Nearly four decades after “ Field of Dreams ” brought a group of dead baseball players to life with a homemade diamond on an Iowa farm, Keith Rahe and his traveling troupers are still dedicated to keeping the cornfield mystique alive.
Once the long days of filming had passed and the fantasy flick had shifted from movie theaters to video cassettes, the farmhouse and ballfield where those idyllic scenes were shot was naturally becoming a tourist attraction.
Rahe lived near the site on the edge of his native small town of Dyersville, with convenient access by way of a back road the Universal Studios crew had made just for the movie shoot. He and his neighbors began showing up to make sure the pitcher's mound and home plate were in place, mingle with the visitors, and play catch.
Then one summer Sunday afternoon in 1990, Rahe persuaded a handful of his friends to put on some old wool uniforms he'd found, walk through the cornfields with him, and see what happened.
The young girl standing nearby sure was surprised.
“Mommy! Daddy! It's the ghost players!” she shrieked as she retreated to her parents in the infield.
After playing catch with and pitching to the tourists for about an hour, Rahe and his pals doffed their caps, waved goodbye and disappeared into the corn. An enterprising newspaper reporter happened to be there, and in the next day's edition of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids there was a headline touting the magical appearance of the “Ghost Players” at the site. Just like in the movie.
The following week, Rahe answered a phone call from Al Ameskamp, the owner of one of the two farms the movie ballfield straddled. He was wondering if they were going to come back and play ball again.
“Well, not really. It was kind of a one-time deal,” Rahe said.
Ameskamp replied, “Well, would you? There are 400 people out here waiting for you.”
Rahe has retold that origin story of the Ghost Players countless times, and now at age 68 he's never been more in demand. His gregarious goodwill band of ballplayers is a recurring feature for the public at the site, which he runs as the executive director of Dyersville Events.
This has been an especially busy summer in this part of northeast Iowa, with the completion of a permanent ballpark next to the filming location that will host a Major League Baseball game on Thursday night between the Minnesota Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies. MLB last staged a game at Field of Dreams in 2022, when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds in a temporary facility. The Chicago White Sox faced the New York Yankees in 2021 in the inaugural event.
“The first time it happened, when we got to go into the stadium, I got goosebumps and kind of teared up while walking through that corn,” said Paul Scherrman, another one of the original Ghost Players. “It's just a great place.”
The Ghost Players have visited 28 countries and dozens of states, Rahe said, mostly by paying their own way and using their vacation time. There are currently about 40 members, with half of those making more regular appearances. Earlier this summer, they traveled to Chisholm, Minnesota, for the “Doc Moonlight Graham Days” festival in honor of the film's heroic physician who chose medicine over sport after getting in one major league game.
“A lot of the ghosts are much more loyal than some of the ghosts,” said Scherrman, who had a brief minor league career and had a cameo in the movie. “The ghosts that come to the events that aren't as popular as Major League Baseball games are the harder-working ghosts.”
The Ghost Player experience, which allowed Scherrman to befriend the family of Roberto Clemente on a trip to Puerto Rico, has been decidedly more rewarding than serving as an extra in the film. He and the other locals spent 21 days on the set for 12 hours at a time just waiting to be called into action. During one scene, Scherrman appears for a few seconds as the catcher in a game interrupted by Timothy Busfield, the disbelieving brother-in-law of Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella.
For a state without any major metropolitan areas or a year-round climate favorable to outdoor baseball, Iowa has produced its share of talented players on a list that starts with Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller and his 1936 major league debut at age 17 after training on the family farm in Van Meter. The state is serious enough about the sport to place the high school season in summer to avoid conflicts with spring sports and get better weather.
“I still see all my buddies from that team,” said Cubs pitcher Colin Rea, who's from Cascade, just 15 miles south of Dyersville. “We've loved baseball from the time we started playing, and I think that's how it is for most kids around there.”
Rea, 36, wasn't quite born yet when “Field of Dreams” hit the big screens, but he and his friends regularly watched their area's claim to fame while growing up. The ballfield itself seemed like a fantasy that was impossible to visit.
“Once I got older, I was like, ‘It’s 20 minutes from my house. Why haven't I been there?'” Rea said.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn is from Ollie, in the southeast part of the state. His brother will be at the game, and he knows people on the grounds crew.
“It's really sweet. Iowa's got a lot of baseball fans,” Winn said. “Having the game come there is really special to all of the people.”
AP Baseball Writers Jay Cohen in Chicago and Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
FILE - A fan watches the Cincinnati Reds' batting practice before a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs at the Field of Dreams movie site, Aug. 11, 2022, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
FILE - Field of Dreams "ghost" player Russ Bolibaugh, left, of Dyersville, Iowa, talks with Chicago Cubs center fielder Rafael Ortega, right, 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)
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)
LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of voters are heading to the polls Thursday in a special election in a small seaside resort just outside London that will pit a potential candidate to be the next U.K. prime minister against a collection of independents, jokers and single-issue candidates, led by a man who wears a trash can on his head.
That's not what Nigel Farage, the man who arguably did more than anyone to get Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, intended when he triggered Thursday’s special election in Clacton by quitting his seat in the House of Commons last month. When doing so, he expected to run again against candidates from Britain's main political parties, including the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party.
Farage, who is the leader of anti-immigration party Reform UK, stood down in the hope the election could put to bed awkward questions about his finances. Farage said he would let voters judge him in a “people versus the establishment” contest. His political foes described the move as a stunt and opted against standing a candidate.
Instead, Farage's main opponent is Count Binface, a political satirist posing as a comic space alien, with a keen interest in earthly matters, including the positioning of a hand dryer in the men's toilet in a pub in west London.
The special election is a novelty, if not quite a circus, with a record 34 candidates standing, including Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party. They have pounded the streets of Clacton over the past few weeks as they seek to win the support of around 80,000 voters.
Given the numbers standing, Clacton residents will be presented with a ballot paper that is around 3 feet long (around 1 meter). That's not going to be easy to navigate.
Turnout is widely expected to be low for a variety of reasons. For one, turnout is usually lower at special elections rather than at general elections. In the July 2024 general election, Farage faced eight rivals and garnered 21,225 votes, or 46.2% of the total. Turnout was 58.7%.
This election is taking place in the midst of the summer holidays when thousands of voters will be far away from Clacton. It's also taking place during another U.K. heatwave, which could prompt many to opt against making the trip to the polling station as they seek sanctuary from temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
Farage, who in 2024 was elected to Parliament at his eighth attempt in the strongly Brexit -backing town, has for months been facing what he considers to be unfair scrutiny of his finances.
Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million) to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and came before he was elected.
Newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds ($400) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.
When he stood down on July 7, he described the scrutiny as an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”
His decision to stand down put a pause to the parliamentary investigation, but if he wins on Thursday, as most pollsters expect, it is set to start up again.
If he's found to have breached Parliament's rules, then he could face a recall petition in Clacton, which may lead to another special election later this year, costing the British taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds more. The difference is that in that one, the other parties would choose to stand.
Farage's decision to trigger another election in Clacton came weeks after Andy Burnham returned to Parliament in a special election in the Makerfield constituency near Manchester. That campaign shone a positive spotlight on Burnham, triggering a chain of events that saw him become Britain's prime minister a few weeks later following the resignation of Keir Starmer.
Any hope that Farage had that the Clacton campaign would be similarly positive for him was dashed when the other political parties failed to play ball and he was left standing against the likes of Count Binface.
Under Binface’s black cape, trash can and ample body armor that looks straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, is a middle-aged comedian named Jon Harvey trying to keep his cool during a sweaty summer.
He has been a regular candidate in high-profile elections before, having previously stood against then prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
He says his repeated candidacies are aimed at promoting the beauties of Britain's centuries-old democracy where even the most high-profile politicians are above no one — including someone from his fictional native planet of Sigma IX.
He's also funny.
The numbers backing him have been negligible — and fairly costly. Candidates standing for election have to put down a deposit of 500 pounds ($675). They only get it back if they muster 5% of the votes cast. In his most recent run, against Burnham in Makerfield, the comedian received 95 votes, or 0.2% of the total.
There is an expectation that he will do a lot better in Clacton. Many of the voters of the other political parties have been lending him their support, partly in the hope of embarrassing Farage.
The result of the election, which will be announced as Farage is onstage with all his fellow candidates, is expected Friday morning between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.
Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage arrives at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026 to cast his vote for the Clacton on Sea by-election.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage arrives at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026 to cast his vote for the Clacton on Sea by-election.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain's Reform UK party, right, and Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's spokesperson for home affairs attend a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Count Binface leaves after being interviewed at a studio in London ahead of the Clacton by-election, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain's Reform UK party, speaks during a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Count Binface is interviewed at a studio in London ahead of the Clacton by-election, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
