Did you watch the Field of Dreams Game?
The Chicago White Sox prevailed, 9-8, with a two-run walk-off homerun — eight homeruns were sent over the fence into the corn over the course of the game — against the New York Yankees on Thursday night in the Hawkeye State.
The MLB field was adjacent to the movie set for Field of Dreams.
Watching America’s pastime for the first time among the cornfields of Dyersville, Iowa, was indeed a memorable experience.
But did you catch the town images highlighted during the game? Shown, rising above the small town, was the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, a beautiful church that the Register has preciously featured in travel stories.
Just miles from the iconic field is the historic edifice.
Dedicated in 1889, it was named a minor basilica in 1956 by Pope Pius XII and “is one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in that part of the nation.”
As one Register article detailed, “ ... what a beautiful place this is to be near to, and receive, Our Lord in his Eucharistic presence.”
The lovely church in the heart of small-town America brings to mind the lessons that can be gleaned from faith and baseball:
“Baseball … remind[s] us of what life should be: a pilgrimage according to a prescribed order that requires a host of virtues, including faith, courage, loyalty, discipline, hard work and a commitment to fair play.”