DYERSVILLE — One pitch — then two, then three — pop off the barrel of a bat with a crack, halted from dropping into the crowd by the large foul-ball net hung behind home plate. On a baseball field tucked among the corn fields in western Dubuque County, the Minnesota Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies faced off in a regular-season matchup at the Field of Dreams Movie Site on Aug. 13. In between each batter, music blares through the speakers spread throughout stadium, and the bass reverberates through the ground. The teams' mascots — the Phillie Phanatic and T.C. Bear — chuck rolled up t-shirts into the out-stretched hands of fans in the stands. Sweat-drenched vendors hawk beer and hot dogs and pretzels. And the stadium — with a capacity of 8,000, thanks to added temporary bleachers — is packed to the brim with baseball fans from across the country.
In the middle of it all — literally, just rows behind home plate — sit Amber and Brian Rowan, with their two daughters. Slumped in her stroller, 10-month-old Brielle is fast asleep in between the sixth and seventh innings. She's no newcomer to professional baseball games, and she's already attended her fair share of Phillies games at Citizens Bank Park back home. Her younger sister, Grace, is a different story. The Field of Dreams matchup was 8-week-old Grace's first Phillies game. She missed the latter half of the game, fast asleep in the crook of her mother's arm. "Brie's gone to a bunch of Phillies games, so she's used to this environment," Amber Rown told the Des Moines Register. "This is Grace's first, but she likes all the noise. We've had them out doing things since 10 a.m., and they've been loving it and doing great."
But with how the Rowans' travel day went just getting out to Iowa — 15 hours, from start to finish — it's no surprise that their two daughters under two years old were unfazed by the lights and the noise. The Rowans were supposed to fly out of Philadelphia International Airport, but their originally scheduled flight got delayed and ultimately canceled. They found a new flight to Chicago — where they'd originally planned to fly into and meet up with friends — but that one left from the Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pa., a two-hour bus ride from Philadelphia. The family of four waited again in Allentown, then sat on the tarmac for about an hour to get to their gate in Chicago, and the exhausting travel day didn't end there. Their luggage — including the baby's car seat — had been checked onto another flight. And so ensued a scavenger hunt around the airport searching for their belongings. By the time they walked through the gates at the Field of Dreams, explored the movie site and settled into their seats, the myriad of sounds that come with live sporting events were almost calming compared to the roller-coaster experience of traveling to Iowa. And for the family of four from Newton, Pa., it was all worth it to watch their Phillies beat Minnesota 7-1 in a stadium surrounded by corn fields. "Oh my god, this is amazing," said Amber Rowan. "Being here is amazing, I love it and we're having such a great time."
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Pennsylvania family has quite a story about their trip to Field of Dreams