Major League Baseball is back at the Field of Dreams, now in a permanent ballpark amid the corn

Major League Baseball 's growth goals have taken the game from a military base in North Carolina to a racetrack in Tennessee, with numerous stops for photo ops around the globe in between.

But there's nothing quite like turning the bright lights on an Iowa cornfield, where home runs disappear into a sea of green stalks and ghosts of old ballplayers just might still be whispering. After playing in 2021 and 2022 at a temporary facility next to the “Field of Dreams” movie site, MLB has returned to stage another regular-season game in what is now a permanent ballpark.

The Minnesota Twins host the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday in the small town of Dyersville, where mystique and nostalgia will hop into the pennant races for a night and the pace of the big-city beat can quickly fade into the endless rolling hills.

“It's going to be really cool, having been able to see the movie when I was growing up," Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber said. “I've never been out there before, so I’m excited to see the corn.”

Schwarber and his teammates sure won't be disappointed.

“It looks awesome this year,” said Keith Rahe, the executive director of Dyersville Events, which owns and operates the complex that now stretches beyond the farmhouse and ballfield that set the 1989 film and hosts a full calendar of youth tournaments as well as high school, college, minor league and senior-level competitions.

Rahe's nephews grew up there and have carefully cared for the corn for more than a decade. Their five-person crew has worked particularly hard on those 67 acres this summer, fertilizing, transplanting and watering so their state's signature crop looks as lush as can be for Netflix's worldwide streaming audience.

“It's a big garden,” Rahe said. “It takes a lot of time and energy.”

After the 2020 game originally scheduled between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox was pre-empted by the pandemic, the White Sox played the New York Yankees in 2021 with a Fox telecast that was the most-watched regular-season game in 23 years. The Chicago Cubs then faced the Cincinnati Reds in 2022.

Rave reviews of the broadcast presentation and on-site experience weren't enough to guarantee the Field of Dreams an annual place on the MLB schedule, however, like the Little League World Series site in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Building a temporary ballpark from scratch was an unsustainable task.

So the people in Dyersville — 2020 census population: 4,477 — and the business community in northeast Iowa went to work on planning and funding a permanent venue that could continue to attract visitors to the area. With a state tourism grant from federal pandemic relief money and a few big contributions from local donors, construction began two years ago on a 3,000-seat ballpark that finished in time for a series of showcase events this summer.

“We have some real plumbing that we don't need to bring in, which is a real positive," said MLB senior vice president of global operations and events Jeremiah Yolkut.

With temporary bleachers added for the major league crowd, there will be seating for about 8,000 people on Thursday. Fans will again enter the complex through the quaint ballfield where the movie was filmed and walk through the corn toward the new ballpark. There will be more amenities than before, but still a vibe of simplicity. More than 25 members of the Hall of Fame are scheduled to be present.

“I think it’s the perfect blend of being in the movie, on a farm, watching the baseball game, but having some of the creature comforts that people seek out when they’re coming to big events, and that’s a unique thing for us to be able to do,” Yolkut said. “I’m sure down the road if we’re able to come back to Field of Dreams we’ll learn things this year about having a permanent structure around the ballfield, but everything else remains the same.”

Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella welcomed the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and friends to his farmland ballfield in the fantasy film that received a best picture nomination, with a powerful closing scene during which he reconnects with his baseball-playing late father: “Hey, dad, you want to have a catch?”

Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. — both former Reds — tossed the ball back and forth in the outfield in a memorable 2022 pregame ceremony. With that in mind, Twins manager Derek Shelton has invited his father to come to Iowa for the game.

“The story is such an interesting story, not only about baseball but about fathers and sons,” Shelton said. “So I think everybody that’s going to have their dad there, it's going to be a really cool moment to be able to share that with them.”

Last year, heavy rain at Bristol Speedway forced the Braves-Reds game in Tennessee to be suspended and completed the following night. With rain in the forecast for northeast Iowa on Thursday, there's always the chance the game would have to be postponed.

In that scenario, both teams would remain in the area overnight and play on Friday night with the previous day's tickets used for fan admission, but MLB said it will “do everything possible to play the game as scheduled.” The Twins and Phillies are supposed to be off on Friday for travel to Minneapolis before finishing their series at Target Field on Saturday and Sunday.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

FILE - People portraying ghost players emerge from the cornfield at the "Field of Dreams" movie site in Dyersville, Iowa, on June 22, 1997. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Drew Smyly walks on the field before a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds at the Field of Dreams movie site, Aug. 11, 2022, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks faced criticism Wednesday from Democratic elected officials and civil rights advocates, who called it unnecessary and cruel.

ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a notice published Monday and revealed first by The Associated Press.

The devices known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are normal patrol gloves until an officer presses a button to activate its electrical mode. They must be applied directly to someone’s skin to produce a voltage that causes pain, which is intended to gain compliance from people who are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.

The size of the purchase suggests ICE plans to give the device to most or all of its officers. The gloves have been used by local departments more often in jails than in the streets, where ICE officers have increasingly used force to extract people from cars and faced protests over their actions carrying out President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

“We are outraged,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference Wednesday, where she warned that ICE officers who misuse the gloves in her state could face criminal and civil consequences.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, issued a statement that did not mention the product specifically or explain why it had been chosen.

“ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country,” the statement said. “Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards.”

While the devices are marketed as nonlethal and safe for the heart, a pending lawsuit alleges a 43-year-old man died in 2024 after he was shocked 27 times with the gloves and 13 more times by a Taser at a jail in Richmond, Kentucky. An internal investigation found two of the glove shocks lasted 45 and 99 seconds apiece — far more than the manufacturer’s recommended 15-second limit.

“These actions not only inflicted unnecessary pain but also heightened the risk of serious health complications,” the investigation by the Madison County Detention Center found, according to court documents.

An Associated Press review found two other lawsuits alleging injuries from the gloves, including a man with heart problems who was shocked at a Las Vegas trade show and a defendant who said he was laughed at after he was unnecessarily shocked in court. Both cases have been dismissed.

Several Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Maxwell Frost and Delia Ramirez, said on social media that ICE did not need another weapon.

“This won’t make anyone safer and in fact just gives ICE another dangerous tool to target citizens and immigrants alike,” Jayapal wrote on X.

The manufacturer warns the devices should not be used against some populations that ICE agents routinely encounter: the elderly, small children, pregnant women and the severely handicapped. The device's user manual also warns it should not be used in response to verbal defiance, or for punishment, torture or horseplay.

“It's too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn't pose a threat," former ICE acting director John Sandweg said Wednesday in an interview on MS NOW.

The maker of the Taser recently phased out its drive-stun feature, a similar pain compliance tool that had been misused by some officers.

Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University who has written about police use-of-force and issues in federal law enforcement operations, agreed the gloves raised concerns about officers using disproportionate force.

“One concern I would have is if ICE agents have this at their immediate disposal, will they use it more than they should? Will they jump over lesser force that could be appropriate and successful to attain compliance and instead use this first?" he said.

The notice published in a DHS database indicated the solicitation for a no-bid contract to purchase the gloves could be released as early as Friday, and the contract would last through March 31, 2027. The founder of Compliant Technologies LLC, which manufactures the gloves, declined comment.

Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report.

FILE - Federal agents walk down a street while conducting immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy, File)

New York Attorney General Letitia James, flanked by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, takes part in a press conference to announce action against ICE overreach in New York, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)