00:00It's August 12th, 2021.
00:02Up close, this looks like a tense,
00:05but ordinary baseball situation.
00:08Yankees up one run, White Sox at bat
00:10in the bottom of the ninth.
00:12One on, one out.
00:13Big moment.
00:15Only when you zoom out do you realize
00:18that big moment is taking place
00:20in the middle of a cornfield.
00:22Before we see if the White Sox
00:24can pull off some heroics,
00:26we need to understand what's going on here.
00:28We need to rewind.
00:30This episode of Rewinder is presented by T-Mobile,
00:33America's largest 5G network.
00:36So we should start with the corn, yeah?
00:40We're not used to seeing teams from New York
00:42and Chicago play amid rows of corn.
00:46Well, tonight we're in Dyersville, Iowa.
00:50To understand why, you've gotta go back to this guy.
00:54Yeah.
00:56W.P. Kinsella was a Canadian fella
00:59who loved to write about baseball.
01:02I didn't actually mean to rhyme that.
01:04In 1982, he released his most famous book,
01:07Shoeless Joe.
01:09A farmer hears voices,
01:10builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield,
01:13then meets the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson
01:16and the infamous 1919 Black Sox.
01:18Oh, and also the author J.D. Salinger.
01:21A few years later, it was adapted into a movie,
01:24Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner.
01:27The movie's got almost everything in common with the book,
01:30minus Salinger.
01:32You don't mess with J.D. apparently.
01:34To be honest, I hadn't seen the movie until recently,
01:37and it's a nice movie.
01:39Okay, but you're probably still asking
01:41why any of this matters.
01:43Well, one thing Field of Dreams does better
01:45than perhaps any other work of fiction
01:48is depict baseball as something pure and romantic
01:53and even holy, something you long for when it's gone.
01:57That's why the Black Sox play a part in the story.
02:00In real life, the 1919 Chicago White Sox
02:02were accused of throwing the World Series
02:05at the behest of big-time gamblers.
02:08Eight players were banned from baseball forever,
02:10among them Shoeless Joe Jackson.
02:12In the story, their ghosts spend eternity
02:15pining for the game that banned them,
02:18and our guy Kev misses his late father.
02:21It's all about baseball as a symbol of bygone youth,
02:24innocence, and opportunity,
02:27which is sort of darkly ironic
02:29given the events of the last two years.
02:33In August of 2019, 100 years after the Black Sox scandal
02:37and 30 years after the movie came out,
02:39MLB announced a plan.
02:41They had done some one-off neutral site games before,
02:45but this one would be even wilder.
02:47An official, regular-season, field-of-dreams game.
02:52One year in the future, August of 2020,
02:55the Yankees and White Sox would play
02:57in a custom-built ballpark
02:59right next to the still-intact film set
03:01in a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa.
03:04It would be quaint and old-timey and classic.
03:08It would be the state's first-ever MLB game.
03:11It would not happen.
03:13The White Sox of yestercentury could've told you
03:16the real world has a way of interrupting baseball.
03:19Shoeless Joe himself missed the 1918 season
03:22to serve in World War I,
03:24and the infamous influenza epidemic
03:26took a real toll on baseball.
03:28The 1918 World Series was basically a super-spreader event,
03:32and a famous umpire died of the flu later that year.
03:36Well, 100 years later, here we were again.
03:40The 2020 MLB season only kinda happened,
03:44but Dyersville remained on the schedule
03:46until the last minute.
03:49The venue was prepared.
03:50The matchup was switched to Yankees-Cardinals
03:53to fit the modified schedule.
03:55MLB really, really tried,
03:58but days before the game was supposed to be played,
04:00they pulled the plug.
04:02A year later, this game is finally being played
04:05as originally conceived,
04:07although I should mention we're still feeling
04:09the effects of the pandemic.
04:11A few weeks ago, the Yankees acquired Anthony Rizzo,
04:14recent hero of the 2016 World Series champion Chicago Cubs,
04:18beloved by many of these Iowans.
04:21But Rizzo is not playing first base right now.
04:24He tested positive for COVID a few days ago.
04:27The virus remains a major obstacle in our lives,
04:31and it's not the only force affecting this event.
04:34You see all this corn standing tall in the outfield?
04:38It's the most distinctive feature
04:39connecting this venue to the field in the movie,
04:42but it almost got ruined.
04:44Two brothers, Andy and Adam Ray,
04:46farm this land when it's not hosting a baseball game.
04:49Remember, this right here isn't the Field of Dreams set.
04:52That's over there.
04:54The place we're playing right now
04:56was custom-built just for this game.
04:58It was all corn until recently.
05:01The brothers helped immensely with making that happen,
05:04preparing, cutting, and moving their crops to make room.
05:07Then they replanted to make the outfield
05:10look as lush and impressive as it did in the movie.
05:12It all looked great until two days ago
05:16when a big-ass storm rolled through eastern Iowa.
05:19Severe winds knocked over
05:20something like 1,000 outfield corn stalks.
05:23To achieve the proper cornfield effect in time,
05:26the brothers had to work around the clock,
05:29zip-tying 1,000-odd fence posts to the stalks,
05:32a truly amazing achievement to pull off that fast.
05:35And hey, it looks great.
05:38You wouldn't even know.
05:39It's been worth it, too, because the corn
05:41is such an important feature tonight.
05:43The Yankees and White Sox followed Kevin Kosner
05:45onto the field for intros,
05:47appearing seemingly out of thin corn,
05:50just like Shoeless Joe and the gang did in the movie.
05:53Aside from the fact that it implies
05:54all of these people are dead, it was a really cool visual.
05:58And the outfield corn's gotten plenty of in-game play.
06:01This game has featured seven home runs so far,
06:04including two from Yankees star Aaron Judge,
06:08who drove in most of New York's runs tonight.
06:09One was this opposite-field bomb
06:12to pull the Yankees ahead in the third inning,
06:14gone into the stalks.
06:16Then, when the Yankees fell behind again,
06:18Judge ignited a late rally with this jack to center corn.
06:23Easily the most exciting play of the night
06:25came right after that.
06:26Moments after Judge's second homer closed the gap to 7-6,
06:30Giancarlo Stanton had one last chance.
06:33Ninth inning, two outs to save the game,
06:36and boom, that thing was smoked.
06:40If you search behind the left-field fence,
06:42you might find some popcorn.
06:44So, that is why we're playing a bottom-of-the-ninth.
06:48The White Sox had this game wrapped up
06:50until the Yankees' massive slugging lads flipped the script.
06:56This guy has a chance to flip it back.
06:59With a man on, one big swing for the Stalks
07:01would end this game on a walk-off.
07:04Nobody better for the task.
07:07This is Tim Anderson.
07:10Anderson was a two-sport athlete
07:12who shifted his focus from basketball to baseball,
07:15but only played at the JUCO level
07:17and went undrafted in 2012.
07:19Only after a ridiculous breakout sophomore season
07:22did Anderson get attention.
07:24Beginning in 2013, he worked his way up
07:27the White Sox farm system,
07:29then debuted for the big league club five years ago.
07:32Since then, Anderson has worked his way up
07:35to regular shortstop, dynamic leadoff hitter,
07:37silver slugger, and this season, all-star.
07:40Anderson is super talented,
07:42and a big reason the Sox have a shot
07:44to win the AL Central for the first time in over a decade.
07:48There's more to Tim Anderson's role
07:50in this game and moment, though.
07:53Field of Dreams conjures nostalgia
07:55by conjuring the literal ghosts
07:58of a time when baseball was perhaps more simple,
08:01more pure, more...
08:04Hey, has anyone noticed that all the players
08:06depicted in this movie are white?
08:08Yeah, when we exalt these classic,
08:10old-timey elements of baseball history,
08:12the old architecture, the old jerseys,
08:15we are referencing a time when baseball was segregated.
08:19And then there's today.
08:21More than 70 years since Jackie Robinson
08:24broke the color barrier,
08:26baseball hasn't fully integrated Black players.
08:29Decades ago, MLB was nearly one-fifth African American.
08:33Today, it has regressed to well, well below that number,
08:38and below most other major American sports leagues.
08:41There's just no arguing with the fact
08:44that MLB has fallen short in outreach,
08:47scouting, and community investment.
08:50That lack of Black representation
08:52has felt particularly stark over the last year or two,
08:55when tragedies like the police killing of George Floyd
08:59stirred the US into protest,
09:01and MLB didn't really know how to respond.
09:04So much of that burden fell on the shoulders
09:07of the league's few prominent Black players.
09:10On opening day last year,
09:12Anderson felt obligated to join in peaceful protest
09:15by kneeling during the national anthem.
09:17It takes courage to speak out in a league
09:20with so few Black players,
09:22but Anderson's not afraid of the spotlight,
09:24even when it's controversial.
09:26That's true when he's playing, also.
09:28During Anderson's rise to stardom,
09:30he's drawn some ire for his expressiveness on the field.
09:34Showboating, celebrating,
09:36generally enjoying himself in a sport
09:38that's still pretty stodgy compared to others.
09:42Anderson insists on having fun.
09:44Controversy be damned.
09:46He performs for very important reasons.
09:49Fair or not, Tim feels pressure
09:51to help make baseball more accessible to people like him.
09:56It can be a lonely campaign at times.
09:59Anderson's outspokenness and his exuberance
10:01re-entered the conversation before this season,
10:04when Chicago hired Tony La Russa,
10:07a manager known for being successful and, well,
10:11also kind of a mascot for that stodginess in baseball.
10:14La Russa was, on the record, disparaging athletes
10:17who kneeled during the national anthem.
10:20La Russa was also, on the record,
10:21disparaging baseball players who committed sins
10:24as grave as swinging when their team had a big lead.
10:28Rarely does a baseball manager in 2021
10:32feel compelled to inventory his skeletal racism levels
10:36in his introductory press conference,
10:39but such is Tony La Russa's reputation.
10:41Anderson came out quickly and clearly
10:44to say he would not change his style
10:46or his approach in deference to his new manager.
10:49And he's proven as much this season.
10:51When La Russa publicly criticized Jermaine Mercedes
10:54for the grave injustice of continuing to play hard
10:58and that the White Sox were winning by a lot,
11:00Anderson came to his teammates' defense.
11:02And it wasn't the first time he had done so.
11:05Anderson favors brashness and personality and fun.
11:09Old-fashioned manners be damned.
11:12This isn't some major conflict in the clubhouse.
11:15They get along in spite of their disagreements
11:17and, you know, the Sox are having a great season so far.
11:20La Russa sadly couldn't participate tonight.
11:23He's attending a family funeral.
11:25In his absence, his team has risen to the occasion,
11:28joining in the home run barrage
11:30that, if not for that big Yankees rally
11:32in the top of this inning,
11:33would have already won them the game.
11:38Add all of the above together
11:40and you're left with a truly unique scene.
11:43It was supposed to happen a year ago,
11:45but devastating world events intervened.
11:49This scene honors the nostalgia
11:51and romance of baseball history,
11:53as depicted in a beloved classic movie.
11:56But it also references a period of baseball history
11:59defined by prejudice,
12:01and it underscores a racial imbalance
12:03that hasn't really been fixed.
12:05Tim Anderson is accustomed to standing out and speaking out.
12:08He goes out of his way to do so.
12:10Right now, Anderson is wearing a uniform
12:13that no Black players ever got to wear.
12:15He plays for an organization and a league
12:18still shamefully underpopulated with Black employees.
12:22As much as this occasion honors baseball's past,
12:25Tim Anderson is here to push baseball into the future,
12:28as uphill a battle as that may be.
12:30For now, he could snatch the spotlight once more
12:33with a single big swing.
12:36Let's see if Tim Anderson can walk off
12:38the Field of Dreams game.
12:40Welcome to A Moment in History.
12:43Anderson hits it in the air to right,
12:46back at the wall, and the White Sox win it!
12:49Anderson wins the game!
