Is Nothing Sacred?

This morning I saw this article posted on Facebook by the Field of Dreams page http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/wade-boggs-buys-piece-field-dreams-plans-develop-212343823--mlb.html

I will admit that as I got to the end of the article there were tears in my eyes. I've previously chronicled the love my family and I have for Field of Dreams, the movie and the place. We had a seriously magical time there. The sky was blue, the grass was green, the field was beautiful and the corn was tall.

We played a pick-up game of baseball,

 had a catch in the outfield,

 disappeared into the corn,

 pretended to fall off the bleachers like Karen

 and just soaked up the perfect atmosphere.

At that time, there were two small souvenir stands, run by two different people/organizations that owned the land. Now it has been bought and they are planning to build a multi-million dollar baseball and softball complex on the sight.

So much of the charm of the Field of Dreams was the simplicity and the innocence of it. Besides the two souvenir stands, it looked just as it did the movies. It hadn't been built up or changed. There was the farmhouse, the field and a dirt parking lot. Now it will be built up with 24 fields and a sixty-team clubhouse. It just won't be the same. People will bustling all around, they'll have to put in parking lots and porta-potties and concession stands. Will they plow through the corn to build all of these fields? That would be a tragedy.

Strangers joined in a pick-up game. Nothing was scheduled or organized by anyone, it was simply people joining together. People took it easy on the little kids, letting them get "hits" and beat out throws. Now it's going to be organized baseball tournaments, with parents yelling at umpires and little kids striking out.

I read a comment about the article on Facebook, which basically said that what they're doing, "is exactly the opposite of what this movie is about. It's called a Field of Dreams, not a field of player development." People will come, but not because they love the movie and want to enjoy the beauty of the field and make their own family memories. They'll come to win and that's not the same at all.

I don't know if there is anything that can be done about it, but I sure hope someone can stop them. There's a Facebook page out there called, "Save the Field of Dreams." I "liked" it, but then looking at the pictures just made me sad.