MLB surprises MercyOne patients with Field of Dreams experience

DYERSVILLE, Iowa – When Guy Larson, Ray Owensby, Katie Koopman, Tom Foote, and Lucy Sutherland – cancer patients from MercyOne Dubuque Cancer Center – were invited to a Major League Baseball event at the hospital Thursday, they figured it would probably be an enjoyable experience.

They were not expecting how it actually went.

Along with Commissioner Rob Manfred, Hall of Famers Joe Torre and Jim Thome and longtime big leaguer Jeremy Guthrie paid a visit to the Cancer Center and met with the patients as well as doctors and staff. TC Bear and the Philly Phanatic showed up, and of course were their entertaining selves.

It was a delightful time, and then…

All five were told they’d be going to the MLB at Field of Dreams game presented by John Deere in Dyersville on Thursday night. They were presented with both large novelty tickets as well as actual tickets, and a good day became awfully special.

“I was expecting to come in and have the Commissioner wave at us, say hi, take a couple of pictures,” said Owensby, who lives in the Dubuque Area, but is a Reds fan from Cincinnati. “I had no idea that it was going to be this intense. I’m blessed to be a part of it.”

It was part of something MLB loves to do whenever it holds a big event – extending gratitude to the community around that event. In addition to meeting with patients and staff, MLB personnel toured the facility before heading over to Dyersville for the game.

“Every time we have one of our big events, and obviously Field of Dreams is one of them, we like to do something in the community to leave a little mark behind, say thank you,” Manfred said. “There’s been a huge investment made here in terms of the ballpark, and this is just a small part of our effort to say thank you.”

It was a doubly important event for MLB. There was the larger gesture of visiting the cancer center, touring, making baseball’s presence felt in the community. And there was the smaller but just as meaningful aspect of the one-on-one interactions with people who are going through something incredibly difficult.

“It gives you a great feeling about the theory behind games like this,” Manfred said. “Take the game where it isn’t every day, and it gets a reaction from people because it’s such a unique event. Especially significant when you have people who are facing challenges in their life, and you hope that baseball and a game like this gives them a little lift, at least for a day.”

For Torre, who currently serves as a special assistant to the Commissioner and is a cancer survivor himself, it was uniquely memorable. Then there’s another aspect for Torre – Thursday marks his first Field of Dreams game.

“Meaningful to me because I haven’t been here,” Torre said. “I haven’t been to one of these Field of Dreams games, and I’m really looking forward to it. And I have a little personal touch, too, because the manager of the Phillies is Don Mattingly, who coached for me. Donnie coached for me with the Yankees and again with the Dodgers. I’m happy for him. He’s good at what he does.

“It’s like Christmas. You bring something, unwrap it, and here it is. We certainly want the local people to enjoy this.”