Field of Dreams Game 2022: Discovering essence of Dyersville

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

DYERSVILLE, Iowa — On Wednesday afternoon, I walked into Ric’s Barber Shop, looking for a haircut.

In eastern Iowa to cover the MLB Field of Dreams Game on Thursday (7:15 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), I’ve actually been staying a half-hour away in the much larger city of Dubuque. But I wanted to see what Dyersville — the town plastered across every piece of Field of Dreams merch I’d ever seen, the town forever etched into the minds of so many baseball fans — is really like.

And because I’m a groomsman in a wedding this weekend, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone: check out the town and get my mop cleaned up. So I scheduled an appointment for noon and drove to 1st Avenue in Dyersville, the town’s main business thoroughfare. I found a spot right out front and sauntered my way into Ric’s.

Ric’s Barber Shop is a landmark in the center of Dyersville.

The shop is a room frozen in time, yet somehow extremely neat, well-ordered and without a speck of dust. A row of wooden waiting chairs presses up against the street-side window sill, while the expected barber-shop stack of unread magazines and old editions of the local news lay dormant and lonely atop an end table. 

The walls are dotted with photographs rich in meaning, shots of quintessential Iowa farmland interspersed with school pictures of grandchildren living thousands of miles away. Two ticket stubs from an August 1963 White Sox–Yankees game are displayed proudly on the right-side wall. At least half the items and trinkets and tools in that room are older than I am.

In the middle of it all, a lone barber’s chair. 

Never in my years of big-city living had I ever seen a barber shop with just one barber’s chair. I’ve had my hair cut inside a converted bus. I’ve gotten trimmed by a stranger in my living room. I had a teammate in college who’d clean you up for a Hamilton, but a single chair? I’d never even considered a single chair.

But behind that centerpiece stood a serene, hard-working soul who has been cutting hair in that exact spot for more than four decades. The man himself, the owner and operator of Ric’s Barber Shop: Ric Willenborg.

“Jake, I assume?” he said with a smile, welcoming me in. Dressed in a loose-fitting golf shirt and khaki slacks, Willenborg was finishing up another person’s cut and invited me to take a seat by the window. And as it so often goes, the three of us got to talking. 

I explained that I lived in another small town named New York City, and I was in town for the Field of Dreams festivities. Ric, in turn, told me about his beloved shop and how his wife, to whom he has been married for 51 years, is the sportswriter for the local paper.

Ric Willenborg has been cutting hair in Dyersville for more than four decades, even before there was a ballfield built into the corn a few miles away.

Eventually, after a few minutes, Ric finished trimming the local and gestured for me to climb the throne. There was only one problem. 

You see, being a bumbling idiot, I brought neither cash nor a debit card with me to Iowa. And believe it or not, a barber shop run by a gent in his 70s located in a town of 4,000 people does not take credit, or Venmo, or Apple Pay.

“Ric, I’ve got to head out, man.” I explained. “I can’t have you cut my hair and not pay you. I’ll just go somewhere that takes credit.”

“It’s all right, it’s fine,” he said while handing me a business card with his name, address and a description that reads: “Haircuts – Shaves – Philosophy – Socializing.”

“I open every day at 7 a.m. Just come back tomorrow with cash or mail me a check when you get home to New York.” 

I shook his hand and hopped into the chair. (For the record, I went back and paid him.)

*** *** ***

On Thursday evening, about four-and-a-half miles directly east of Ric’s Barber Shop, the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs will square off in the second annual MLB Field of Dreams Game. The inaugural edition last season between the White Sox and Yankees was an instant classic, a saga for the ages, appropriately capped by a Tim Anderson walk-off dispatched through the moonlit Midwestern night and into an endless ocean of corn.

Colin Cowherd on 2021 Field of Dreams Game

Colin Cowherd reacts to the Hollywood ending, with Tim Anderson hitting a two-run home run into the cornfields, sealing the White Sox’s 9-8 victory over the Yankees.

That seesaw of a game — one that featured two eventual playoff teams stacked with household names such as Anderson, Judge and Stanton — didn’t require a special setting to compel. A one-run, walk-off barn-burner between heavyweights is worth a watch whether it’s played in Chicago, The Bronx, Iowa or anywhere in between. But the combination of playoff-caliber clubs and the idyllic, one-of-a-kind atmosphere elevated that contest from a great regular-season game to an unforgettable one whose highlights will feature on MLB promotional ads forever. 

This year’s game won’t provide the same sort of postseason preview. The Cubs and Reds are mired in disappointing seasons, both clubs sitting around 20 games under .500. Cincinnati sold hard at the deadline, sending franchise ace Luis Castillo to Seattle, breakout utility man Brandon Drury to San Diego, veteran bat Tommy Pham to Boston and rotation stalwart Tyler Mahle to Minnesota. The Cubs are a year removed from a difficult deadline themselves, one that saw World Series heroes Javy Báez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant leave the North Side for good.

Now, don’t get it twisted, there are still stars on both sides: Willson Contreras and Ian Happ stayed put in Chicago, while the Joey Votto show rolls eternal in Cincy. But to put it frankly, neither of these ballclubs is particularly good, and neither of them will feature in the beautiful mayhem of October.

But Thursday night, those beloved clubs struggling through a dark patch will shine regardless, their effervescent history on full display. The atmosphere, the pomp, the circumstance, the zip and fizz of a showcase game — it’s all too grand to ignore. Last year’s game taught us as much. 

A baseball game is only as important as what you take away from it.

On Aug. 18, 1963, Ric Willenborg and his father drove from Dyersville, across the whole of Illinois, to see the White Sox take on the Yankees for Ric’s first big-league game. One can only imagine the anticipation as they inched east through the cornfields toward Chicago. The big city, the big leagues, the big stars. 

Much like at the Field of Dreams Game in 2021, the Sox and Yanks were two of the American League’s premier clubs. They’d eventually finish first and second in the circuit, the Yankees emerging 10.5 games ahead by season’s end. And even though Maris and Mantle were injured at the time, the Yankees still had the AL MVP in Elston Howard and a 38-year-old Yogi Berra in his final year as a Yankee, while Chicago had two Hall of Famers on its roster in Hoyt Wilhelm and Nellie Fox. 

But unfortunately, Ric Willenborg caught a dud. A true stinker. A game that most folks would describe as “forgettable.” The Yankees raced out to an early lead in the first inning behind a symphony of singles and never looked back, blowing out the hometown South Siders 8-2. 

But Ric kept the memories and ticket stubs; he’ll share both if you drive out to Dyersville.

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more.