Few experiences epitomize how beautiful the sport of baseball can be than the Field of Dreams game. There’s supposed to be something magical about this makeshift game played in the Iowa corn. Unfortunately, it seems Major League Baseball wanted to ruin that with overindulgence in creepy technology.
Earlier this week, word leaked that the late Harry Caray — a long-time broadcaster most famous for his work with the Cubs — would appear at the game in hologram form. (Note: Caray was known for embellishing the seventh-inning stretch, especially in Chicago.) Given that Caray has been dead for decades, it sounded like a bad idea on Wednesday. It also sounded like a bad idea given the less colorful aspects of Caray’s history, like that he was often rumored to be drinking alcohol in the booth or his infamous racist comments on air about former Asian MLB pitcher Hideo Nomo.
It still sounded like a bad idea on Thursday, before the proceedings. So, as everyone thought, of course it didn’t go well:
Here it is… Hologram Harry Caray sings "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the #FieldofDreamsGame. ⚾️🌽🎙️😬 pic.twitter.com/odwMoBwuYn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 12, 2022
Oh dear God, what is that on screen? Terrifying! Who in the MLB offices greenlit this idea? Is it because Caray was a “throwback”? Well, he wasn’t a throwback for the best reasons! This plan for the Fields of Dreams game was better left in the drafts.
Anyway, apropos of nothing, I’m definitely not sleeping tonight.
MLB fans were so creeped out by the Harry Caray hologram at the Field of Dreams game
oh dear no pic.twitter.com/q4i2v7JPfg
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 12, 2022
Really off-putting. https://t.co/dTeLJ3NHtr pic.twitter.com/8it6y2DWzB
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) August 12, 2022
my therapist: [whispering] and is this "Hologram Harry Caray" in the room with us right now?
— Tipping Pitches (@tipping_pitches) August 12, 2022
Honestly, they had a year, which would’ve been more than enough time to build an animatronic Harry they could use at Wrigley 81 games a season. He could hang out of the booth and everything.
— Kevin Kaduk (@KevinKaduk) August 12, 2022
They were so proud of it… https://t.co/aRxKvs080y
— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) August 12, 2022
I was out on the Harry Caray hologram before I saw it but now it's my favorite thing that's happened this season.
It is so hard to thread the needle of being harmless, funny, and metaphysically depraved all at the same time, and they pulled it off.— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) August 12, 2022
What if instead of doing this sort of thing, they didn’t? https://t.co/RCO6ogB8vq
— Greg Flammang (@greg2126) August 12, 2022
That’ll give nightmares. https://t.co/WxcYjdeamJ
— OFrye (@OFrye84) August 12, 2022
Sweet Nightmares children. https://t.co/wN65Zd4WnQ
— Zach Borg (@IceBorg) August 12, 2022
We’ve gone too far https://t.co/1bPZixqRQZ
— Dennis Stansfield (@DennisUltima) August 12, 2022
IT IS NOT MY TIME TO RETURN TO THIS CURSED EARTH I bellow as my hologram vomits fire on a truckload of soldiers and the fox crew weeps and tries to turn the machine off
— oscar hotel romeo (@OldHossRadbourn) August 12, 2022
when you're definitely not some kind of haunted ethereal being that belongs in a Robert Zemeckis joint pic.twitter.com/mHMurtrefT
— Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA) August 12, 2022
If MLB ever even thinks of doing a hologram Vin, I’ll lead a million fan march on New York.
— Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) August 12, 2022