DYERSVILLE, Iowa -- It didn’t take long for Liam Hendriks' camera reel to get full after the White Sox arrived in Dyersville, Iowa, on Thursday for the MLB at Field of Dreams contest against the Yankees.

“I walked through the bullpen. There's no fence right behind the bullpen, so I ran through the corn fields there,” said Hendriks during a pregame new conference. “I haven't done the maze yet, that's the only thing I'm missing.

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“But I walked to the other side, I took some photos on the porch swing of the house. I actually walked through the house. The guys who were staying there tonight, who won it through an auction, they're White Sox fans, so I was able to take a photo with them and walk through the house, which was fantastic.”

If the Chicago closer had his druthers, the White Sox and Yankees would have played a couple of games in Iowa instead of just this single contest followed by Friday’s off-day and two games at Guaranteed Rate Field. But with the team flying from Minneapolis into Dubuque, Iowa, the day of the game and then leaving after the final out, they were trying to take in as much of the atmosphere as possible.

Some of the White Sox players moved over to the movie area to have their photos snapped. Others ventured into the corn to mingle with their cardboard cutouts strategically set up for fans to see. They didn’t have to have viewed the movie itself in order to enjoy what was taking place.

Hendriks, for one, appreciated the corn connection.

“I'm wearing my game pants right now, so I was actively trying to avoid getting dirty. But other than that, it was awesome,” Hendriks said. “It's a unique smell that I didn't quite anticipate. But it was cool.

“That's the iconic thing of what you want to do at an event like this. It's the iconic thing I was looking forward to more than anything. And so being able to run through there, get some photos in there has been fantastic. I'm sure at some point in the near future, anyone who follows me on Instagram is going to get very, very sick of corn photos. Now, I'm going to relate everything to corn. Whether it be cream corn, street corn, jalapeno corn, corn stalks, whatever it is. It definitely lived up to the experience.”

Hall of Famer Jim Thome, White Sox legend Paul Konerko and former White Sox reliever J.J. Putz all made the journey from various locales for the contest, with their sons also part of the experience. Manager Tony La Russa was not in attendance, traveling instead to Florida for the funeral of his brother-in-law.

Bench coach Miguel Cairo was in charge of the team.

“We miss our skipper. I'm excited, excited to be here and do this for him,” Cairo said. “First, I've got his back. He preaches family, and right now, he's with his family. His second family is here, and now we have to do it for him. We're going to go out there and do our best for him.

“When I got this job, it was to learn from Tony. Today, I'm going to see if I've learned something. That's the way I'm going to take it. He's one of the smartest managers I ever played for and worked with. Every day that you work with him, you learn something. Hopefully today, the text that I got, ‘I'm with you, trust your gut.’ That's the message for me today from him.”

As of three hours before first pitch, the only thing missing for Hendriks were the actors from the actual movie.

“It's cool,” Hendriks said. “All I'm waiting on is Kevin [Costner], Ray [Liotta] and James Earl [Jones] to come down, and we can figure it out.”

Third to first
• Hendriks took the entire White Sox bullpen out to dinner on Wednesday night with the team staying over in Minneapolis after its afternoon setback.

• Infielder Danny Mendick was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte as the 27th man for Thursday night’s contest.

He Said It
“I've got to go home to greet my cats because my wife's at a wedding in Mexico, and I need to go and make sure the kitty cats are all right.” -- Hendriks, on one of the main benefits of the White Sox departing for Chicago Thursday night