Once the long days of filming had passed and the fantasy flick had shifted from movie theaters to video cassettes, the farmhouse and ballfield where those idyllic scenes were shot was naturally becoming a tourist attraction.
Rahe lived near the site on the edge of his native small town of Dyersville, with convenient access by way of a back road the Universal Studios crew had made just for the movie shoot. He and his neighbors began showing up to make sure the pitcher’s mound and home plate were in place, mingle with the visitors, and play catch.
Then one summer Sunday afternoon in 1990, Rahe persuaded a handful of his friends to put on some old wool uniforms he’d found, walk through the cornfields with him, and see what happened.
The young girl standing nearby sure was surprised.
“Mommy! Daddy! It’s the ghost players!” she shrieked as she retreated to her parents in the infield.
After playing catch with and pitching to the tourists for about an hour, Rahe and his pals doffed their caps, waved goodbye and disappeared into the corn. An enterprising newspaper reporter happened to be there, and in the next day’s edition of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids there was a headline touting the magical appearance of the “Ghost Players” at the site. Just like in the movie.
The following week, Rahe answered a phone call from Al Ameskamp, the owner of one of the two farms the movie ballfield straddled. He was wondering if they were going to come back and play ball again.
“Well, not really. It was kind of a one-time deal,” Rahe said.
Ameskamp replied, “Well, would you? There are 400 people out here waiting for you.”
Rahe has retold that origin story of the Ghost Players countless times, and now at age 68 he’s never been more in demand. His gregarious goodwill band of ballplayers is a recurring feature for the public at the site, which he runs as the executive director of Dyersville Events.
This has been an especially busy summer in this part of northeast Iowa, with the completion of a permanent ballpark next to the filming location that will host a Major League Baseball game on Thursday night between the Minnesota Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies. MLB last staged a game at Field of Dreams in 2022, when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds in a temporary facility. The Chicago White Sox faced the New York Yankees in 2021 in the inaugural event.
“The first time it happened, when we got to go into the stadium, I got goosebumps and kind of teared up while walking through that corn,” said Paul Scherrman, another one of the original Ghost Players. “It’s just a great place.”
The Ghost Players have visited 28 countries and dozens of states, Rahe said, mostly by paying their own way and using their vacation time. There are currently about 40 members, with half of those making more regular appearances. Earlier this summer, they traveled to Chisholm, Minnesota, for the “Doc Moonlight Graham Days” festival in honor of the film’s heroic physician who chose medicine over sport after getting in one major league game.
People portraying the ghost players from "Field of Dreams" emerge from the corn at the site of the movie in Dyersville, Iowa, in 1997. (AP Photo Charlie Neibergall)
On the Net:
More AP coverage of this year's "Field of Dreams" game here .
