Bass: Of Reds, Cubs, Field of Dreams and the joy of baseball again

I walk out of the cornfield. Of course, I do.

“If you build it, they will come,” I say. Naturally.

The camera phone is rolling. So, probably, are my wife’s eyes. I do hear her giggle.

“When I take a picture of you,” she says, “I would like you not to be taking a selfie.”

I do not pause. I emerge in the outfield.

“Is this heaven?” I say.

No, this is Iowa. And, yes, I am being corny. (Sorry.) This is 2018 and Dyersville and the Field of Dreams, and this is fun. Baseball is supposed to be fun.

Cut. End scene.

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I open my eyes and mentally exit Ray Kinsella’s van, four years and hundreds of miles from Dyersville. I am thinking about Reds-Cubs this week and the Field of Dreams and how to recapture the fun of that day and of baseball.

I have been missing the fun.

The Cubs and Reds are the two baseball teams I care about most. I grew up with the Cubs. I came of age with the Reds.

Both are in freefall. Both blamed massive losses from the pandemic. Both said they were not rebuilding. Both conducted fire sales. Both alienated their fans. The Cubs bid billions for Chelsea’s soccer team. The Reds asked where their disgruntled were going to go. Both were playoff teams in 2020. Both are hard to watch now.

Is this hell?

Baseball is supposed to be fun.

Cut. End scene.

I enjoy baseball. I enjoy movies. My wife enjoys baseball movies more than she enjoys baseball. “Field of Dreams” is her favorite. One of mine, too. We relished the night at sea when “Field of Dreams” played on the outdoor screen.

The movie is history and fantasy, Hollywood and Iowa, romanticizing baseball and the Black Sox. You know the story, based on the novel “Shoeless Joe.” Though acquitted in court of fixing the 1919 World Series, eight White Sox were banned from the game ... only to emerge from the dead and the cornfield as “ghost players.”

And now here we are at the Field of Dreams, and it is 2018, and we watch the Black Sox ghost players re-emerge from the stalks for the regular live show. This place is a joy, a vehicle to relive the movie and its messages. Kid after kid is taking a swing at the plate, or “having a catch” with a parent in a Kinsella moment.

I buy a T-shirt.

I want to remember the fun.

Cut. End Scene.

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This is 2022, and I remember how much fun it was last year to watch the spectacle on TV. “Field of Dreams” star Kevin Costner emerging from the cornfields. The White Sox and Yankees playing the first Field of Dreams game.

And I think how fun it is to have Reds-Cubs this year.

The ghost players that were the 2022 Reds and Cubs all season are part of heaven and Iowa for a day. Does any team deserve to be here more than the Reds? They won that disputed 1919 World Series, but are treated like extras in a Black Sox screenplay.

“I don’t know whether the whole truth of what went on there among the White Sox will ever come out. ... Whatever it was, though, it was a dirty rotten shame,” Reds Hall of Fame outfielder Edd Roush said in “The Glory of Their Times,” a masterpiece of a baseball book published in 1966. “One thing that’s always overlooked in the whole mess is that we could have beat them no matter what the circumstances! Sure, the 1919 White Sox were good. But the 1919 Cincinnati Reds were better. I’ll believe that till my dying day.”

The Cubs? They belong here, too. They play a couple of hundred miles or so from Dyersville and remain one of baseball’s top attractions. They also were part of movie magic when 12-year-old Henry Rowengartner led them – finally – to a World Series title in “Rookie of the Year.”

Which gives me an idea.

Imagine Henry (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and mom Mary (Amy Morton) having a catch at the Field of Dreams game for the Cubs. And David and Buddy Bell having a catch for the Reds. And Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. having a catch for all of baseball. How cool would that be?

This is a real game but this is more than just a game. There are plenty of chances to see contenders. This is about the glory of the game and the joy of the movie. This also is about money, but so what? We keep hearing baseball is a business, but it can be fun, too.

Fun does not always need to be about the won-lost record. I forget that sometimes. This Field of Dreams and “Field of Dreams” remind me to look for the fun in the moment. This is a unique stage, but this is baseball, and you never know if today will bring something extraordinary. I went to my first Cubs game of the year the other day, and Willson Contreras hit a dramatic home run after somehow surviving the fire sale. It was extraordinary.

It was fun.

And if I want certainty, I know where to go.

I reserved a copy of “Field of Dreams” at the library.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Field of Dreams game reminds us of joy of baseball