Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press A community team called the Ghost Players emerges from a cornfield to host hour-long games with visitors each Sunday during the summer at the "Field of Dreams" movie site in Dyersville, Iowa. Click photo for larger image.

But town has other attractions, too

By Linley Wartenberg, The Associated Press

DYERSVILLE, Iowa -- More than 15 years after Ray Kinsella built it, people still come to the Field of Dreams.

Just like Shoeless Joe Jackson, throngs of baseball fans -- 65,000 a year -- are drawn to Dyersville, Iowa, to see the ball park Kevin Costner's character built in a cornfield in the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams."

The field reopens for the season April 1, two days before the first major league baseball game takes place. But while the famous corn field is by far the town's biggest attraction, there are many other things to do and see here.

	The Des Moines Register via AP Eighth graders from East Dubuque, Illinois, play baseball on the "Field of Dreams" movie site in nearby Dyersville, Iowa. Starting with a single New Yorker, a million people have visited the field since the movie was released in 1989. Click photo for larger image.

Dyersville calls itself the "Farm Toy Capital of the World." Here you'll find the National Farm Toy Museum, doll and woodcarving museums, and several companies that manufacture die-cast replicas of farm equipment -- Ertl, Scale Models and SpecCast. Annual toy shows held in November, March and June also draw visitors.

"All the other attractions were here before the Field of Dreams," said Karla Thompson, executive director for the Dyersville Chamber of Commerce.

Dyersville is also home to the St. Francis Xavier Basilica, built in 1889, featuring twin gothic spires, 64 windows and a marble foundation beneath the altar. Services are held every Sunday, including two in Latin. "People come up from Des Moines (190 miles away) just for the Latin mass," Thompson said.

The National Farm Toy Museum opened in 1986, three years before the movie. It features over 30,000 toys and exhibits with tractors, implements, trucks, miniature farm dioramas, and toy manufacturing information.

"The higher the detail, the less `toy' they become," said Anne Reitzler, the museum's manager. "They become more collectible."

On March 19 and 20, the Farm Toy Museum welcomes the Midwest Toy Truck show, a smaller version of the bigger show held each November, which typically attracts 8,000 to 10,000 people. The Summer Farm Toy Show is scheduled for June 3 to 5.

Dyersville's Dyer-Bostford Doll Museum boasts a collection of over 1,000 dolls as well as a German Feather Christmas tree and a hand-carved wooden circus model. The Becker Woodcarving Museum is located just outside of Dyersville.

Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press David Robinson, of Meriden, Conn., pitches while playing baseball with other visitors at the site of the "Field of Dreams" movie. The farmhouse in the background, featured in the 1989 film, belongs to Don Lansing, who owns half of the famous baseball field. Click photo for larger image.

But there's no denying that the Field of Dreams is why most people come to Dyersville. With the exception of a concession/souvenir stand down the left field line and two movie-related displays, everything is as familiar to ardent fans of the movie as an old ball glove.

In the last 15 years, over a million people have come to see the field. The first visitor, a man from New York, traveled to Dyersville after watching the movie.

"One morning when my brother was getting ready to go to work, he saw him sitting on the bleachers," said Becky Boeckenstedt, whose brother, Tim Lansing, owns most of the property that the field sits on. "After that, they slowly started coming. They played on the field that whole summer."

She estimates 7,500 people visited the first year, with the number doubling the following summer. Visitors come from all 50 states and dozens of countries.

"There's not a day goes by that a car doesn't come down the lane," Boeckenstedt said. "...Mainly, they've seen the movie, love the movie and want to come to some quiet little place and that's what this is."

There's often a game going on, but the lineup is never written down.

"It's just a pickup game from morning to night," Boeckenstedt said. "A family from California meets a family from New York and they all play together."

Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press Randy Trachta, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, takes aim on a pitch from David Robinson. Click photo for larger image.

Denny Grall made the six-hour trip from Escanaba, Mich., where he works as a sports editor for the local paper, The Daily Press, with his family to see a fantasy game sponsored by Upper Deck, the sports trading card company.

"We had a chance to see (former Cleveland Indian) Bob Feller pitch for two innings, which was a big thrill," he said. "That's what Field of Dreams is all about -- living out a fantasy, living out a dream." Feller is a native Iowan.

His son Brian, then 15, took the mound for about an hour.

"We enjoyed the opportunity for Brian to get on the field and pitch to all kinds of people," Denny Grall said. "To have them give him an ovation when he left was priceless."

Fans who bring gloves can take the field, but equipment can also be borrowed from the Left and Center Field shop behind the bleachers. The Lansing family, which has owned the farm for 98 years, operates a separate concession at the site.

Young and old line line up, waiting for a turn to take an at-bat in the box where Archie "Moonlight" Graham winked at the pitcher and hit a sacrifice fly. Some at-bats take longer than others, since it's almost an unwritten rule that no one strikes out and there are no bases on balls.

Long balls to the corn are ruled as ground-rule doubles, but no one keeps the statistics. Instead, people talk about the movie and the magic of baseball.

Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press Mary Grantz, of Jackson, Minn., stands on the left field bleachers for a better angle to make a picture of the "Field of Dreams." Click photo for larger image.

"I really believe the Field of Dreams, over this length of time, has become a part of American culture," said Keith Rahe, who manages the Ghost Players, a community team made up from some of the ball players from the movie. The team shows up at the park each Sunday from June to September, emerging from the corn to host an hour-long baseball game with visitors.

"At noon, the guys appear out of the corn like they did in the movie," Rahe said. "I've seen it a thousand times and it still sends a shiver down my back."

Families wander around the outfield, playing catch or posing for pictures as they step in and out of the corn.

There's a shaded area in right field where fans take a break from the game and watch the action with a cool drink at the picnic tables. There's no admission, and the field owners get no city revenue for upkeep. Profits from the concessions run by the Lansing family and Left and Center Field help offset maintenance costs.

Boeckenstedt says it's just nice to watch visitors play ball in what once was a cornfield.

"We see people enjoy coming and thank us for keeping it," Boeckenstedt. "There aren't too many little places like this that operate in the world."

If You Go

DYERSVILLE: www.dyersville.org Located in northeast Iowa, 25 west of Dubuque and 60 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids. From Dubuque, take Highway 20 West to exit 294, Iowa 136. From Cedar Rapids, take U.S. 151 North to Iowa 136 North. The closest large airport is Cedar Rapids.

FIELD OF DREAMS: Follow Iowa 136 North just past the railroad tracks to Third Avenue. Turn right and drive three miles to Lansing Road. Open daily April 1 to Nov. 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free admission. Details at www.leftandcenterfod.com or www.fodmoviesite.com, or call (800) 443-8981 for Left and Center, or (888) 875-8404 for the Lansing family.

NATIONAL FARM TOY MUSEUM: www.nftmonline.com or (563) 875-2727. Located near the intersection of highways 20 and 136 at 1110 16th Ave. Court SE. Open daily 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Easter Sunday. Adults, $4; children, $1.

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER BASILICA: 104 3rd St. SW; (563) 875-7325. Open daily, sunrise to sundown.

DYER-BOTSFORD DOLL MUSEUM: 331 First Ave. E.; (563) 875-2414. Open May through October, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday to Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

BECKER WOODCARVING MUSEUM: Located four miles northeast of Dyersville; (563) 875-2087. Open May through October.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Colonial Inn, 1110 Ninth St., (563) 875-7194, $40 nightly rate; Comfort Inn, 527 Sixteenth Ave. SE, (563) 875-7700, $80 nightly rate; and Super 8, 925 Fifteenth Ave. SE, (563) 875-8885, $50 nightly rate.

TIPS: There are portable toilets, vending machines and concessions at the Field of Dreams. Many visitors bring baseball equipment, but the Left and Center Field shop lends gloves, bats and balls free of charge. The corn gets higher as the summer wears on, so the best time to see what it looked like when the movie was shot is July to September. The Ghost Players community team appears from noon to 2 p.m. Sundays from June through September.