It was an interesting bit of baseball and movie history in 2021 when the Chicago White Sox walked out of a field of corn near Dyersville, Iowa, to a cheering crowd of more than 8,000 people and a national television audience. The team was recreating, in their vintage uniforms, a scene from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. In essence, the theme of the movie “if you build it they will come” came true for Major League Baseball fans who flocked to the park.

But in the background of a lot of the game there was corn. It was all around the special 8,000-seat stadium built near the original movie site. And even then, the corn was DeKalb. But now it’s official Dekalb has entered a new partnership as the Official Corn Seed of MLB Field of Dreams presented by GIECO (and yes, the official announcement includes all those brand names).

“So Rahe Farms has been planting DeKalb for 20 years,” says Jamie Horton, DeKalb brand manager. “This will be the first year of our official sponsorship.”

Farm viewers of that 2021 game might have gotten a chuckle when some White Sox and Yankee players pulled some ears and took a taste of the corn. The DeKalb varieties at the site are not sweet corn, which the players learned the hard way. There’s little chance the same mistake will be made for 2022. DeKalb field corn isn’t suitable for direct-from-the-field consumption but like all field corn has a wide range of important uses.

When asked why farmers should care what kind of corn is planted around that baseball site Horton answers: “I think the one thing that comes to my mind is that if you think about the fact that Rahe Farms trusts DeKalb to be the corn seed brand providing them innovation through the last 20 years, it’s really something we’ve stood behind and we want all growers to feel the same way.”

DeKalb and the national audience

For 2022, when the lights fire up and the crowds arrive there will be the familiar winged ear DeKalb logo in several places pointing out the brand of corn in the field surrounding the park. “The Field of Dreams filming site is truly one of the most special places on earth, and we are honored to able to farm it and grow DeKalb corn there,” says Andy Rahe of Rahe Farms. “Just like the movie, our cornfield is our heaven.”

As for linking seed corn and baseball, Horton has this observation: “The overall DeKalb messaging, the Winning has Roots mentality has similarities to baseball. You work to beat last year, to have a better record. It takes a team of people to do get you to that. The grower ultimately has to plant DeKalb corn but the farmer works with trusted advisers, internal agronomists and dealers as well to maximize performance.”

She also points to seed innovation which helps farmers boost yield, observing that baseball has also seen constant innovation.

The Aug. 11 game is the second of the special event at the Dyersville site. MLB constructed an 8,000-seat ballpark next to the original movie site. A path through a cornfield (now officially a DeKalb cornfield) takes fans to the ballpark, which will overlook the original movie location.

There’s more information at DeKalb.com/fieldofdreams and on social media follow #MLBatFieldofDreams and #WinningHasRoots.