50 Fun Facts About Field of Dreams

Who plays Ray Kinsella, the Iowa farmer who builds the field?

The producers had not even considered him at first, assuming he would not want to follow Bull Durham with another baseball film.

What is the exact phrase the voice first whispers to Ray in the cornfield?

The commonly misquoted "they will come" is wrong; the AFI ranked the real line 39th among the greatest movie quotes.

In which Iowa town is the Kinsella farm?

The real Lansing farm there is still a tourist attraction, and Frank Thomas became its majority owner in 2021.

Which banned ballplayer is the first ghost to appear on Ray's field?

He returns with the seven other members of the 1919 Black Sox.

Who plays the first ghost to step out of the corn?

The director had pictured a man in his 40s as a father surrogate, but liked Liotta's "sense of danger".

What scandal were the ghostly White Sox players banned from baseball for?

The White Sox lost to the Cincinnati Reds, and Commissioner Landis banned all eight players for life.

Who plays Ray's wife, Annie?

A fan of the novel, she is married to Ed Harris, whom W. P. Kinsella was told supplied "The Voice".

What is the name of Ray and Annie's daughter?

Gaby Hoffmann played her, and it is Karin who insists that people will pay to watch the games.

Which reclusive 1960s author does Ray track down in Boston?

In the novel the writer is J. D. Salinger, who threatened to sue if his name was used in the film.

Who plays the reclusive author Ray drives to Boston to find?

The director wrote the part with Jones in mind because it would be funny to watch Ray try to kidnap such a big man.

In the original novel, which real writer does Ray seek out?

Kinsella never met Salinger and built the character only around his reclusiveness.

What is the title of the 1982 W. P. Kinsella novel the film is based on?

Kinsella's own title had been The Dream Field, but his publisher renamed it.

What nationality was the novelist W. P. Kinsella?

He conceived the story while at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and set it in the state he was living in.

At which ballpark do Ray and Mann attend a game together?

Teenagers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were extras in the crowd that day.

Which two future stars were teenage extras in the crowd during the Boston ballpark scene?

Both grew up in Boston; Good Will Hunting was still eight years away.

What phrase does the voice say to Ray at the ballpark?

"Ease his pain" was the second message; the company that later bought the field is called Go The Distance Baseball.

What is the nickname of Archibald Graham, the player who never got to bat?

The real Graham's single game was in June 1905, not 1922, and he died in 1965 rather than 1972.

In which Minnesota town does Ray find Doc Graham?

Galena, Illinois, stood in for the town on screen.

Which screen legend plays the elderly Doc Graham in his final film role?

He had turned it down until a baseball-loving friend told him he had to do it; James Stewart had already declined.

How does young Archie Graham end his time as a ballplayer for good?

He becomes old Doc Graham again, and Shoeless Joe calls after him, "Hey, rookie! You were good."

What is Karin choking on when Doc Graham saves her?

She had just been knocked off the bleachers during Ray's scuffle with Mark.

Who is Mark, the man who keeps trying to get Ray to sell the farm?

Timothy Busfield plays him; he cannot see the players until the very end.

Who turns out to be the catcher at the end of the film?

Ray asks him, "Dad, you wanna have a catch?" as a line of headlights stretches to the horizon.

What was Ray's father's name?

Terence Mann had once named a character John Kinsella, which is how Ray connects the clues.

How old was Ray when he stopped playing catch with his father?

He had just read one of Mann's books, and told his father he could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal.

Which actor was offered the role of Ray first and turned it down?

Costner also promised to help the director, whose debut In the Mood had flopped.

Who wrote and directed the film?

He hated the new title, preferring the novel's Shoeless Joe, and felt constantly depressed during the shoot.

Why were the interior scenes shot first?

Water was trucked in from Lake Michigan to force the corn up to Costner's height.

Which two famous venues' sod experts were hired to lay the baseball field in a hurry?

There was no time for grass to grow, and part of the turf was simply painted green.

How many cars were needed for the closing shot of headlights snaking toward the field?

Dyersville was blacked out, and drivers flicked between low and high beams to fake movement.

What was the only change the film's star made to the script?

"Do you know how hard it is to miss something on purpose?" he asked the director; a dribbler was more humiliating.

Which composer scored the film after Leonard Bernstein proved unavailable?

He kept the score quiet and ghostly, and lost the Oscar to Alan Menken's The Little Mermaid.

How many Academy Award nominations did Field of Dreams receive?

Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score; it won none.

Roughly how much did the film gross at the box office, against a $15M budget?

It opened on a few screens in April 1989 and stayed in cinemas until December.

Which US president named Field of Dreams as his favourite film?

He said it made him cry because it reminded him of playing catch with his father.

In what year was Field of Dreams added to the National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress quoted Leonard Maltin calling it "a story of redemption and faith".

How did the real Joe Jackson get his famous nickname?

A heckler yelled "You shoeless son of a gun!" as he ran to third, and it stuck for life.

What was the name of the real Joe Jackson's famous bat?

Wonderboy belongs to Roy Hobbs in The Natural; Babe Ruth said he modelled his swing on Jackson's.

Which commissioner banned the eight Black Sox players for life?

The ban came after the 1920 season, when Jackson had just hit .382.

What was the real Joe Jackson's career batting average, one of the highest ever?

Only Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby finished higher.

Which two teams played the first MLB game at the Iowa site in August 2021?

The 2020 edition had been switched to the Cardinals and then cancelled by the pandemic.

Who hit the walk-off home run into the corn to win the 2021 game at the site?

It came off Zack Britton for a 9-8 win, the 15th walk-off homer against the Yankees in White Sox history; the first was hit by Joe Jackson in 1919.

What did the film's star say at the microphone before the 2021 game after walking out of the corn?

The 8,000-seat field was modelled on the old Comiskey Park.

Which father and son played catch before the 2022 Field of Dreams game?

The Cubs beat the Reds 4-2, with the Reds wearing 1919 World Series-style uniforms.

Which Hall of Famer became majority owner of the real field in 2021?

The farm had sold in 2011 for around $5.4 million to Go The Distance Baseball.

Which Illinois town doubled for Doc Graham's Minnesota home town?

The interiors were built in an empty Dubuque warehouse and one week was spent in Boston.

What was W. P. Kinsella's own original title for the novel his publisher renamed Shoeless Joe?

Director Phil Alden Robinson disliked the studio's Field of Dreams title, only to learn it was closer to Kinsella's first idea.

In which year did the real Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham play his lone major league game?

The film moves it to the final day of the 1922 season and has him die in 1972 rather than 1965.

Which two teams met in the second MLB Field of Dreams game in August 2022?

The Reds, who beat the 1919 Black Sox, lost 4–2 to the Cubs after Ken Griffey Jr. asked his father to play catch.

Which writer was attached to a planned Field of Dreams TV series announced for Peacock in 2021?

Chris Pratt reportedly agreed to star before dropping out, and by 2022 the $15-million-an-episode project was being shopped elsewhere.