with me or any other sport. Ray found again the father he loved, cherished and wanted one more moment with him. I envy that moment.
As to the purchase, I really don't care as long as the Field of Dreams stands and is here for generations. Little League playoffs should be here; maybe even high school. Let this become part of our heritage for we all need dreams especially now.
You realize what they're going to build there stands in defiance of everything that movie stood for right? It woll be a tax payer subsidized temple catering to the most negative aspects of atheltics and youth right?