I was so stoked to be asked to be a guest on the film podcast.. the Arc.fm to talk about a movie that means so much to so many people, especially baseball fans: Field of Dreams.
Robby, Cole, and Jaclynn Larington are incredible storytellers, filmmakers, and podcast hosts. Who came at this film with way different experiences..
I was asked to join to chat about my dad, Mike Fleming.
My dad was a professional umpire in the minor leagues when he was a young man, and there has always been something about Moonlight Graham’s story in Field of Dreams that reminds me of his. Sometimes you spend your whole life dreaming about something, chasing it as far as you possibly can, expecting your big chance...and then… poof… in an instant… that dream can be taken away.
And sometimes people can be taken away from us just as suddenly.
This movies does such a brilliant job of showcasing the wide spectrum of human emotions that happen in and off a baseball field… with the people we love. The memories we make. And the pieces of those people and those dreams that we carry with us. and how we might just throw it all away for one more day… or one more game of catch with a lost loved one.
I’ll admit it: this podcast made me cry. Robby.. you got me man…
Robby watches Field of Dreams every year around his birthday, and it still seems to wreck him in the right way… this meant so much to me that they invited me into this conversation and gave me the chance to talk about my dad, our shared love of baseball, and my family’s own little Field of Dreams… the baseball fields I grew up playing on as a kid with my dad in Sibley, Iowa, which today bear his name.
Like the game of baseball itself… this was a really heartfelt conversation about fathers and sons, loss, hope, memories, and second chances. Damn this movie is good.
You can listen to the Arc.fm Field of Dreams episode wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thank you, Robby, Cole, and Jaclynn, for having me on and for giving me a chance to talk film and about my dad.
