Field of Dreams Game Ratings Fell By Nearly 50 Percent From Last Year

The ratings for Thursday's Field of Dreams Game between the Cubs and Reds were certainly not what MLB had hoped for in its second iteration of the event. While the 3.1 million viewers was still good enough to be the most-watched MLB game of the season, it was down precipitously from the nearly 6 million who watched the Yankees and White Sox in 2021.

If you're going to keep up what is little more than a gimmick, you have to schedule teams people want to watch. I get that the Cubs and Reds make sense geographically for a game played in Iowa, but I'm shocked there were even as many viewers as there were for two NL Central teams which are a combined 42 games under .500 — it obviously helps that the rest of the MLB schedule was cleared for this game.

I'd be just fine if this Field of Dreams Game was the last one. It was cool to watch once, but do we really need to send two teams to the middle of a cornfield every season? Unless it's some combination of Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals and Dodgers every year, the ratings will only keep going down.

And I'll say it: the movie isn't even all that great to begin with.