White Sox, Yankees to play at Iowa's Field of Dreams next season
With top prospects Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal joining an up-and-coming roster next season, and with 23-year-old starter Michael Kopech expected to be back from Tommy John surgery, the Chicago White Sox expect their competitive window to finally be wide open.
They should be fun to watch, and the Sox figure to have a blast on Aug. 13 of 2020.
On Thursday, Major League Baseball announced that's the date the White Sox and New York Yankees are going to play one game in Dyersville, Iowa. That's where the classic movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed.
According to MLB.com, the White Sox and Yankees will play in a temporary 8,000-seat ballpark constructed in the corn on the Dyersville farm site made famous by the movie.
The Sox's front office was aware of the showcase game, but they weren't sure when it was going to be officially announced.
"I think it's cool," said Scott Reifert, the White Sox's senior VP of communications. "It's so novel, and I think the reason everyone has that emotional reaction is because of the movie. The movie meant so much to almost everyone, you don't even have to be a baseball fan.
"It's a story about dads, grandfathers, children. Everyone knows this movie, everybody has a reaction. It's kind of a cool way to celebrate the (30-year) anniversary. Obviously, the White Sox are a big part of that movie, so it's apropos that we're part of it."
Adapted from the W.P. Kinsella novel and nominated for three Academy Awards, "Field of Dreams" features the ghost of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and other players from the 1919 "Black Sox," who return to play baseball in an Iowa cornfield decades after being banned from the game.
The White Sox-Yankees game will be nationally broadcast on FOX.
Played on a Thursday, the game will be considered a White Sox home date, followed by a Friday off-day. The Sox and Yankees will wrap up the series Saturday and Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
After Friday's afternoon White Sox-Athletics game, fans can stick around and watch "Field of Dreams" at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Reifert said the timing of showing the movie is a coincidence.
"There was no grand scheme to have the announcement fall on one day (Thursday) and the movie the next," he said. "It just worked out that way, but it's kind of cool. We knew both things were working on parallel paths, but not knowing when MLB was going to get everything signed and sealed, it just worked out that way."