PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Phillies and Minnesota Twins will step onto hallowed ground Thursday when they play in Major League Baseball's third-ever Field of Dreams game.
Brett Mandel is a former assistant city controller and civic activist who has visited the Field of Dreams about a dozen times while researching his 2002 book, "Is this Heaven?" He said just as people visit the Rocky steps in Philadelphia, the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, attracts the curious and the sentimental.
"The Field of Dreams movie site is a movie site. It's a fake place. But the emotions and the memories that people associate with the site are very real," Mandel said.
So while they'll be competing in a game that counts, Mandel said he hopes Phillies players will pause to make their own memories on that night.
"In the past games, they've had the players come out of the corn. And I think that's kind of goosebumps-raising for a lot of them."
The big league games are played on a field next to the movie site, and Mandel said walking through the corn is a special way to enter a major league field.
Mandel will sign books at the “If You Build It exhibit, but he'll attend the game as a diehard Phillies fan.
"If nobody buys a single copy of my book but the Phillies win, that's an excellent trip for me,” he said.
