By Thursday evening, more than 25 Hall of Famers are expected to walk out of a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa, and onto a baseball diamond built for one night of television. The Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies meet at 7:30 p.m. ET in the third installment of MLB at Field of Dreams, a game that streams exclusively on Netflix and doubles as a playoff-race showcase for two teams that need the win as much as the spectacle.
The pitching matchup pairs Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola against Twins right-hander Taj Bradley, one of the American League's hardest throwers. Both clubs will wear throwback uniforms for the occasion — the Twins in a 1960s-style pinstriped home jersey with the old "Minnie and Paul" sleeve patch, the Phillies in gray roadwear modeled on their 1939-41 look. The ballpark itself, an 8,000-seat structure built a quarter-mile from the original 1989 movie site, has been expanded since the last Field of Dreams game in 2022, when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds.
The Hall of Fame contingent walking through the corn is, by MLB's own account, the largest gathering of living Hall of Famers at a single game since the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Phillies legends Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Scott Rolen are scheduled to appear, alongside Twins greats Joe Mauer, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven and Paul Molitor, with Jim Thome and Jim Kaat representing both franchises.
A Wild-Card Backdrop
Underneath the pageantry sits a real playoff race. The Twins enter the game roughly a game back of the American League's third and final wild-card spot, tied with Cleveland for that position. The Phillies are clinging to a National League wild-card berth by a single game over a crowded field that includes the Cubs, Padres and Diamondbacks. Both teams treated this trip to Iowa as a business stop as much as a showcase — the game opens a three-game series that continues in Minneapolis over the weekend.
The event traces back to August 2021, when the White Sox beat the Yankees 9-8 on a walk-off home run from Tim Anderson that landed, fittingly, in the corn beyond the outfield wall. That first game drew some of the highest ratings of the MLB regular season and turned an already-popular tourist site into an annual made-for-television venue. A second game between the Cubs and Reds followed in 2022, then the series went dark for three seasons while the surrounding grounds were rebuilt, adding a youth baseball and softball complex alongside the expanded main field.
When the 2026 matchup was announced last November, both franchises leaned into the sentimentality of the setting.
"Major League Baseball is excited to return to Iowa in 2026 and to deliver a unique experience to the Twins, the Phillies, their players, our two Minor League teams, and fans across the game."
Rob Manfred, MLB Commissioner
"It is an honor to have been selected for the return of the prestigious MLB at Field of Dreams game. For our players, this will be an experience they never forget as they step onto the set of one of the most iconic baseball movies ever made."
John Middleton, Phillies Managing Partner and CEO
Weather Looms Over First Pitch
The one variable neither team can control is the sky. Forecasters have tracked a band of storms moving toward eastern Iowa on Thursday, with the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting a chance of lightning near first pitch, though drier conditions were expected to move in by evening. MLB has held Friday, Aug. 14 open on both teams' schedules as a rain date should the game need to be pushed back a day. Resale tickets were still fetching close to four figures apiece as of Wednesday, storm risk notwithstanding.
Whatever happens on the field, the broadcast itself is a test case: it is Netflix's second consecutive year carrying a marquee MLB event after last winter's Christmas Day doubleheader, part of the streamer's broader push into live sports. A strong audience Thursday night would give both MLB and Netflix reason to keep the cornfield in regular rotation; a rainout would simply move the reunion — Hall of Famers, throwback jerseys and all — to Friday.
