DYERSVILLE, IOWA — When the Phillies trot out of the Iowa cornfields Thursday night for their historic Field of Dreams game against the Minnesota Twins, they'll be trodding on home soil.
Not because it's a technical home game for the Phillies (the Twins are the home team), and not because the Phillies have any particular connection to the Iowa cornfields, beyond the connection that all baseball has to the hallowed ground.
Rather it's because a Blue Bell company, located just 26 miles from Citizens Bank Park, is responsible for nearly every detail of the field they'll be playing on.
The locally headquartered BrightView, a commercial landscaping company, is providing "precision mowing, fertilization, field lining, infield grooming, and game-day maintenance" for the event inspired by the legendary 1989 Kevin Costner film.
"Field of Dreams represents more than a baseball game," Dale Asplund, BrightView's president and CEO, shared. "It's a celebration of the history, tradition, and enduring spirit of our national pastime. We're proud to have helped bring this ballpark to life and are honored to continue caring for a place that inspires players and fans alike."
The game day grounds crew features 22 volunteers from the Dyersville area, as well as 10 BrightView team members.
BrightView provided similar services for the only other two Field of Dreams games in MLB history, the 2021 White Sox and Yankees game, and the 2022 Cubs and Reds game.
Transforming the field into an MLB-ready surface was no simple task. Though much of the preliminary work was done ahead of the first 2021 game, four years have passed since the last MLB contest. The entire stadium was refurbished and outfitted, and the field underwent significant improvements to prepare it for Thursday night's anticipated millions of viewers.
Altogether, they prepared some 100,000 square feet of sod, 4,000 tons of sand beneath the playing surface, 2,000 tons of pea gravel, 300 tons of infield and mound clay, and 159 acres of P10625v field corn that stands 10 to 12 feet tall and surrounding the ballpark. They also prepared and installed the 125 tons of new warning track mix.
The game begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night on Netflix.
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