The Cubs took an early lead, as Seiya Suzuki, Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ combined to drive in three runs in the first inning. Nick Madrigal’s fourth-inning single gave the Cubs a 4-0 lead.
As batting practice wound down, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer stood in the Field of Dreams visitors’ dugout tossing the ball back and forth with his son.
The quiet moment, with the slap of the ball hitting Hoyer’s bare hands and his son’s mitt serving as a metronome, summed up exactly what the coming game was about.
The field the Cubs and Reds played on Thursday, a baseball’s throw away from the movie site, was as well manicured as any major-league field. But everything about it, from the wood-printed padding lining the dugout fences to the barn-shaped batter’s eye, was designed to evoke the nostalgia of a movie about the relationship between a father and son told through baseball.
“I think everybody can remember that and relate to that feeling,” Cubs manager David Ross said before the Cubs’ 4-2 win against the Reds, “and how – whether your dad’s still alive or not – being able to go back, and what you wouldn’t give to have those moments with family and your parents.
