Ghosts Get an Upgrade: 26 Hall of Famers Emerge From the Corn at Field of Dreams
DYERSVILLE, Iowa — The corn did not just whisper Thursday night. It roared.
Ahead of the Minnesota Twins' showdown with the Philadelphia Phillies, 26 Hall of Fame members walked out of the outfield corn at the Field of Dreams site, channeling the most iconic scene in baseball movie history. Only these weren't ghosts. They were living, breathing Cooperstown royalty — and the crowd of roughly 8,000 soaked up every second.
The loudest roars were saved for Mike Schmidt and Joe Mauer, two icons who meant everything to their respective fan bases. But the surreal lineup was stacked: Steve Carlton, Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Cal Ripken Jr., Iván Rodríguez, Jim Thome, Adrián Beltré, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Trevor Hoffman, and more — all forming a half-ring around the diamond that represented about one-third of the living Hall of Famers.
This was the biggest gathering of Hall of Famers at a ballpark — not counting Cooperstown itself — since the 2008 All-Star Game said goodbye to old Yankee Stadium.
Costner didn't need to show up
Kevin Costner was the star of the 2021 spectacle, but this time he let his voice do the work, narrating the pregame hype video as Netflix beamed the old-school nostalgia to the world. Fireworks erupted from the corn during the national anthem, and then Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber added his own explosion, crushing a homer to right field on the third pitch from Twins starter Taj Bradley.
On the field, Twins star Byron Buxton — activated from the injured list hours earlier — grabbed a microphone and delivered the James Earl Jones classic: "The one constant through all the years has been baseball."
More than a ballpark
The permanent stadium that now occupies the Iowa farmland has all the modern bells and whistles — video board, sound system, indoor plumbing — but it still feels like a place where time slows down. Both teams traded their normal uniforms for throwbacks too: Twins in their 1961 first-season home whites, Phillies in 1940 road grays, all matching the vintage hand-operated scoreboard in right field.
The players felt the magic. Twins manager Derek Shelton played catch with his 78-year-old dad before the game and later admitted his arm was a little weak. "You don't get old enough that an experience like that is not emotional," Shelton said.
Phillies manager Don Mattingly flashed back to his own Indiana childhood, bumping down a dirt road to find a field tucked in the corn. "This place reminds me of when I was a kid," Mattingly said.
Even the tractor crowd got involved: John Deere pledged $100,000 to Feeding America for every home run hit during the game.
But the fairy-tale setting didn't come with a pass on the standings. Both the Twins and Phillies are in the thick of wild-card races, and Bryce Harper kept it real: "We're not in Minnesota for three days, but we're still playing the Twins three times and we've still got to win some games."