Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals are headed to one of baseball’s most unusual stages.
Kansas City will take part in MLB’s 2027 “Field of Dreams” game in Dyersville, Iowa, playing the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, Aug. 12. The game will be shown by NBC Sports, and the Royals are sacrificing a home date to make it happen.
The setup is a tidy one for Kansas City. The club is already scheduled to face the Twins the day before the “Field of Dreams” matchup, making the trip to Iowa a simple one. After the game in Dyersville, the Royals and Red Sox will continue the series at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday and Sunday after an off day.
“We are thrilled to showcase our athletes through one of Major League Baseball’s most cherished events and help to grow the game to a worldwide audience,” Royals president of business operations Cullen Maxey said in a news release. “Royals territory already covers the Midwest, including Dyersville, so this is a natural fit that provides Royals fans a chance to cheer on the home team in a magical setting.”
The movie connection remains the big draw, even if the teams won’t actually play on the same field used in the film. The game will be held on a nearby field instead, and the pregame atmosphere usually includes players coming out of the corn, much like Ray Liotta did in the movie.
For the Royals, it’ll be only the third neutral-site game in franchise history. The team’s previous ones came on Sept. 26, 1969, against the White Sox at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, and on June 13, 2019, against the Tigers in Omaha ahead of the College World Series.
Thursday’s announcement came on the same day the Phillies beat the Twins 7-1 in the latest “Field of Dreams” game, which again featured the cornfield backdrop made famous by the 1980s film starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones.
The Royals-Red Sox matchup will be the fourth edition of the event. The White Sox and Yankees played in the first one in 2021, and the Reds and Cubs followed the next year.
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