The Yankees and the Chicago White Sox will play a regular-season baseball game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, next summer, bringing Major League Baseball to the state for the first time.
The game will be played next Aug. 13 in a 8,000-seat park to be constructed on the set of the beloved baseball movie from 1989, baseball officials and both teams announced Thursday.
In the film, Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, hears voices in his Iowa cornfield, leading him to build a baseball diamond there.
Since the movie’s release, the field has become a tourist attraction, with the diamond used for occasional exhibition games, though none involving major league teams. Two farmers who each owned part of the land feuded over it for a time, but today the entire area is owned by a group of investors.
The Field of Dreams outfield is demarcated by a row of corn instead of a fence, but for next year’s game, a full wall and seating for several thousand fans will be built. M.L.B. said it expected the field’s dimensions, currently too small for major-league hitters, to be similar to a typical major-league park.
The game will be considered a home game for the White Sox. It will be the first major-league game played in Iowa, where many people root for the Chicago teams, especially the Cubs.
M.L.B. has been hosting more games in unusual locations in recent years. In June, the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, the first major-league game in Nebraska. A regular season game will be played in Williamsport, Pa., the site of the Little League World Series, for the third straight year on Aug. 18. The stadium there seats fewer than 3,000 fans.
“As a sport that is proud of its history linking generations, Major League Baseball is excited to bring a regular season game to the site of Field of Dreams,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating the movie’s enduring message of how baseball brings people together at this special cornfield in Iowa.”