In the movie Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe Jackson famously said, ‘if you build it, he will come.” And on Thursday, April 30th, the Pecatonica and Mineral Point baseball teams met on the famous field for a nonconference game ultimately won by Pecatonica 2-0.
The game was arranged thanks to Lee Schroeder, whose son Hudson plays for Mineral Point. Lee, who works for Gronen Restoration out of Dubuque, is the superintendent in charge of the Major League Baseball stadium being built adjacent to Field of Dreams.
“I’m building the stadium right next door for the MLB game coming up so I’ve become good friends with the Field of Dreams team that run the facility and I asked what it would take to have our high school team play there and what I found out is you can rent it out for the night, so at that point, I got our athletic director, Tom Ingwell, to find a team to play and that took a lot of work on his end to find a team and a date that worked for everyone,” Schroeder said.
The experience for players, coaches and fans is something no one will forget, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play on Field of Dreams. Many fans made the trek to the site near Dyersville, Iowa. It was an overcast afternoon with temperatures in the low 50’s with a consistent northwest breeze which made it feel cooler, but it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm on or off the field.
Released in 1989 and starring Kevin Costner, the movie has become a timeless classic. The players mentioned weren’t even born at the time of its release. Today, the filming location serves as a popular tourist attraction. Although corn crops haven’t yet been planted, standard baseball rules are followed at the site. Because there’s no outfield fence, a ball hit into the field on the fly counts as a home run, while one that rolls in is ruled a ground rule double. During this particular game, the wind was blowing in, so no balls made it to the cornfield.
Coaches for both teams were excited to get this opportunity. “There’s some excitement surrounding this, it doesn’t get much more iconic than this,” said Mineral Point Head Coach Brett Lawinger. “As we got closer, you could really hear the chatter on the bus pick up.”
“It’s really exciting for the kids,” said Pecatonica Head Coach Jim Strommen. “I have twenty kids here today so for them it’s the first time being here and it’s a great opportunity and I’m thankful Mineral Point gave us the opportunity. All the work that they did to do this, I can’t thank them enough for what they did to make this happen.”
“We actually watched the movie last night as a team and most of these kids hadn’t seen it, so it was nice to have them see it to see what they are coming to today,” said Lawinger.
“This is the site where they made the movie and it’s a neat experience for the kids to learn a little bit of baseball history when it comes to the movie aspect of it,” said Strommen.
“We’re grateful for this experience, and I can’t believe I’m about to play on Field of Dreams right now,” said Pointer Senior Brylen Lee before the start of the game. “I was here ten years ago with my grandpa, so when I was running out there ten years ago, it’s crazy to think that I’m playing here now.”
“I think it’s good to get these guys out here, something this historic. We watched the movie last night and here we are so it’s pretty cool, very excited to be here,” said Senior Adam Cody.
“I need to give a shoutout to Lee Schroeder for getting the ball rolling and getting our foot in the door here,” Lawinger said. “Our athletic director Tom Ingwell finalized everything so we could make this happen. The Bullpen Club, our Booster Club, helping out with the moneywise was a big deal so a shoutout to those guys for sure.”
Mineral Point from the SWAL Conference and Pecatonica from the Six Rivers Conference always play a non-conference game each year. This year, Mineral Point reached out to Pecatonica to see if a date could be reached. “Brett reached out to me and said would you guys be interested in playing at Field of Dreams, so we didn’t have to think really hard about that answer,” said Strommen.
Schroeder, who runs many large construction projects said, “We were the first game of the year to play at Field of Dreams because Iowa has summer baseball, so they are not really used to Wisconsin teams coming over to play in the Spring. But Tom (Ingwell) worked it out with the Field of Dreams team and with Pecatonica. I initially paid the fee because I didn’t want the school to worry about the incurred cost because school budgets are tight, but once we got the date set I approached our bullpen club, our booster club, and in a heartbeat our booster club said no problem, we’ll cover the fee for the experience to have the team out there and everything.”
With respect to the MLB Stadium being built adjacent to Field of Dreams, Schroeder said he recently sat down with about sixty people involved with the MLB that were all there to prep for the Minnesota
Twins versus the Philadelphia Phillies game being played at the new stadium on August 13. “It’s pretty neat to be part of the process. It’s nerve-wracking and a little stressful, to be honest with you, but very cool as a baseball guy. I have 150 guys working each day to reach the deadline. We’re getting a lot done in a hurry,” he said.
But the opportunity Schroeder presented to these two ball teams makes him happy it could be achieved. “Being a baseball dad, and I’ve coached my son, and obviously I love watching my son play and I’m so connected with this place not only because I love baseball, but the fact that I’m building the other stadium,
