DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Kyle Schwarber grew up in Middletown, Ohio, played college ball at Indiana and spent his first six major league seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
The 33-year-old Philadelphia Phillies slugger added another thoroughly Midwestern highlight to his well-decorated career Thursday night, hitting two home runs into an Iowa cornfield.
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Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber (12) celebrates with teammate Brandon Marsh after a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber reacts after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber watches his home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber hits a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Schwarber led off the Field of Dreams game with a homer and then connected for a two-run shot in the fourth inning to spark the Phillies in a 7-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
“We all watched the movie as kids, so it was really cool to be able to see exactly where it was and just kind of the full ceremony of it, too,” said Schwarber, who leads the major leagues with 37 home runs. “Just an unbelievable experience.”
After helping the Cubs win the World Series in 2016, making the postseason 10 times in his first 11 years and being selected to four All-Star teams, Schwarber has been building quite the resume. With 377 career home runs and counting, perhaps he'll one day join the club in Cooperstown like the 26 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame who took part in the pregame pomp at the newly constructed ballpark.
For now, Schwarber has an unforgettable night to share with his family forever. His two children are too young to watch or understand the movie now, but he can't wait to watch the 1989 film with them down the road.
“You might not ever get to play another big league baseball game here, so to be able to have that experience, it’s a unique thing for you and it’s something you’re going to bring up to your kids,” Schwarber said. “We’re going to watch that movie together with my kids one day and be able to say, ‘Hey, dad got to play there,’ or, ‘See that house in this movie? I got to see it.’ So it’ll be really cool.”
Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall, who homered in the loss, nearly caught Schwarber's second home run above the wall, but the ball glanced off his glove and into the dark green sea of corn.
“It was up there a while. In a perfect world, I think I should catch it,” Keaschall said. “I didn’t today.”
The Phillies moved a half-game ahead of idle Arizona into the third and final wild-card spot for the NL playoffs. So Schwarber's big swings meant more than just a page in his personal memory book.
“To have a good season a lot of guys have to have good years, but the aircraft carriers have still got to carry you,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “That just takes pressure off of everyone.”
Having entered the night just 10-15 since the All-Star break, the Phillies needed a bit of a jolt like the magic of the movie site and game location can produce — and their star designated hitter can provide.
“I feel like some people could take that for granted because he’s done it so many times, but we definitely don’t,” Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola said. “There’s no moment ever too big for him.”
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Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber (12) celebrates with teammate Brandon Marsh after a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber reacts after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber watches his home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber hits a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at the Field of Dreams movie site, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Dyersville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
MOUNT TABOR, Israel (AP) — Sister Mayela wears her black veil and habit as she walks to work near where another Catholic nun was violently attacked in Jerusalem’s Old City — but she’s now accompanied by a Jewish volunteer for protection.
Many Christians in Israel, who make up less than 2% of the country’s population, are worried visible signs of their faith will draw harassment, which has increased as multiple conflicts grip the region.
“I’m scared after the sister was beat up,” said Sister Mayela, a Mexican nun who’s lived in Jerusalem on and off for more than two decades. “Before, one could live with more confidence. Some people spat, some said hi. Now we have to live trusting in God.”
She finds resilience in her faith — and in support from Israelis like the volunteers. Even that, though, didn’t prevent a teen from spitting right behind her as they passed a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews recently. The teen said she was only clearing her throat, but the volunteer reported it to police.
Incidents like that are among the challenges for Christians in Israel, particularly since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, plunged the country back into war and polarization. But interfaith leaders and researchers are encouraged by better policing and prosecution as well as the recent appointment of a government envoy to the Christian world, who is Greek Orthodox.
In northern Israel, many Christians say they feel the state isn’t doing enough to protect them from crime because they’re not Jewish. But those concerns didn’t stop groups of Catholics from joining a recent joyous pilgrimage on Mount Tabor, where the Gospels say Jesus appeared transfigured alongside the Jewish prophets Moses and Elijah.
“In a world where darkness is filling the hearts of people, we need to diffuse God’s light to other people,” said Sister Muna, the nun who led one youth group.
For many Christians and Jews, protecting coexistence in the Holy Land is a moral imperative after their own long histories of religious persecution.
“I don’t want Christians to go out of their house in Jerusalem … and have fear,” said Yisca Harani, the Jewish Israeli educator and activist who escorted Sister Mayela. “I’ve gone through this 2,000 years in my Jewish history. I’m not going to let that happen.”
In the Old City, Jewish men in black hats and tzitzit tassels, Muslim women in hijabs and Christian priests in flowing robes walk past each other daily in the maze of stone alleyways. Many are headed to pray at the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. These are some of the most sacred sites respectively for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and they are close to each other.
“If you stroll around in your habit, sooner or later you’ll get some spitting next to you,” said the Rev. Alberto Pari, who leads interfaith dialogue and Christian-Jewish relations as secretary to the Custody of the Holy Land, the Catholic order ministering to holy sites across the region. “But it’s important not to generalize, because that unleashes antisemitism.”
Religious Freedom Data Center, the organization that Harani founded to track harassment of Christians, has recorded a near-tripling of incidents in Jerusalem from four years ago to the last three months recorded — about one a day now — virtually all by Jewish religious nationalists.
A Jewish man from a settlement in the occupied West Bank was indicted in the violent attack on the nun in April. The French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem where the nun is a researcher expects “effective prosecution at the criminal and civil levels,” said the school’s director, Friar Olivier Poquillon.
Among those reaching out to Catholic leaders to denounce the attack and offer support was Ambassador George Deek, Israel's new envoy tasked with building what he calls the “special relationship” between Christians and the country, to both keep Christians safe and partner on issues like fighting antisemitism.
“We believe that every incident against Christians is immoral, illegal and should be prosecuted. That’s exactly what we are going to do,” Deek told The Associated Press. “We want to make sure that Israel continues to prosper and grow as a place where Christians can not only survive, but they can thrive.”
Around the time that the nun was attacked, two other incidents drew global condemnation. An Israeli soldier smashed a crucifix in a family garden and another stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, where the military is fighting Hezbollah militants. The soldiers involved received military prison sentences.
Most Israelis find harassment unacceptable. But Jewish religious nationalists, particularly uneducated young men, remain a threat, said John Munayer of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, an interreligious organization in Jerusalem.
Their hostility to Christians is grounded in the history of persecution of Jews in Christian-majority European countries, in faith practices they see as idol-worshipping, and in a “general intolerance” for anyone who’s not Jewish near sacred areas like the Western Wall, Munayer said.
Then there’s the overhanging trauma of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since most local Christians in Israel and the occupied West Bank are Palestinian.
In Taybeh, the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank, Jewish settlers recently cut through house fences and destroyed fruit and vegetable gardens, said the Rev. Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church.
“All the people here are afraid,” he said. “Settlers come and go every day.”
Israel’s army declared the village a closed military zone earlier this week to curb the attacks. But concerns about Israel’s ability and willingness to rein in the settlers remain even among evangelicals, who are among the staunchest Christian supporters of Israel.
“What happens in Taybeh is really troubling,” said David Parsons, spokesperson for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. “Israeli leaders have realized for some time that Christian support for their nation is not only vital, it’s a strategic interest.”
And yet since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, “generalized fear and skepticism” pervaded all interreligious work, Pari said. The interfaith music institute he directs, Magnificat, was invited to play at a peace march in Jerusalem. But when the Palestinian members saw that the stage had been set up by an Old City gate flanked by Israeli flags, they refused to play.
“I felt a real failure,” Pari said. “We think that as Christians, we have a very important role to patch things back together. ... It will be difficult, but we can do it.”
That faith-grounded resilience prevailed among the Mount Tabor pilgrims, who gathered on the mountain to celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration last week. Rising interfaith tensions and crime have driven many of the area’s Christians to emigrate, several said.
“It’s very difficult that we keep our identity as Christians in the Middle East, but it’s the most important,” said John Akleh, 20, who came with Sister Muna’s group.
Ten pilgrims from nearby Nazareth — where Jesus grew up — started the climb at 4:15 a.m. led by the Rev. Fadi Shallufi in a yearly tradition they’ve maintained even in wartime.
“We will have a lot of sacrifice, but you will be sure in this land something will change,” Shallufi told them as he celebrated Mass in the mountaintop basilica.
Associated Press journalists Ibrahim Hazboun and Moshe Edri contributed from Jerusalem.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Tents of Christian pilgrims who spent overnight in the forest next to the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, on Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Religious souvenirs for sale are placed on a stand for Christian pilgrims who climb to the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, on Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Nuns pose for photograph with the view from the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Priests and nuns make their way to the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, on Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Rev. Fadi Shallufi leads Catholic pilgrims on a Eucharistic procession climbing to the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, on Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A priest enters the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, on Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A Christian pilgrim attends a Mass in the Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, northern Israel, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
