By Michael Swanger
First-ballot National Baseball Hall of Fame member and legendary Chicago White Sox player Frank Thomas adds star power to the top of the lineup of ownership of All-Star Ballpark Heaven and the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville after it was announced in September that a venture led by Thomas purchased controlling interest of them.
Terms of the sale were not made public during a press conference held on Sept. 30 at the Field of Dreams Movie Site that was broadcast via social media. But the transaction included the purchase of all the interests in Go the Distance Baseball, owned by the Denise M. Stillman Trust, by This is Heaven, LLC, a venture between Thomas and Rick Heidner, a Chicago real estate developer and entrepreneur. Thomas will serve as chief executive officer. Dan Evans, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager, will serve as chief operating officer.
Frank Thomas speaks at the Field of Dreams Movie Site on Sept. 30.
“Today is a very exciting day for all of us,” said Thomas, noting that he had previously visited the movie site’s “treasured soil” to participate in charity events and softball games. “Yes, we’re in Iowa, but this is heaven.”
Thomas and his business partners plan to maintain the fan-friendly experience of the Field of Dreams Movie Site and to build upon its legacy. That includes discussions with Major League Baseball (MLB) about hosting additional games like the one it did in August between the White Sox and New York Yankees, and driving home Stillman’s vision of adding youth baseball and softball fields next to the movie site. Stillman and a group of investors purchased the field and adjacent Lansing Family farm in 2011 to preserve the site and to create a destination for baseball fans, youth tournaments and an MLB game in Dyersville before she died of cancer in 2018.
“All of us have long admired Denise Stillman,” Thomas said. “I’m excited to lead the future development and expansion of Field of Dreams to make it a unique baseball experience for us all while also enhancing the vision that Denise brought to this cornfield oasis almost a decade ago.”
Thomas added, “My whole dream has always been to give back to youth baseball and see kids have the opportunity that I had. There’s no better place in the world than this — to grow more fields, to get kids involved here daily. And that’s one of my goals.”
Thomas’ return to the Field of Dreams Movie Site was exactly seven weeks after history was made there on Aug. 12 when the first MLB regular season game was played in Iowa. Thomas was part of the FOX television broadcast team for the highly-anticipated game in which an estimated 5.9 million people watched a memorable pregame appearance by actor Kevin Costner and the Sox defeat the Yankees, 9-8, in thrilling fashion on Tim Anderson’s walk-off homer into the cornfield beyond the right field wall of the site’s new 8,000-seat stadium. Not even W.P. Kinsella, the late author whose novel “Shoeless Joe” was the impetus for the movie “Field of Dreams,” and who earned a Master of Fine Arts in English at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978, could have scripted a better ending to the game which was good for the sport and our state.
On the heels of the historic Sox-Yankees game and the announcement by MLB that the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs will play there in 2022, the news of Thomas’ ownership of the Field of Dreams Movie Site is another timely hit for the rejuvenated interest in one of Iowa’s top tourist attractions.
Thomas, 53, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014 after playing 16 of his 19 seasons (1990-2008) with the White Sox in which he became one of the game’s most feared hitters. Nicknamed “The Big Hurt,” Thomas amassed 521 home runs, 1,704 RBIs, a .301 career batting average, four Silver Slugger Awards and AL MVP awards in 1993 and 1994. No other player in baseball history strung together seven straight seasons of 20-plus homers, 100 RBIs, 100 walks and a .300 average as he did.
What’s more, in the context of one of the most explosive offensive ages in the history of the game, Thomas’ numbers were not only staggering but never questioned, unlike some of his peers who were suspected of using or were caught using performance enhancing drugs. Thomas did it the right way, with hard work and integrity … an ethos Iowans understand.
Go the distance Frank.
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