This Is One Baseball Diamond That Will Really Grow on You

Is this heaven?

No, it’s Iowa. But at least this time, it’s a field of reality.

Lou Brock, Reggie Jackson, Rod Dedeaux, Joe Pepitone, actor Richard Dean Anderson and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad were among those in attendance. And this gathering was brought to Dyersville, Iowa, for a charity event, the Upper Deck Field of Dreams Game. But all anyone seemed to talk about was the setting, the most famous baseball diamond ever cut out of a cornfield.

The “Field of Dreams” field lives on, as an attraction.

“This is the kind of field everybody grew up on,” Jackson told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “This is America.”

Added Dedeaux, the Glendale resident and former USC coach who was technical adviser for the movie: “It’ll never change. I dream about this place every night. This has to be a landmark forever for baseball.

“I have a little perspective on that. I live right next door to the house they used when they made ‘Gone With the Wind.’ I told Don (Lansing, the field’s co-owner) the same thing could happen here and it has.”

Trivia time: True or false--Michael Jordan has at least one 40-point game against each of the 26 other NBA teams?

Tomahawk this: It’s a good thing he is kidding, because woe to the catcher who looks up to see pinch-runner Evander Holyfield racing the throw from the outfield to the plate. But the heavyweight champion did offer to help his hometown Atlanta Braves in the pennant drive.

In a note to Brave President John Schuerholz, Holyfield said he was impressed by Deion Sanders’ decision to help the Braves while also playing football for the Falcons.

“I am sure that I could fit in a few trips to the plate as a pinch-’hitter,’ ” Holyfield wrote. “After all, I’ve been working very hard on my ‘hitting’ lately.”

Quick, somebody dare Norm Charlton to throw high and tight on him.

Now UC it: If you wondered why anyone would want to steal the uniforms of UC Irvine’s women’s basketball team, forcing the school to place a $4,000 rush order so the team would have uniforms in time for the season . . . you can stop wondering.

They weren’t stolen.

On the Monday morning after a weekend Morning Briefing item about the odd disappearance of uniforms belonging to a team that won only six games the past two seasons, pep squad coordinator Stephanie Rangel went to the office of Coach Colleen Matsuhara.

“She sat down very seriously and said they were very sorry,” Matsuhara said. “I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about.”

Turns out that the cheerleaders borrowed the uniforms to use in a summer camp and simply hadn’t returned them yet.

“They very sheepishly turned in a bunch,” said Matsuhara, who is waiting to receive a full set before she cancels the rush order.

“My uniform guy is going to faint,” she said. “They’re probably cutting the material.”

Duck tales: Kevin Duckworth, the 7-foot, 270-pound center of the Portland Trail Blazers, visited the elementary school in his neighborhood during the off-season. As could be expected, he fielded plenty of questions about his size, and then the children presented him with a lifetime pass to the school cafeteria, good for all the lunches he could eat.

Duckworth’s reaction was equally predictable: “What time is lunch?”

No word on whether the school food service has bankruptcy protection.

Trivia answer: True.

Quotebook: Offensive tackle Nate Newton of the Dallas Cowboys, on running back Emmitt Smith: “Give that little man just a crease and he’s something special. He can stop on a dime and give you 9 1/2 cents change.”