Couple Buys Field of Dreams

By Chris Bentley in News on Oct 31, 2011 3:20PM

People will come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. Or maybe just to work on their curve ball. At any rate, the Field of Dreams' new owners are pretty sure if they build it, people will come.

An Oak Lawn couple bought the Iowa farm where the 1989 movie Field of Dreams was shot, and they plan to make it a regional hub for youth baseball and softball. The new owners said they will preserve the original baseball diamond and add about a dozen other fields, as well as an indoor training dome.

Mike and Denise Stillman purchased the 193-acre Dyersville, Iowa property for an undisclosed amount. Previous owners Don and Becky Lansing put the land up for sale at $5.4 million in 2010.

Mike Stillman is a White Sox season ticket holder. The Stillmans have also hired Chicago White Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard, one of the most respected groundskeepers in Major League Baseball, to develop the complex to Major league quality so that it may host tournament level baseball and softball tournaments for teams 18 and under.

“We’ve always thought that the Midwest never had a great site for the type of complex that hosted [youth] travel baseball and competitive play,” Stillman said. “Everyone goes to Cooperstown, N.Y., and other places.”

No word yet on whether he’ll invite the Sox out to Iowa to meet Shoeless Joe Jackson.