More than three decades ago, the film Field of Dreams made grown men cry with its tale of a son's quest to know his father through the magic of baseball. The mystical baseball field of that movie continues to attract thousands of visitors and here is the story of a make-believe place made real, its incredible lure, and its effect on the people who have stepped between its chalk lines.
"It makes people feel like they want to be kids again." Once he finished pitching batting practice and taking a few cuts at the plate, Mandel dug out his tape recorder and notebook and started talking to visitors. a book that tells the stories of people who found peace, hope and renewal at the baseball diamond carved out of a cornfield.
In a fascinating blending of reality and fictions, the field has become a shrine to those qualities and to nostalgia itself. The stories shared there are so memorable that Philadelphia writre Brett H. Mandel compiled them in a book.
Will appeal to all those like him who find soul and fulfillment in all things sentimentally baseball. Is this Heaven looks at the remarkable appeal that draws roughly 75,000 people a year to visit the baseball field.
If you are willing to suspend disbelief for a second, you can almost convince yourself you've stepped into the film.
