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Going the Distance - My Experience at the Field of Dreams Game

Article by Rob Chagdes read more at his blog at thefartheralong.com

TO READ MORE OF ROB'S BLOG AT thefartheralong.com

I arrived early on game day when the Operations Director asked for a volunteer, and I raised my hand. The operations director said you don’t know what you’re volunteering for! I shrugged because I hoped it meant I would be tasked with a different job. Welp, instead of the golf cart I was asked to help people get off the carts at the entrance. Instead of being in the shade of the cart, I was in the sun and I had forgotten sunscreen. Argh.

I pushed forward and ended up talking to a lot of fans waiting in line. More on those interactions soon, but I looked over and on top of the closed trash can was a bottle of spray sunscreen. I picked it up and it was full. I looked around and nobody claimed it. Someone must have thought they couldn’t bring it in, so they left it there. Sometimes it’s the little things where you hear God say I got you.

People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, Ray.

I was overcome by a stunning wave of emotion. I remembered my childhood, sitting at Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field in Chicago. I thought back to being at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego during my teen years. I remembered the many times I watched a game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. It all came back in that moment and my thoughts drifted to the three quotes from the voice in the movie. They now seemed to be prophetic.