For the first time in The Sports Fan Project‘s history, members of the recently created $80 for 80 Circle of Champions who submitted their interest in entering the drawing received triple the entries. It’d be great to add your name to the Circle of Champions list, please consider supporting the work at that previous link.
Find out who the big winner is on the video below.
Are you feeling lucky? One entrant is about to receive an author-signed copy of We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball.
“The Money Shot” from Michigan Sky Media, captured during the 2022 UM-MSU game. (Photo by Tyler Leipprandt)
“Rival Game” from Michigan Sky Media, captured during the 2023 UM-MSU game. (Photo by Tyler Leipprandt)
Tonight in this pleasant peninsula that is Michigan, our two B1G schools meet on the football field up in East Lansing for the 118th time dating back to 1898. It will be the 80th straight season the schools have met.
On paper, it seems a mismatch. The Michigan Wolverines are 5-2 overall and 3-1 in conference play, while the Michigan State Spartans 3-4 and 0-4 and currently riding a 4-game losing streak. But you know what they say when the coveted Paul Bunyan Trophy’s on the line?
Regardless of who they are and whatever they may say, I have a pair of giveaways in conjunction with this rivalry game.
Back on September 18, 2025, I was joined by photographer Tyler Leipprandt from Michigan Sky Media on our podcast, Conversations with Sports Fans, to discuss how he captures his stunning aerial images (seen above).
Well, I purchased a pair of 5×7 photo prints of Tyler’s work (totally frame worthy!) from high above both Michigan Stadium (“The Money Shot”) and Spartan Stadium (“Rival Game”) during the 2022 and 2023 matchups, respectively, and they’re now up-for-grabs to whomever submits their interest on this Google Form in advance of the 11:59 p.m. ET, October 31, 2025, entry deadline.
Depending upon your allegiances, these will look great in your home or they’d make a perfect gift for the Sparty or M lover in your life.
Spread the word! I’d love to get these into loving Spartans and Wolverines fan homes.
The cover of “The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.”
We were delighted to have Len Berman join us for a recent episode of Conversations with Sports Fans (S:4, E:45) where the longtime WNBC sports anchor shared stories of his time in the big city as both a fan and a working journalist.
We were event more delighted when Len passed along a signed copy of his book, The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time for us to give away to one of our listeners/readers. And that’s just what we’ve done and you’re able to find out who the lucky winner is by watching the video below.
Thanks again for subscribing (and if you haven’t … what gives!?!), reading, listening, commenting, and sharing (it is caring, after all;-).
The drawing for our lucky winner of a signed copy of Len Berman’s book.
E60’s promotional poster for the documentary, “Southpaw.”
I awoke this morning knowing exactly what I planned to write about.
In desperate need of clearing the decks of Event No. 21 from the Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project, I was determined to write about my experience at the 120th Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, AK, from back in June.
As its backdrop, the documentary focuses on Saturday afternoon, September 4, 1993, in the Bronx when Abbott – who, for the unfamiliar, was born without a right hand – pitched a no-hitter for the New York Yankees against the then-Cleveland Indians.
The overarching storyline, however, is about Jim Abbott‘s life and the impact he had on others … oh, so many others.
Suddenly I was engrossed in the story of which – hailing from the State of Michigan – I had more than passing familiarity. Heck, I had even met Jim when we were both freshmen in college. He at the University of Michigan and I across Washtenaw County at Eastern Michigan University. One of his Flint Central buddies known to most of us only as Kramer, lived down the hall from me in Phelps Hall. Jim paid Kramer a visit the night of March 21, 1986. I remember the date because we were in Kramer’s room watching the beginning of the Michigan State-Kansas men’s basketball regional semifinal that MSU ultimately lost in overtime due, in part, to a clock malfunction.
What I was unaware of, however, was the volume of communications Abbott received from the families of boys and girls – like him – who were disabled and how, in many ways, he became an almost reverential figure for those children and their parents about what was possible.
That extra burden he carried must have been significant, but to most on the outside world it didn’t show and, as he matured, he grew to understand it came with the territory of being one of the disabled world’s highest profile members.
The film also serves as a reminder to all of us that someone is always watching and we all have the opportunity to inspire, influence, and encourage others with our words and actions. If you ever needed a reminder of this, the film’s final 10-minutes drives this point home emphatically.
To say it was 90 minutes well spent would be an understatement and a disservice to Jim Abbott’s life (and the E60 production team). I encourage you to grab a handful of tissues and enjoy all the emotions.
The farmhouse at the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville, IA.
I know what you might be thinking:
Doug, this is supposed to be Around the World in 80 Sporting Events. How does the location of a film rise to the level of an event. Or even an iconic venue?
It’s a fair question and one that I wrestled with more than a little bit when building out the 80-ish events/venues. But, in the end it’s my project, my list, right?
That said, my decision seemed vindicated after recently visiting the Dyersville, IA, farm that served as a primary filming location for the 1989 baseball movie, “Field of Dreams.” While spending about an hour on site, my dad and I encountered folks from all corners of the United States, including a couple from southern California that had a family wedding in the Kansas City area and the husband was insistent that this diversion north must occur.
Um, that’s a 6-hour detour, my friend!
He was resolute, however and neither he nor his wife seemed the least bit put out by driving hours through rural America to wander around a baseball field for an hour or so.
But that seems to be the draw of this place. Karin Kinsella and Terence Mann were both spot on with their assessments of Ray Kinsella‘s absurd decision to plow under half his crop and build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere.
Karin and Terence tell Ray why he shouldn’t sell the farm. (Bonus: Archie “Doc” Graham saves Karin.)
People will – and do– come. (Seriously, check out the “Field of Dreams” live web cam here. If sun’s up in Iowa and there’s no rain, you’re bound to see folks on the field.)
There is no charge to visit the site. It’s all a freewill donation and, yes, I handed over $20 without giving it a thought, for it’s money I had and moments I sought.
Those moments were to spend time with my father at one of the more special places for fathers and sons in filmography history and if the weather permitted and we could sneak in a catch, well, all the better.
Without spoiling too much, Ray’s character (played by Kevin Costner) begins hearing a voice and having a vision of building a baseball field on his family farm. Ultimately, the voice’s messages of “if you build it, he will come,” “ease his pain,” and “go the distance” are all designed to reconnect Ray with his long-deceased father whom he had a fractured relationship.
When the inevitable occurs as the sun sets over the Iowa cornfields and Ray asks his dad if he wants to have a catch, well, pass the tissues for most fellas I know who’ve watched the film … or read the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella.
Admittedly, my dad is not as fluent in “Field of Dreams” as I am, but he had a pair of homework assignments prior to this stop on the Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project: Refamiliarize himself with the movie and get his arm in good enough shape to toss the horsehide around for a few minutes.
To me, this is one of those films that, if I see its airing on the on-screen guide, I’m stopping by and staying for a while (probably for the duration).
Clockwise from upper left, the author visited with his family (son Jake, wife Carol, and daughter Helena) in 2018; the view of the field from the farmhouse; behind the backstop; Terence Mann’s monologue about baseball; the author and his father, Jerry, enjoying a catch in rightfield; the view from the pitcher’s mound; the view from homeplate; the corn was still working on its height during our visit; the welcome sign; construction is ongoing for a more permanent professional field.
It was a steamy mid-June Tuesday on the day of our visit and while my family and I had stopped by seven years earlier, I was excited to return and see what’s changed and, more importantly perhaps, what’s stayed the same from 1988 when principle shooting occurred. And, yes, I had the same feeling turning off the road onto the long gravel driveway leading to the farm that most viewers probably have when they see the twinkling lights on that aerial shot at the films end.
My son’s friend, when they were younger, used to call that feeling “getting the goosies.”
The house with the white picket fence … check!
The red barns … check!
The ballfield with its ramshackle bleachers and light posts … check!
The corn field … check!
Aside from the corn approaching just knee high and not the fully grown stalks the ghost players disappear into on film, it was as most would remember it.
There were differences from when I first visited: The smaller of the two barns is now a merchandise shop filled with the Baseballism product line; there is now a restaurant (The Dugout) in part of the larger barn, a seasonal ice cream stand between the two barns, and a concession stand counter (The Stretch) and pavilion with picnic tables down the leftfield line. There is still the opportunity to tour the farmhouse ($20 per adult, of course;-) but we opted against it as I’d completed it during my previous visit. New, however, is the ability to spend the night in the house. For a mere $600 (weeknights) you’re able to rent a room for the night (find the details here).
In the distance, well beyond the lights in left field, construction continued on what is to become a more permanent field where Major League Baseball hosted a pair of games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The goal, per Dyersville Events Inc. President and CEO Keith Rahe which purchased the land from Go the Distance Baseball in September 2024 for $27 million, “is that professional baseball is back there. Honestly because we know how important and how significant those games were.”
That aside it was, as Ray Kinsella says during film, “perfect.”
My father and I did enjoy a catch and our newfound friends from southern California even recorded our poor form for posterity. This means I’ve now had a catch with my father and my son (2018) at the “Field of Dreams” diamond. (I’m not saying I want to be viewed rather than seen anytime soon, but this gives me comfort in having accomplished this.)
Doug and Jerry brought their gloves and took time to have a catch.
After our time doing what fathers and sons have done for generations in this country, we did something else that fathers and sons do. We visited the ice cream stand, purchased a couple dishes, and made our way to the shaded comfort of the picnic tables where we enjoyed a treat on a hot summer day while the voices of others playing catch and soaking in the sights of this slice of Americana echoed in the distance.
Many thanks to all who entered to win a signed copy of Johnny Agar’s memori, The Impossible Mile: The Power of Living Life One Step at a Time. And, of course, many thanks to Johnny and his mother (and co-author), Becki for passing a signed copy along to us.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Agars story, you’re able to familiarize yourself with Team Agar by listening to our special Father’s Day Conversations with Sports Fans episode featuring Johnny and his father, Jeff. If you’re unsuccessful in the drawing and wanted to order the book, you’re able to do so through their website here.
In the meantime, a drumroll please.
Host Doug Hill draws the winning name for a signed copy of Johnny Agar’s memoir, “The Impossible Mile.”
Johnny and his co-author – mother Becki – were kind enough to pass along a signed copy to me to give away to one lucky reader.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, you’re able to familiarize yourself with Team Agar by listening to our special Father’s Day Conversations with Sports Fans episode featuring Johnny and his father, Jeff.
To enter to win the book, all you need to do is complete the Google Form found at this linkon or before midnight EDT, Monday, June 23.
Johnny and his co-author – mother Becki – were kind enough to pass along a signed copy to me to give away to one lucky reader.
If you’re unfamiliar with Johnny’s story, you’re able to familiarize yourself with Team Agar by listening to our special Father’s Day Conversations with Sports Fans episode featuring Johnny and his father, Jeff.
To enter to win the book, all you need to do is complete the Google Form found at this linkon or before Monday, June 23.
We opened our virtual giveaway window for a couple weeks and thank all of our regular readers (and a few new ones:-) who submitted their names for a chance to win Butler’s book.
Due to matters that were totally Doug’s fault, he was a little late in drawing the winner, but it happened earlier today (coinciding with the start of the NBA Finals!). Check out the video of the drawing below to find out who the winner of the book is. And, stay tuned, as there will be another book giveaway coming later this month. In order to enter, you’ll need to ensure you’re a subscriber to The Sports Fan Project (see the link to do so – totally free of charge – at right).
As always, thank you for your continued support of the content we’re creating and sharing and – please! – sharing is caring so spread the word about this site and our podcast, that’s how the word is spread.
Find out who won the signed copy of “Courtside” on this video.
