This week is the Field of Dreams game between the Yankees and White Sox. This week is also the Crimson & Gold challenge week at Austin College.
JR Ohr asked me to write online to promote the AC fundraising challenge. Hey JR, you know I am always a yes.
There will be an Austin College / Field of Dreams story told in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. Chapter 1 tomorrow.
What? Ties between little Austin College and the film Field of Dreams? You betcha. I was there in 1993. And all of those White Sox ghosts emerged from the corn to help me write.
This week is “Crimson & Gold” week at Austin College. Your donation will help Austin College Athletics and can be directed to the Roo sport of your choice. I plan on giving. More importantly, I plan on writing to hopefully inspire you to toss a dime AC’s way.
This week is also “Field of Dreams” week in America. On Thursday, August 12th, the Chicago White Sox will be playing the New York Yankees at a temporary field constructed adjacent to the field made famous by the 1989 movie. The cinematic classic “Field of Dreams” is a story about loss, redemption, and American baseball. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lot of Roo ties.
I’ll be telling a “Field of Dreams” Roo Tale this week in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. If you like the story, please consider supporting Austin College athletics. See the giving link in the comments. AC’s goal this week is to reach 125 gifts, celebrating 125 years of Austin College athletics. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting the Austin College Crimson & Gold fund.
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham (Monday)
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson (Tuesday)
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good (Wednesday)
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema (Thursday)
Chapter 5: People Will Come (Friday)
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham
Archibald “Moonlight” Graham never got a chance to bat.
Moonlight Graham, a minor leaguer for many years, was called up to the New York Giants in June of 1905. After sitting on the bench for weeks, Graham finally got an opportunity to play on June 29th. Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson had guided the Giants to a 10-run lead after 8 innings against Brooklyn. With one inning to go, Giants Manager John McGraw looked down his bench and inserted Graham into the lineup.
The rookie was on deck when Mathewson’s replacement flied out in the top of the ninth to end the inning. The out prevented Graham from getting to the plate. In the bottom of the ninth, Graham grabbed his glove and sprinted to right field. Brooklyn never hit the ball out of the infield; the game was over. Weeks later, Moonlight Graham was sent back down to the minors. He retired from the game to become a doctor in his native Minnesota. His career stats: One game, one inning, zero at-bats.
Played by Burt Lancaster, Moonlight Graham makes an appearance in the movie “Field of Dreams:”
“Suddenly old John McGraw points a bony finger in my direction and says, ‘right field.’ I jumped up like I was sitting on a spring, grabbed my glove, and ran out onto the field. They never hit the ball out of the infield. It was like coming this close to your dreams, and then watch them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd. You know, we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives as they are happening. Back then I thought, well, there will be other days. I didn’t realize that was the only day.”
Austin College Kangaroo Charlie Robertson was a 9-year-old Texas kid when Moonlight Graham played that famous inning for John McGraw’s New York Giants in 1905. By 1909, Robertson was 13 and McGraw’s Giants were in Sherman taking on Austin College. The Giants held spring training in Texas at the time, and a game was scheduled at Luckett Field against the Roos before the team returned home to New York to begin the season. John McGraw umpired. Christy Mathewson pitched. The New York Giants defeated Austin College, 5-1. From the St. Louis Globe Democrat:
“Every member of McGraw’s baseball assortment was busy this hot day, part of the troupe showing at Sherman. [They] experienced no difficulty in winning from the Austin College team at Sherman by a score of 5 to 1. The team will play the college boys again tomorrow. Christy Mathewson will pitch a part of this game.”
At the time of the Giants game in Sherman, Moonlight Graham was still playing ball in the minors for Class B Scranton (PA). Had Graham gotten an opportunity to bat in that famous 1905 game, perhaps he would have found a permanent spot on McGraw’s roster. And maybe, just maybe, he would have joined his Giant teammates on the trip to Sherman in 1908, for an at-bat against the Austin College Kangaroos.
Charlie Robertson would arrive at Austin College in 1916, pitching at the same Luckett Field where Moonlight Graham’s teammate Christy Mathewson took the mound 7 years earlier. It would be only the first of numerous ties between Robertson and the characters who grace the movie “Field of Dreams.”
This week is “Crimson & Gold” week at Austin College. Your donation will help Austin College Athletics and can be directed to the Roo sport of your choice. I plan on giving. More importantly, I plan on writing to hopefully inspire you to toss a dime AC’s way.
This week is also “Field of Dreams” week in America. On Thursday, August 12th, the Chicago White Sox will be playing the New York Yankees at a temporary field constructed adjacent to the field made famous by the 1989 movie. The cinematic classic “Field of Dreams” is a story about loss, redemption, and American baseball. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lot of Roo ties.
I’ll be telling a “Field of Dreams” Roo Tale this week in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. If you like the story, please consider supporting Austin College athletics. See the giving link in the comments. AC’s goal this week is to reach 125 gifts, celebrating 125 years of Austin College athletics. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting the Austin College Crimson & Gold fund.
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham (Monday)
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson (Tuesday)
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good (Wednesday)
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema (Thursday)
Chapter 5: People Will Come (Friday)
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson
In 1917, Charlie Robertson was a pitcher on the Austin College Kangaroo baseball team. That same year, John McGraw’s New York Giants reached the World Series. The Giants, who defeated Austin College in Sherman eight years earlier, lost the 1917 Series to Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago White Sox. Owner Charles Comiskey had formed a White Sox team around which a dynasty might be created.
Just two years later, Robertson was a part of that dynasty. On May 13, 1919, Robertson took to the mound at Comiskey Park for his first major league start as a member of the White Sox. The Roo was backed up by Chick Gandil (first base), Swede Risberg (shortstop), Buck Weaver (third base), Eddie Cicotte (relief pitcher), and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson (left field). He lost that day in Chicago and was sent down to the minors after only one game. Unlike Moonlight Graham from the movie Field of Dreams, however, Robertson would be back.
The 1919 Chicago White Sox advanced to the World Series without Robertson, but “threw” the series to gamblers after the broken salary promises of owner Charles Comiskey. Ray Kinsella explains the term to his young daughter Karin in the movie “Field of Dreams” while building the field.
Ray: Ty Cobb called him the greatest left fielder of all time. He said his glove is where triples go to die. Then in 1919, his team, the Chicago White Sox, they threw the World Series.
Karin: What’s ‘threw’?
Ray: Means they lost it on purpose. Gamblers paid them to. Except Shoeless Joe. Now he did take their money, but nobody could ever prove he did a single thing to lose those games. I mean if he was supposed to be throwing it, how do you explain the fact he hit .375 for the series and didn’t commit one error? Huh?
Karin: I can’t.
Ray: 12 hits including the Series’ only home run? And they said he’s trying to lose?
Karin: It’s ridiculous.
Ray: The commissioner of baseball suspended eight of the players, including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson for life.
Karin: What’s ‘suspend’?
Ray: It means they never let him play the game again.
The infamous “Black Sox” scandal was uncovered by sportswriter Hugh Fullerton, who had significant help from a former major league pitcher. Retired from baseball, the pitcher led a famously pious life and was a strict opponent of gambling. He provided Fullerton with details about gambling within baseball and even watched the World Series alongside him as they counted “suspicious plays.” The pitcher was New York Giant Christy Mathewson, who had defeated the Roos ten years earlier in Sherman.
For their role in the Black Sox scandal, Major League Baseball barred Gandil, Risberg, Weaver, Cicotte, and Shoeless Joe Jackson for life. All five appear in the movie “Field of Dreams,” with Jackson playing a major role. From Jackson, in the movie “Field of Dreams:”
“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 years. That was me. I’d wake up at night with the smell of the ballpark in my nose. With the cool of the grass on my feet. The thrill of the grass.”
Shoeless Joe Jackson had solid day at the plate when Robertson made his first career start on May 13, 1919. At the time, Jackson was batting a league leading .435. He finished the day with two walks and a stolen base, scoring the only White Sox run. The five White Sox players who appear in “Field of Dreams” combined to go 6-for-13 (.461) in support of their Roo teammate on the mound. On that day, however, it would not be enough.
Robertson would be back with the White Sox in 1922 without Gandil, Risberg, Weaver, Cicotte, and Jackson. And on April 30, 1922, Charlie Robertson would win a game so perfect that he barely needed any run support at all. That effort came against a Detroit Tigers team led by Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, who is also mentioned in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
This week is “Crimson & Gold” week at Austin College. Your donation will help Austin College Athletics and can be directed to the Roo sport of your choice. I plan on giving. More importantly, I plan on writing to hopefully inspire you to toss a dime AC’s way.
This week is also “Field of Dreams” week in America. On Thursday, August 12th, the Chicago White Sox will be playing the New York Yankees at a temporary field constructed adjacent to the field made famous by the 1989 movie. The cinematic classic “Field of Dreams” is a story about loss, redemption, and American baseball. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lot of Roo ties.
I’ll be telling a “Field of Dreams” Roo Tale this week in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. If you like the story, please consider supporting Austin College athletics. See the giving link in the comments. AC’s goal this week is to reach 125 gifts, celebrating 125 years of Austin College athletics. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting the Austin College Crimson & Gold fund.
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham (Monday)
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson (Tuesday)
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good (Wednesday)
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema (Thursday)
Chapter 5: People Will Come (Friday)
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good
By 1922, Robertson was back with the White Sox. In just his third professional start on April 30, the Kangaroo was asked to defeat the Detroit Tigers, the best hitting team in the history of baseball. The Tigers were led by Ty Cobb, considered by many as the best hitter in baseball history. Cobb also had a well-deserved ornery reputation, which shows up in the movie “Field of Dreams.” As Moonlight Graham marvels at the ballplayers on the field, Shoeless Joe Jackson points out the one who is not present:
“You wouldn’t believe how many guys wanted to play here. We had to beat them off with a stick. Ty Cobb wanted to play. But none of us could stand the son of a b!|@# when we were alive so we told him to stick it!”
Robertson did more than defeat the Tigers on April 30, 1922. He pitched a perfect game, an accomplishment that has only occurred 21 times since Moonlight Graham suited up for the New York Giants in 1905. A frustrated Ty Cobb loudly protested every inning of his team’s futility, to no avail. On that day, the Roo was perfect.
I wrote “The Most Perfect Game Ever Pitched: Charlie Robertson vs. Ty Cobb” in 2021 to tell the incredible story of Robertson’s effort against Cobb & the Tigers. Like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Robertson left baseball a frustrated man. He had to endure the injustices of Charles Comiskey just like the White Sox players in the movie “Field of Dreams,” yet he also experienced one day of baseball perfection in 1922 that was as dream-like as Moonlight Graham finally getting his at-bat in a cornfield in Iowa.
My book about Robertson ends with a reference to the movie:
“In the movie Field of Dreams, Doc ‘Moonlight’ Graham gets his wish granted. Graham (played by Burt Lancaster) was called up to the majors and played one inning of one game in the major leagues. However, he never got to bat. After being sent down and toiling in the minors, Graham gave it all up and became a successful doctor in Minnesota. Yet he never lost that dream of facing down a major league pitcher. In the movie, Graham finally gets that wish. His sacrifice fly in the movie does not count as an official at-bat, and the record books remain unaffected.”
“All of Robertson’s 1919 teammates are there on the field as Graham is at the plate. Chick Gandil, Buck Weaver, Swede Risberg. Eddie Cicotte pitches to Graham. And Shoeless Joe Jackson gives him the advice needed to get the bat on the ball. Later in the movie, a medical emergency requires Graham to end his dream. He can never go back. But it’s ok. He thanks Robertson’s teammates and tells them to win one for him one day. As he disappears into the corn, Jackson yells out: ‘hey rookie, you were good!’”
“When you write about someone, you get close to them. You feel their frustrations, and you want to make things right. Robertson deserved better. Yes, his life was a long and quite possibly rewarding one. But there is still a missing chapter. The one where his contributions to baseball are matched in return by the game. I now know his story, and there will probably be opportunities for recognition. The 100th anniversary of the outing will occur in 2022, and I plan on continuing to write to make his effort more widely known in baseball circles.”
“Maybe those efforts will turn into a collective effort to give Robertson what he deserved yet failed to receive during his lifetime. A loud and clear shout out from baseball, saying: ‘Hey rookie, you were good.’”
Charlie Robertson and Ty Cobb reunited years later after both had retired. Robertson told of his conversation with Cobb to the Literary Digest:
“There has been a lot of stuff printed about the way Cobb acted in that game. And I think this ought to be told. I had the honor of being the guest of the Intervarsity Club of Detroit a while after I pitched that game and sat at the table with Cobb. And he told me then, personally, that he had never seen more ‘stuff’ on a ball in his life and that that was the reason why he kept looking at it. And he added that whatever talk there had been aroused about his protesting the game was all false; that as far as he was concerned, he had been licked fair and square.”
This week is “Crimson & Gold” week at Austin College. Your donation will help Austin College Athletics and can be directed to the Roo sport of your choice. I plan on giving. More importantly, I plan on writing to hopefully inspire you to toss a dime AC’s way.
This week is also “Field of Dreams” week in America. On Thursday, August 12th, the Chicago White Sox will be playing the New York Yankees at a temporary field constructed adjacent to the field made famous by the 1989 movie. The cinematic classic “Field of Dreams” is a story about loss, redemption, and American baseball. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lot of Roo ties.
I’ll be telling a “Field of Dreams” Roo Tale this week in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. If you like the story, please consider supporting Austin College athletics. See the giving link in the comments. AC’s goal this week is to reach 125 gifts, celebrating 125 years of Austin College athletics. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting the Austin College Crimson & Gold fund.
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham (Monday)
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson (Tuesday)
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good (Wednesday)
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema (Thursday)
Chapter 5: People Will Come (Friday)
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema
Tonight, the Chicago White Sox of Kangaroo Charlie Robertson battle the New York Yankees at the Field of Dreams. Enjoy the game everybody. I’ll be watching.
In the early 1980s, Author W.P. Kinsella wrote the book “Shoeless Joe.” The book tells the story of an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in his corn, allowing Moonlight Graham, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and farmer Ray Kinsella himself to live out the dreams denied during their lifetimes.
In the book, Ray Kinsella travels to Boston to assist the dreams of the real-life reclusive author J.D. Salinger, of “Catcher in the Rye” fame. The movie “Field of Dreams” changed the character from Salinger to the fictitious Terrence Mann, because of the litigious reputation of Salinger when his privacy was threatened. Salinger was born in 1919, the year Charlie Robertson pitched for the infamous Chicago White Sox of Shoeless Joe Jackson. He grew up as a childhood fan of the New York Giants, the same team that had battled Austin College in Sherman years earlier. Salinger’s return to both youthful idealism and prolific writing when he is invited into the corn by the White Sox players is a final transformation for the Mann character played by James Earl Jones:
Kinsella: “You’re gonna write about it?”
Mann: “You bet I’ll write about it.”
Kinsella: “You’re gonna write about it.”
Mann: “That’s what I do.”
Kinsella: “Good, good.”
Austin College’s Charlie Robertson passed away during the publication of Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe.” By the time the book was transformed into the movie “Field of Dreams,” I was an Austin College freshman.
My AC fraternity pledge class in the Spring of 1989 included a large number of Kangaroo baseball players. We spent that unique semester more often together than alone, participating in group activities. One of those activities was a trip to the Sherman Dollar Cinema at the corner of Texoma & Highway 82, where we all watched the movie “Field of Dreams.” That dollar cinema is no more, but its impact that evening was big. I left with a strong desire to check out the Field of Dreams movie site.
Acceptance to graduate school in Boston during the summer of 1993 rekindled my interest in the movie Field of Dreams. The Fenway scenes with Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones were immediately on my mind, as was the book which launched the movie. I read “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella and made plans to drive from Texas to Boston by way of Dyersville, Iowa in late summer of 1993. The timing was perfect. The corn, which had been “knee high by the 4th of July,” would be at its peak by late summer.
The trip was a special one for its intimacy. Well before the inevitable commercialization that often results from a successful motion picture, I was able to take some batting practice with just a handful of dedicated fans while also wandering into the outfield corn made famous by Robertson’s White Sox teammates. Of the few visitors at the Field of Dreams that day, my favorite two were a father and his young son. I snapped a picture. If you’ve seen the movie’s ending, you know why.
You can see Ray’s father John Kinsella wearing a Yankees uniform in the movie’s final scene. Ray’s father was a New York Yankees fan in the movie. That fandom is yet another part of the father-son rift to which we are introduced at the beginning of the film:
“Dad was a Yankees fan then, so of course I rooted for Brooklyn. But in ’58, the Dodgers moved away. So, we had to find other things to fight about. We did.”
Tonight, those same Yankees of John Kinsella will be taking on the Chicago White Sox at the Field of Dreams tonight. I won’t be rooting for New York though. You’ll find me backing the teammates of Austin College Kangaroo Charlie Robertson: Chick, Swede, Buck, Eddie, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. It’s that team, after all, that I watched come back to life in 1989 at the Sherman Dollar Cinema.
This week is “Crimson & Gold” week at Austin College. Your donation will help Austin College Athletics and can be directed to the Roo sport of your choice. I plan on giving. More importantly, I plan on writing to hopefully inspire you to toss a dime AC’s way.
This week is also “Field of Dreams” week in America. On Thursday, August 12th, the Chicago White Sox will be playing the New York Yankees at a temporary field constructed adjacent to the field made famous by the 1989 movie. The cinematic classic “Field of Dreams” is a story about loss, redemption, and American baseball. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lot of Roo ties.
I’ll be telling a “Field of Dreams” Roo Tale this week in 5 chapters over the next 5 days. If you like the story, please consider supporting Austin College athletics. See the giving link in the comments. AC’s goal this week is to reach 125 gifts, celebrating 125 years of Austin College athletics. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for supporting the Austin College Crimson & Gold fund.
Chapter 1: Moonlight Graham
Chapter 2: Shoeless Joe Jackson
Chapter 3: Hey Rookie, You Were Good
Chapter 4: The Sherman Dollar Cinema
Chapter 5: People Will Come
Chapter 5: People Will Come
Wallace Dashiell graduated from Austin College in 1922, and like Charlie Robertson was signed by Charles Comiskey and the White Sox. Imagine his excitement. This Roo was headed to Chicago, to play alongside his former Roo coach, perfect game hurler, and now teammate. Dashiell spent 1923 in the minors but was called up to Chicago to start the 1924 season. He watched Robertson pitch a few outings, and patiently waited to get the call. It came against Cleveland on April 20, 1924.
Dashiell was inserted at shortstop halfway through the game. His first two plate appearances were both strikeouts. The White Sox 8th inning began with the Cleveland Indians up 4-1. But a rally was about to get underway at Comiskey, and Dashiell would be a part of it. Chicago closed the gap to 4-3 and had men on 1st and 2nd. In a manner similar to Moonlight Graham in the movie “Field of Dreams,” Dashiell was called to sacrifice to advance the runners. He delivered; the runners advanced and would later score. Chicago won 5-4, and Dashiell was a contributor.
Wallace Dashiell never played in the majors again. His career major league statistics: 3 plate appearances, 2 at-bats, 1 sacrifice, 0 hits/walks. One game. He was the Moonlight Graham of Austin College.
Austin College athletics had a big impact on me in 1989. So did the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. The reality that an Austin College pitcher crossed paths with characters from the movie and accomplished one of the most impressive feats in baseball alongside those same characters is something which will motivate someone like me to write. And I did. “The Most Perfect Game Ever Pitched: Charlie Robertson vs. Ty Cobb” is dedicated to my 1989 Roo baseball friends, those same guys with whom I saw Field of Dreams in Sherman that year.
Kevin Costner is a frequent backdrop to much of my writing. I used his movie “For Love of the Game” to tell the story of Charlie Robertson, and his filmography is a chapter in the book. Writing this week for AC athletics with Costner in the background yet again game gave me an epiphany: I need to send Mr. Costner my book. I mailed it on Monday. Kevin, hope you enjoy. And thanks for your movies.
Field of Dreams is an American classic, designated by the U.S. National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Actor Kevin Costner has often referred to the movie as his generation’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Over thirty years later, the film is still leaving its mark. The proof? Major League baseball held a regular season game at the Field of Dreams just last night. Charlie Robertson’s Chicago White Sox defeated the New York Yankees on a 9th inning walk off homerun by Tim Anderson that landed in the corn. Like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Anderson must be a “lowball hitter.”
If you enjoyed this AC Athletics Field of Dreams story, perhaps consider tossing a dime to the AC Crimson & Gold fund. You can even pick the sport to which you’d like to direct your funds. Doesn’t have to be the AC baseball program of Shoeless Joe Jackson teammate Charlie Robertson. Doesn’t have to be the AC baseball program which took on Moonlight Graham teammate Christy Mathewson. Doesn’t have to be the AC baseball program with whom I watched the movie Field of Dreams while a student at AC. But that choice would certainly make sense. AC’s goal this week is 125 gifts celebrating 125 years of Austin College Athletics. AC baseball, established in 1896, celebrates its 125th birthday this year. Thanks for giving.
In the thirty-two years since I watched the movie in Sherman back in 1989, America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But Field of Dreams has marked the time. This film is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and could be again.
The Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, Iowa is worth a visit; I treasure my own trip, and highly recommend you consider one if you believe you might enjoy it. Will people come and join you at the movie site as they did me back in 1993? Oh, people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
