Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams

I just finished watching the movie Field of Dreams for about the 100,000th time, and it never gets old. Honestly, what kind of person doesn't love this movie? Everything, and I do mean everything, is perfect! Baseball...spontaneous events bringing us to a happy ending...a father and son growing together...a father and son having a catch. What else embodies the whole of what America is all about? Think about it. Stadiums full of people cheering for their team. Hot dogs, peanuts, beer, and lemonade. The singing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Singing together. Freely. Happily. Singing a song that they wouldn't dare to sing carelessly, but that they sing without a care in the world. Who doesn't love the thought of a father putting his arms around his little boy to help his son make his first hit with a baseball bat, but then watching the father patiently say, "It's okay, Son, you're doin' great. It just takes practice, that's all," when the son still misses? What is more heartwarming than the look on a little boy's face when he tears away the wrapping paper to find his very first baseball glove? What, as the boy grows older, brings him closer to his father any more than having a catch? Nothing. It's that simple. That's what makes baseball so amazing. As Ray finally asks his dad at the end of the movie, "Hey Dad...you wanna have a catch?" you know the rift between them has healed. No longer are they angry with each other. They once again have their father-son relationship back. It's great. It's perfect. It's baseball.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again."--Terence Mann in Field of Dreams (played by James Earl Jones)