I'm watching it on the MLB channel right now. It's the 25th-anniversary edition (which is actually a year old because the film came out in April of '89). Anyway, prior to the movie Bob Costas interviewed Timothy Busfield and Kevin Costner.
It culminated with Costner and Dwier Brown (who played Costner's father in the film) "playing catch" for the first time since they filmed the infamous final scene.
And the final scene is on right now, so I'm tearing up just a little bit. This movie obviously means a lot more to me now than it did then (my Dad's health and all).
I lost my Dad when I was a pre-teen. Every time I see that ending scene, it brings tears to my eyes. Actually just thinking about it and typing this, my eyes are wet.
My Dad absolutely loved baseball. He was born in Canada and cheered for the Montreal Expos and the Indians. One of our best moments together was attending the 1981 MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland. He was so proud of Expos catcher hitting two HRs in the game. He also used to be my catcher while I practiced pitching in our driveway.
Fortunately, I have a wonderful 9 year old son who loves baseball. A highlight of any day is when we play catch. In fact, his Little League season started last night. He is the shortest kid on the team, but was the Opening Day starting pitcher. In the two innings he pitched before the rain came, he struck out 5 of the 6 batters he faced.
My son & I have watched "Field of Dreams" together and he definitely "gets" the significance of the movie. We also love watching two other great baseball movies (
The Sandlot &
Moneyball) together.
