Alex Plesniarski had to remind himself this was really happening.

There he was, surrounded by Iowa cornfields at the Field of Dreams. Major League Baseball staff moved around him as an event he normally would have watched on television came to life.

Only this time, Plesniarski wasn’t watching from afar.

He was part of it.

“It didn’t really hit me until I had gotten there for orientation,” Plesniarski said. “Just being surrounded with something that I watch on TV every day ... now you’re on the inside and seeing how it works. It was fantastic.”

THE JOURNEY

For the 2026 Jim Thorpe Area High School graduate, getting to that moment had begun months earlier with an application he wasn’t sure would lead anywhere.

Plesniarski was given the opportunity to apply to work two Field of Dreams games in Dyersville — an Aug. 11 matchup between the Triple-A St. Paul Saints and Iowa Cubs, and the Aug. 13 Major League game between the Phillies and Minnesota Twins.

From Pennsylvania, it seemed like a long shot.

“I didn’t think that I would get the chance, obviously, being so far away,” he said.

An interview followed in June. Plesniarski came away encouraged, but weeks passed without a definitive answer.

He started preparing anyway.

“I had a plan ready to go on how I’d get there and reservations and everything,” Plesniarski said. “I was all ready to go.”

In late July, the email finally arrived. It included his position and the dates he would need to be in Iowa.

He was going.

Getting there would take Plesniarski through places he had never seen before. He traveled through Chicago, another first, before reaching Iowa. As he made his way toward Dyersville, he began to understand just how much the Field of Dreams meant to the area.

“No matter where you were in Iowa, they all knew where Dyersville was,” Plesniarski said. “They all knew about the Field of Dreams field. It was very neat.”

Soon, he was seeing it himself.

Cornfields stretched around him. There was the white farmhouse, the movie diamond and the unmistakable landscape made famous by the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.” A short distance away was the ballpark built amid the corn that would host the Phillies and Twins.

Something Plesniarski had only experienced through a screen was suddenly all around him.

DEEPER ROOTS

Getting there was one thing. What the place meant to him went much deeper.

Sports had always been part of Plesniarski’s life. Football initially held much of his attention when he was younger, while baseball — particularly the New York Yankees — was something he grew up around through his mother, Robyn.

More than any particular team, though, Robyn taught her son the importance of finding something he cared deeply about.

“My mom raised me very well through being passionate about things,” Plesniarski said. “She always told me that it’s good to be passionate about something and to let it help you make right decisions, no matter what it is.”

Over the last four or five years, baseball increasingly became that something.

Plesniarski found himself drawn not only to the games, but to everything surrounding them.

The history. Players who spent years chasing an opportunity. Families in the stands. Connections passed from one generation to another.

Some of those connections were his own.

Plesniarski played Little League for a short time when he was younger, and baseball became something he shared with his father, Jeff.

“It was a really big thing that brought us together as well,” he said.

The more Plesniarski watched baseball, the more he noticed those connections elsewhere.

“It was just always so cool to see how baseball was helping other people’s lives and the positive impact it was making on other people,” he said. “I was just always drawn toward that positivity.”

As his love for baseball grew, so did Plesniarski’s desire to make sports his career.

“It could be two teams that I don’t care about, and I’d travel halfway across the U.S. to go see a game,” he said. “I just love it.”

In August, he essentially did.

But this wasn’t another trip to watch a baseball game.

PART OF IT

Plesniarski was hired through BAM Productions, which was working with Major League Baseball on the event. He worked the Aug. 11 Minor League game before being assigned to the movie site for the Phillies-Twins game two days later.

His role for the Major League game centered on the fans coming through the movie site. He answered questions, helped visitors take photos and videos and did what he could to make their time there memorable.

One of his coworkers, Sarah, quickly noticed his enthusiasm.

“She saw that I was passionate about baseball, saw that I wanted to make people’s day, saw that I wanted to help people make memories,” Plesniarski said.

Sarah encouraged him to introduce himself to people, make connections and look for opportunities to help.

“She really cheered me on,” he said.

There were similar moments throughout the trip.

Gabe, who had interviewed Plesniarski in June, recognized him when he arrived despite the two not speaking since the interview.

“He immediately remembered me, gave me a handshake — ‘Alex, nice to see you. It’s good to have you here,’” Plesniarski recalled.

What stayed with Plesniarski was the interest people showed in why he was there and where he hoped to go.

Coworkers and supervisors were willing to talk about the business, introduce him to people and offer advice.

For someone just beginning a career path in professional sports, the welcome mattered.

“No matter what position people had there, they were happy to be there,” Plesniarski said. “They were happy to be involved.”

By the end, people who had arrived from different places felt to Plesniarski like “one big baseball family.”

It was another glimpse of something he had already begun pursuing closer to home.

Plesniarski recently began his freshman year at Lehigh Carbon Community College, where he is studying business management. Since November, he has also been gaining hands-on experience at Narrow Valley Sportsplex in Nesquehoning, helping with social media, sports photography and videography.

He knows the direction he wants to go, even if he doesn’t know where that path ultimately will lead.

“I wanted to surround myself with it,” Plesniarski said of baseball, “and will always want to surround myself with it.”

He hopes to get his foot in the door with a professional sports organization, learn how the business operates and continue building experience.

For two days in Iowa, he got a glimpse of where it could lead.

And what Plesniarski found behind the scenes didn’t diminish the affection he had developed for baseball.

It strengthened it.

“It was like a love letter to the movie and to baseball,” he said. “As someone that’s very passionate about baseball, it was just awesome to see everybody really come together and really be passionate about what we were doing there.”

Plesniarski also came away grateful for the chance he had been given — and for the people who welcomed and encouraged him once he arrived.

“I wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said. “It was great, and I was so grateful to be able to do it.”

A MEMORY OF

HIS OWN

By Thursday night, the work was nearly finished.

The Phillies had won. Fireworks illuminated the cornfields as people made their way back through the movie site.

Plesniarski could have simply taken in the view. At times, he did.

“As a baseball fan, I couldn’t help sit back and take in the views and just realize how awesome it was,” he said.

But his attention kept returning to the people around him.

There were fathers playing catch with young children. There were grown sons sharing the field with their dads. Plesniarski saw tears of joy and smiles.

When he could, he approached them.

Could he take a picture for them? A video? Could he capture the moment so they could take it home?

Some accepted. Others smiled, declined and kept playing catch.

Plesniarski understood either way.

“As somebody that values father-son relationships and values baseball, it was just so awesome to help make those memories and to see those memories unfold,” he said.

Months earlier, Plesniarski had been home in Pennsylvania, wondering whether someone from so far away would even get the chance.

Now he was standing there.

Surrounded by the corn. Fireworks overhead. Families around him.

He had traveled to Iowa to be part of baseball and help other people remember a special night.

Along the way, he made a memory of his own.