The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2, on Thursday, however that was hardly the purpose.
Main League Baseball had as soon as once more discovered its technique to Dyersville, Iowa, for its Subject of Goals recreation, and a sport that’s combating its technological future obtained a reminder of how nice the sport will be when it’s damaged down into its easiest type.
“It’s actually magic,” Cubs catcher Willson Contreras informed reporters of the sphere, which is a brief stroll from the one utilized in “Subject of Goals,” the 1989 movie starring Kevin Costner. “It has some type of vitality that I believe is actual.”
The Corridor of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., a Reds alum, performed catch along with his father — a reasonably good participant in his personal proper — earlier than the sport, the scoreboard made Fenway Park’s appear fashionable and each groups wore throwback uniforms that harked again to the times when the rebuilding golf equipment have been a bit extra related.
“What they’ve executed right here is unimaginable,” Kyle Farmer, a 3rd baseman for the Reds, informed reporters. “I believe each baseball participant ought to expertise this.”
As for the baseball, the Cubs stayed on the classic theme by taking a 3-0 lead within the prime of the primary inning with a hit-by-pitch, two doubles and a single. Neither staff homered into the corn stalks within the outfield this 12 months, and the one actual reminders that the sport was being performed in 2022 have been that the groups mixed to make use of 9 pitchers and there have been 26 strikeouts. (Chicago’s Drew Smyly earned the win by putting out 9 in 5 scoreless innings.)
Final 12 months, the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox had confronted off within the first of this now annual occasion, which is Main League Baseball’s reply to the N.H.L.’s outside video games. Whereas final 12 months’s recreation had a bit of extra sizzle, because of the matchup of contending groups, and a bit of extra pop with an thrilling recreation, the keenness appeared to hold over regardless of this 12 months’s version not having something of the kind.
The gang of seven,823 individuals — almost double the common inhabitants of Dyserville — appeared thrilled with the occasion and the gamers have been excited to get their likelihood on the expertise which, not less than for now, will solely come every year for 2 fortunate groups.
“A recreation like this — you simply really feel like a child once more,” Smyly mentioned. “You’re simply on the market enjoying baseball in the midst of Iowa.”