O'Donnell: Could Iowa legal action block Sox-Yankees 'Field of Dreams' game?

THEY MOWED PARADISE and put up a "Field of Dreams."

And now they're going to further disrupt some bucolic lifestyles by bringing an MLB game between the White Sox and the Yankees to the countryside near Dyersville, Iowa, next August.

Fox Sports is set to telecast the game nationally.

Maybe.

Matt Mescher is a 55-year-old contractor who lives on 6 rustic acres "about 1,000 feet" from where the 8,000-seat "temporary" new field will be built to host the game.

The original plat of land near Mescher's included left and center fields featured in the 1989 Kevin Costner film.

Right field, the infield and the house where Costner and Amy Madigan starred were owned by Don and Becky Lansing.

All were sold for $3.4 million in 2011 in a deal encompassing 193 acres to the Chicago-based Go The Distance Baseball.

Mescher wound up with his adjacent homestead.

The Chicago group's intent was to build a themed facility with 24 ball fields and housing for youth teams from around the world, similar to a high-volume complex in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The vision slowed for assorted reasons and appeared to go into permanent stall last fall when principal partner Denise Stillman of southwest suburban Oak Lawn died of cancer at age 46.

But now Mescher's not happy about the latest announcement.

Nor, he says, are some of his neighbors.

And, he added, they might just go to court to stop it.

"If this was just a baseball game on the original field, the one featured in the movie, that'd be one thing," said Mescher, who has lived around rural Dyersville all of his life.

"But it's not.

"They're building a new field, excavating on a hill to get it done and going to have to run water and sewage lines out to make it all work.

"Nothing about that is temporary. Lights and bleachers can be temporary. All that digging isn't going to be undone and isn't going to be done unless there's a bigger purpose behind it all."

Mescher and his neighbors are not strangers to litigation over the ghost field.

In 2012, under the name "The Residential and Agricultural Advisory Committee" (RAAC), they sued the city of Dyersville in a case that alleged improper rezoning of the 193 acres from "agricultural" to "commercial."

In near concurrence, Denise Stillman and husband Mike - and attorney - sued RAAC for tortious interference in a business enterprise.

RAAC sued back.

"Our case against the city went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court where we lost on appeal," Mescher said.

"With the Stillmans, eventually both sides agreed to drop the suits."

But now, Mescher says, with the way MLB and the city of Dyersville have gone about bringing the White Sox-Yankees to "The Field," lawyers may be back on call.

"Too much comes out of nowhere around here when it comes to this ball field," he said without the least hint of irony.

"I'm not saying we are suing but I'm also not saying we aren't.

"You can say, 'We're talking things over.'

"This game is going to lead to something and if it's a $40 million baseball complex, that's going to tremendously change the nature of our lives."

As for the general attitude of the local populace toward next year's game, Mary Ungs-Sogaard - publisher of Woodward Communications's weekly Dyersville Commercial - says it couldn't be more positive.

"I've been here for 37 years, so I've seen everything happen around the ball field going back to when the state film commission was helping to scout locations for the movie," Ungs-Sogaard said. "Overall, we're thrilled at the prospect of the game and I think almost everyone around here is. There's no large project that's not without some contention and I think that's also what's happening here. But in the end, this is going to be a tremendous event for the city, the region and the state."

Mescher agrees that he's in the minority.

But, he concludes, "In the end, like everything else in our lives now, what do you think the big driving force behind all of this is?

"You know what it is - money, money, money."

As "The Voice" might have told Costner's Ray Kinsella in the film: "If you build it, they will pay."

STREET-BEATIN':

Sure it was just a preseason opener, but WFLD-Channel 32's production of the Bears-Carolina game barely touched paint-by-numbers. There's some talent tucked in sports ops at the station but the local Fox culture seems far too accustomed to mid-major snooziness … If Joe Maddon decides to ever sign another contract to manage in the majors, he might want to include a clause that he doesn't have to show up until the end of July. All else is "Little Boy" overture … ESPN's 28-hour "Fantasy Football Marathon" prods the chatty beginning Monday at 5 p.m. Adam Schefter, Matthew Berry and Dianna Russini lead the angling armada … Roam 'n board: Men's basketball teams from both DePaul and Illinois are wrapping up brief summer tours in Europe. Alan Griffin has been starring for the Illini; emerging ace Darious Hall and the Blue Demons rerouted to visit the beaches of Normandy on their way from Paris to Rome …White Sox radio vet Ed Farmer sounds like he's phoning it in these days. Maybe he had "2019" in the rebuild pool … Memo to Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs Inc.: Your fluffy media & communications vertical at Arlington Park really, really misses the encyclopedic Dave Zenner. Good or other, he's an enormous asset … Also ovaling, Hawthorne's Jim Miller and resilient Peter Galassi are visiting lands down under this week while calling races at the state fair in Springfield and far downstate Du Quoin … And gratefully cosmic Bill Walton - who will serve as analyst for NBCSCH alongside Jason Benetti on Friday night's White Sox-Angels game - about his upcoming reinvention: "Give me a chord and I'm on my way. I hope the noise in my head isn't bothering you."

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.