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‘Field of Dreams’ MLB Game: Joe Buck, John Smoltz Wear Retro Outfits for Broadcast from Iowa

When in Iowa, calling a Field of Dreams kind of game, you need to dress the part.

So that’s why Fox Sports’ Joe Buck and John Smoltz put on their best retro attire to call the game.

Check out the photo making its way around social media. Does it give you a Field of Dreams vibe?

The Field of Dreams game Thursday night obviously was present day, with the Chicago White Sox playing host to the New York Yankees. They played the game in a baseball stadium in Dyersville, Iowa, four hours away from the White Sox home stadium. Before the Kevin Costner movie came out in 1989, the baseball field was a cornfield. We are in Iowa, after all.

The Field of Dreams movie was about a son finding his way back to his long-dead father. But Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella originally thought he was building a baseball diamond for Shoeless Joe Jackson, his father’s favorite baseball player. And Shoeless Joe was chased out of baseball after the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal.

So the outfits of Buck and Smoltz made so much vintage fashion sense. Buck wore a spiffy bow tie and rolled up his sleeves. Smoltz sported a newsboy cap with a sweater vest. He looked a lot like Burt Lancaster playing Dr. Archibald Graham, before he emerged as young baseball prospect Moonlight Graham. James Earl Jones, who portrayed writer Terence Mann, also wore the same kind of cap. Jones wasn’t at Thursday’s game, but he did some voiceover work for Fox. Jones reading the lines from Field of Dreams always generates goosebumps.

Before the game, Smoltz threw batting practice to some little leaguers. One of them slugged a pitch into the cornfields. Fox Sports tweeted a link, writing “Take your walk young man.” A little leaguer took John Smoltz deep in batting practice.”

Costner also attended the game. And he was all California cool in his white untucked shirt and khakis. When you’re the star of the show, you don’t need a retro outfit.

The Field of Dreams movie gave baseball fans a terrific dose of sports history. The reason why baseball was so front and center was because Ray’s dad used to have dreams of playing the sport as a pro.

In the movie, Shoeless Joe Jackson was the first baseball-playing ghost to walk out of the cornfield. Then all sorts of all-stars followed. In the movie’s final scene, Ray’s dad showed up as his young self. Ray introduced him to his granddaughter. Then father and son play catch as the movie ends.

Dwier Brown, the actor who played John Kinsella, Ray’s dad, also was on hand for the game. And to keep the theme of the movie-going, Costner and Buck also played a game of catch.