To The Movies: Field of Dreams

I may or may not have had
this entire speech memorized.
Oh, hell. You know I did.

Those who know me - even if you don't know me well - know that I'm a sucker for a baseball player.  See, I grew up in age of Kevin Costner.  First there was Bull Durham, in which he's kicked back down from the majors in order to make college-age girls all over the country tingly for an older-guy who waxes philosophical about what he really likes.  Then there was Field of Dreams, and Kev (he lets me call him that in my fantasies) plays a tormented soul who's convinced that his father's ghost will return if he builds a ball field in his corn field.  At least I think that's the plot.  I'm not sure he even talked in this movie.  Then there was Tin Cup.  Yeah, I know it's not a baseball movie - it's golf, but Kevin Costner also stars in this tingle-inducing movie.  What was I saying again?


A couple of weeks ago, The Family and I took our summer vacation, and this led us through a gajillion miles of Iowa and by the time we stopped that night, we discovered we were in Dyersville, Iowa - home of the Field of Dreams movie site.  The Dad pointed it out and asked if I wanted to stop by and maybe play a little ball and take a few touristy-type pictures.

"They built it," I said, "We should come, right?" I joked.

The Dad looked at me with his lip half-snarled.  "Ummm... that's what I'm asking you."

"Will I get to sit where Kevin sat?" I asked my chest heaving with my quickening breath, my palms sweating and my pulse racing at the prospect of planting my a$$ where Kev's a$$ had once been seated.

"I guess," The Dad shrugged.

I placed my hand on my chest and said, "Oh my, Crash."  The Dad, again, shrugged.  It's like he doesn't even know me.

The next morning, we drove the winding road to the ball field in the middle of the corn.  We played some catch.  We hit some balls.  We run some bases, which is to say that I pretended I ran from third to home so The Dad could take a picture of me.  And just when we thought we had done it all, I made the family pretend they were coming from the corn field.

It's hard to work with amateurs, y'all.

I'll bet Kevin had this scene down in one take.