Who Are The Baseball Players In Field Of Dreams?

We all know the classic film Field of Dreams, but do you know who the baseball players are that appear in the movie? Check out our blog post to find out!

Field of Dreams

The film Field of Dreams, released in 1989, is set in Iowa and centers around the story of an Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella, who hears a voice telling him, “If you build it, he will come.” Kinsella interprets this as a message from God and decides to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield, despite the financial difficulties it puts him in. The film has become a classic, and its message of hope and following your dreams has resonated with people around the world. But who are the baseball players in the film?

The Movie

Field of Dreams is a 1989 American baseball romantic fantasy drama film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, from W. P. Kinsella’s 1982 novel Shoeless Joe. It stars Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster in his final film role. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Iowa farmhand Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his cornfield one night telling him, “If you build it, he will come.” The voice requires that he construct a baseball diamond in his fields; despite limited finances and opposition from his wife Annie, neighbors and the town board president Boyd Kirkland (Burt Lancaster), he does so.

Shoeless Joe Jackson arrives with the other players who left their game at Comiskey Park to play on Ray’s field; they were all banned from Major League Baseball for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series. While the first inning proceeds as planned and Bibs Crawford hits a homerun like in real life, other strange things begin to happen: Shoeless Joe catches a high fly ball instead of hitting into a double play as he did in history; Moonlight Graham becomes a doctor instead of perishing in a farming accident as he did in real life; Ray himself catches the ball that knocks Hank Aaron out of the game as happened in real life when Milwaukee Braves right fielder Dave Nicholson hit a line drive off of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bob Moose that deflected off Nicholson’s bat into the stands where it hit Aaron on the head; and so forth

As time progresses, those killed by baseball-related tragedies or by circumstance related to baseball also arrive on the field to play: Eddie Waitkus, who was shot by Ruth Steinhagen at Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel during fanatical attempts to court him; Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s first Commissioner who had blacklisted numerous players for allegedly consorting with gamblers; Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (portrayed by Burt Reynolds in an earlier scene), a player who never got to bat in a major league game but became a doctor after his baseball career was cut short by an injury; Thurman Munson (portrayed as an infant by Costner’s real-life son Luke), the New York Yankees catcher who died in a plane crash while flying home to Akron after attending his young son’s second birthday party. As these ghost players appear on the field one by one over number of innings (represented by mounting piles of dollar bills around second base where they initially congregate), they comment on events that took place during their lives relating to baseball or outside of it altogether

The Characters

The basis of the Field of Dreams story is that an Iowa corn farmer, Ray Kinsella, hears a voice in his cornfield telling him, “If you build it, he will come.” Ray interprets this to mean that he should build a baseball field on his farm, whereupon the ghost(s) of Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox players from the infamous 1919 World Series scandal will come to play ball. The Sox players who materialize are all dead, but had been banned from baseball for their involvement in fixing the Series. When Ray meets “Shoeless” Joe Jackson himself, he realizes that the voices were not only real, but were those of dead people.

The filmstars Kevin Costner as Kinsella, James Earl Jones as Terence Mann, Amy Madigan as Annie Kinsella, Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Burt Lancaster as Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham. Gertrude Baines appears in a cameo role as the oldest living major league player. Field of Dreams was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Phil Alden Robinson.

The Baseball Players

In the movie Field of Dreams, there are several professional baseball players that appear. Most notably, Ray Liotta plays Shoeless Joe Jackson and Kevin Costner plays Terence Mann. Burt Lancaster also has a small role in the film as Dr. Graham. These are just a few of the big names in the movie.

Archibald “Moonlight” Graham

Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (played by Burt Lancaster) is a fictional character in W. P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe and subsequent 1989 film adaptation Field of Dreams. He was loosely based on the real-life Moonlight Graham, who played one game for the New York Giants in 1905, but never stepped to the plate. In the film, Graham is an Iowa doctor who was forced to choose between his medical career and his love of baseball. After playing one game for the Giants, he gives up baseball to marry and raise a family. Years later, he gets his second chance to play when he is reincarnated on a baseball field in Iowa that Kevin Costner’s character has built in his cornfield.

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Shoeless Joe Jackson (July 16, 1887 – December 12, 1951) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder who played for the Chicago White Sox from 1908 to 1915. He suffered from a debilitating hip condition that limited his mobility in the field and caused him to miss the 1919 season. After his career ended, he was permanently banned from MLB for his role in the Black Sox Scandal, when some members of the White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series. Jackson played well during that Series and hit .375 with six RBIs.

Ray Kinsella

Ray Kinsella is the main character in the movie Field of Dreams. He is played by Kevin Costner. Ray is a Iowa farmer who hears a voice telling him to build a baseball field on his corn crop. He does this even though it means he will go bankrupt. The field becomes a place where ghosts from the past come to play baseball. This includes Ray’s father, who had died when Ray was a child.

Conclusion

We may never know the true identities of the baseball players in Field of Dreams, but that hasn’t stopped us from speculating. The most popular theory is that they are the Chicago White Sox team from 1919, which was infamously banned from the Major Leagues for life after eight players were accused of fixing the World Series.

Another theory posits that the players are ghosts of former Negro League stars, who were never given a chance to play in the Majors because of segregation. This is supported by the fact that one of the players, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, was himself banned from baseball for his role in the 1919 scandal.

Whoever they are, it’s clear that the players in Field of Dreams represent something much larger than themselves. They represent the forgotten dreams of every baseball fan who has ever felt like an outsider. They remind us that, even in our darkest moments, we all have something to offer the world.