It was a "Field of Screams" for Yankee fans. It was "Children of the Corn" for relievers.
I thought the whole thing was truly hokey, from time the show opened with Kevin Costner walking around in a daze, until to the end, when the Yankees were walking around in a daze. And the setting illustrated how far out of touch the modern game is from the one Shoeless Joe and his pals played.
MLB's attempt to create such nostalgia only emphasized the fact that modern baseball remains out of step with the way the game was beautifully played back in the day, or even 30 years ago, when the movie was made. Where were the starting pitchers after the 5th? Each team used 4 pitchers in a 9 inning game, with no pitcher ever grabbing a bat to hit. One SB. No bunts, no singles hit behind the runners to advance them. The shift? The Yanks were 1-7 with RISP. What you saw were players just whacking away at fastballs, hoping for a homer or striking out.
(And if they really wanted to make it fun, they would not have put a fence next to the corn field. Let the fielders go in and try to find the ball, while the batter was circling the bases. Stanton's HR would've been caught by the left fielder standing in the corn.)
If baseball thought it could rekindle the father-to-son game that was actually played for decades as a national sport, it was doing so having jettisoned the game it wished you to recall so whimsically.
If you like watching blown saves, though, this was the game for you.
The by-gone era uniforms failed to disguise the deep flaws in what MLB calls "baseball", today. In fact, it seemed to me to underscore them.
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