“Field of Dreams” Broadcast: They Built It… And, Yes, They Did Come

The “Field of Dreams” stadium was built to resemble old Comiskey Park, which was the White Sox’s home from 1910 to 1990. The Iowa ballpark seats 8,000 and will remain in use for all levels of baseball following the game. Cr: FOX Sports

The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees played a regular season game in Dyersville, Iowa, at the site of the beloved 1989 baseball movie, Field of Dreams, on Thursday August 12. “MLB at Field of Dreams” marked the first Major League game ever held at the fan-favorite movie location as well as in the State of Iowa.

[Poster for “MLB at Field of Dreams.”] Cr: FOX Sports — Cr: FOX Sports

The contest began with both teams walking to the field together, coming out through the corn, as Kevin Costner, the star of the Field of Dreams movie, stood on the field after the opening introduction.

“MLB at Field of Dreams” was the most-watched regular season baseball game in 16 years, according to FOX Sports, with 5,903,000 viewers across FOX and FOX Deportes. Chicago and New York ranked as the top two markets, and it was the most-streamed regular season baseball game in FOX Sports history.

When asked what it was like to walk back onto the field, Kevin Costner said, “I felt like it was perfect. You want something to over-deliver, and this absolutely has. It’s a place to play.

“Field of Dreams is a sweet movie, but at its core it’s about things that go unsaid between fathers and sons. And we wish we could just get it back. We can hurt… and sometimes we hurt the ones we love. And with our dads, it’s biblical almost. Somehow, in this sweet little movie, that whole sub-plot was really strong. In the end, with this movie, it boiled itself down to, ‘Do you want to have a catch?’ ”

READ MORE: Tim Anderson hits walk-off home run at Field of Dreams (MLB)

Field of Dreams stars Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1990 and was selected to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2017. The 1989 film, adapted from W. P. Kinsella’s 1982 novel Shoeless Joe, tells the story of Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, a husband and father who is tending to his cornfield when he hears a mysterious voice intone, “If you build it, they will come.” The White Sox and the Yankees are the two favorite Clubs of Ray’s father, John Kinsella, at different points of his life.

Since 1989 the Lansing Family Farm, which was used in the movie, has been a tourist attraction, now known as the Field of Dreams Movie Site. In 2011, the field was purchased by Denise Stillman and a group of investors with the goal of preserving the field and creating a special place for baseball fans, tournament players and families. Stillman began working with MLB in 2015, which has now culminated in this special game.

Presented by GEICO, “MLB at Field of Dreams” was part of the GEICO Summer Series. Major League Baseball constructed an 8,000-seat ballpark on the Dyersville site. A pathway through a cornfield took fans to the ballpark, which overlooks the famous movie location. The right field wall included windows to show the cornfields beyond the ballpark.

Just steps away from the original movie set, the lead MLB on FOX broadcast team of Emmy Award winners brought the action to life as Joe Buck and John Smoltz made the calls and reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci provided information from the ground at the purpose-built ballpark.

The network delivered the game in 4K HDR, employing multiple aerial production drones for the first time ever at an MLB game. As part of an arsenal of nearly 40 cameras, four cinematic Super SloMo cameras, a pair of mirrorless Sony A1 camera Megalodons and a Flycam capable of traveling between the movie set and primary field highlighted the lineup. The network also used more than 50 microphones, including multiple mics buried in the MLB field and one in each base, to capture the sounds of this historic game.

Some of the more than 240-strong FOX Sports team that delivered the game in 4K HDR, employing multiple aerial production drones for the first time ever at an MLB game. Cr: Michael Davies, FOX Sports

LiveU teamed up with T-Mobile to play an integral role in the live production, enabling the aerial production drones to output High Dynamic Range (HDR) over T-Mobile’s 5G network using a single 5G SIM card in LiveU’s LU800 production-level field unit and a LiveU 5G modem.

The workflow included two LU800 field units with two 5G sim cards inside each connected to the drones streaming back to the production truck. Additionally, two LU800 field units were used for secondary transmission and two LU300 HEVC field units distributed live video to Fox News and Fox affiliates via LiveU Matrix, the company’s cloud video management and distribution solution.