Why MLB missed the whole point of Field of Dreams

For all of the things Major League Baseball may have gotten right on Thursday night with the Field of Dreams game, there were two telltale signs that MLB executives missed an important part of the movie.

Absolutely, it's wonderful to see players walk out from cornfields and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber belt a home run into that same corn. There is nostalgia for seeing a regular-season game played on the complex that caused so many moviegoers to fall in love with baseball again and maybe even have a catch with their dad.

But for all of the good there was on Thursday night, there was a glaring problems with the optics of blending the love of the movie with the real-life sponsorships to which MLB has tied itself.

MLB forgot about Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Field of Dreams game

As pointed out by Anthony SanFilippo, covering the Phillies at the game in Iowa, there was a huge amount of head-shaking with two advertisements at the game on the outfield fence corners.

Nothing like a little irony here in Iowa. In a game built, in part, around the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson and his second chance after being banned as part of the Black Sox scandal, there are gambling ads in each outfield corner. pic.twitter.com/PwYjphw20I

— Anthony SanFilippo (@AntSanPhilly) August 13, 2026

If you know the movie, you know that Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who was banned from baseball after being accused of fixing games in the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. That ban was one of the reasons why Shoeless Joe (played in the movie by Ray Liotta) was so happy to be playing baseball again on a plowed-under cornfield in Iowa.

"Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated," is one of the lines uttered by Liotta in the movie.

Hearing the pain that the effects of gambling with the White Sox had on Shoeless Joe in the movie must have been lost on MLB executives, who seemingly thought nothing of making sure viewers were reminded they could gamble on games any time they like. That's a plot twist that would make any Hollywood director envious.

Granted, it's a movie. However, if MLB is really going to lean into the whole Field of Dreams environment, they really should remember to take in all the lines and moments and not just the ones that provide the best television optics.