- 0:01:39 Living and Dying with the White Sox
- Ray: My father’s name was John Kinsella. It’s an Irish name. He was born in North Dakota in 1896 and never saw a big city until he came back from France in 1918. He settled in Chicago, where he quickly learned to live and die with the White Sox. Died a little when they lost the 1919 World Series, died a lot the following summer when eight members of the team were accused of throwing that series.
- 0:02:18 Baseball Bedtime Stories
- Ray: My name’s Ray Kinsella. Mom died when I was three, and I suppose Dad did the best he could. Instead of Mother Goose, I was put to bed at night to stories of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson.
- 0:03:36 Until I heard the voice
- I’m 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball, and I’m about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice I had never done a crazy thing in my whole life.
- 0:06:47 Just talking to the cornfield
- Voice: If you build it, he will come
Ray: Build what? What is this?
Annie: Ray?
Ray: It’s OK honey. I was just talking to the cornfield.
- 0:10:40 Ray Kinsella to Annie
- "I think it means that if I build a baseball field out there, then ‘Shoeless' Joe Jackson will get to come back and play ball again."
- 0:12:20 Scared I'm turning into my father
- Ray: I’m 36 years old, I have a wife, a child, and a mortgage, and I’m scared to death I’m turning into my father.
Annie: What’s your father got to do with all of this?
Ray: I never forgave him for getting old. By the time he was as old as I am now, he was ancient. I mean, he must have had dreams, but he never did anything about them. For all I know he may have even heard voices too, but he sure didn’t listen to them. The man never did one spontaneous thing in all the years I knew him. Annie I’m afraid of that happening to me, and something tells me this may be my last chance to do something about it. I want to build that field. Do you think I’m crazy?
Annie: Yes. But I also think that if you really feel you should do this, then you should do it.
- 0:15:40 Smiling at dad
- Ray: Dad used to say nobody could hit like Shoeless Joe.
Annie: I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you smile when you mentioned your father.
- 0:15:55 Ray says to Annie -- on the lawn in front of the baseball field
- "I have just created something totally illogical."
- 0:22:25 Shoeless Joe Jackson speaks to Ray
- Ray: I bet it’s good to be playing again, huh?
Shoeless Joe: Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that have been dust for over 50 years. That was me -- I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, with the cool of the grass on my feet, the thrill of the grass.
- 0:25:03 Joe speaks to Ray
- Shoeless Joe: Man, I did love this game. I’d have played for food money. It was a game, the sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?
Ray: Yeah
Shoeless Joe: I used to love traveling on the trains from town to town. The hotel, brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms, it was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I’d a played for nothing.
- 0:27:40 Joe to Ray
- Joe-"Is this heaven?"
Ray-"No, it's Iowa."
- 0:42:34 Nuttier
- Annie: Ray this is nuttier than building the baseball field.
Ray: No, no, no its not, it’s pretty weird I’ll grant you, but building the field was, that was weirder -- 5,- 10 percent weirder.
- 0:42:56 Primal forces of nature
- Ray: We are dealing with primal forces of nature here alright. When primal forces of nature tell you to do something the prudent things is not to quibble over details.
- 1:05:11 Moonlight Graham to Ray
- "I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have that chance, just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down and, just as he goes into windup, make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for."
- 1:12:50 What ever happened to your father?
- Terrance: What happened to your father?
Ray: He never made it as a ball player so he tried to get his son to make it for him. By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was fourteen I started to refuse. You believe that? American boy refusing to have a catch with his father?
Terrance: Why at fourteen?
Ray: That’s when I read The Boat Rocker by Terrance Mann.
Terrance: Oh God.
Ray: Never played catch with him again.
Terrance: You see that’s the kind of crap people always try and lay on me. Its not my fault you didn’t play catch with your father.
Ray: I, I know. Anyway when I was seventeen I packed my things, said something awful and left. After awhile I wanted to come home but I didn’t know how. I made it back for the funeral though.
- 1:23:26 Terence Mann to Ray
- "Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."
- 1:24:21 Mann's Unforgettable Speech
- Ray -- people will most definitely come, Ray
They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom
They'll turn up your driveway
not knowing for sure why they're doing it
They'll show up at your door
as innocent as children
longing for the past
of course we won't mind if you look around
you'll say -- it's only twenty dollars per person
they'll pass over the money without even thinking about it
whether it's money they have
or if it's peace they'll like
they'll walk off to the bleachers
they'll sit in their shirt sleeves
on a perfect afternoon
and they'll find they have reserved seats
somewhere along where they sat when they were children
and cheered their heroes
and they'll watch the game
it will be as if they've dipped themselves in magic waters
the memories will be so thick
they'll have to brush them away from their faces
people will come Ray
the one constant through all the years -- Ray
has been baseball
America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers
it's been erased like a blackboard
rebuilt
and erased again
basbeball has marked the time
this field
this game
is a part of our past -- Ray
it reminds us of all that once was good
and it could be again
ohh...
people will come Ray
people will most definitely come.
- 1:39:18 Ray to his father
- Ray -- "Hey, Dad! You want to have a catch?"
Father -- "I'd like that."
