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The world lost a treasure when iconic star of stage and screen James Earl Jones passed away on Monday at the age of 93. While Jones is likely best known for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies, his remarkable career spanned nearly 70 years and his unmistakable voice and presence created some of the most memorable moments in scores of films, television shows and plays.
Prior to Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers paid tribute to the legendary actor with a scene from the 1989 classic Field of Dreams, per MLive’s Evan Woodbery.
James Earl Jones tribute before the game featured a scene from Field of Dreams. pic.twitter.com/6kxDd3H3iY
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) September 10, 2024
Baseball fans remember Jones fondly for his turn as Terence Mann in Field of Dreams – a movie about farms and mortgages and bank foreclosures but also baseball and charging people to look at a corn field.
Jones’ famous speech as Mann helps convince Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella to double down and keep his farm-turned-baseball field despite the threat of financial ruin. And the Tigers played the scene on the scoreboard before the first pitch Tuesday, according to Motor City Bengals’ tigermike1975 on X.
The Tigers highlight James Earl Jones’ ties to baseball
“People will come, Ray… The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game – it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come,” Jones, as Mann, prophesied in the film.
It’s a tear-jerker of a speech and a special way for the Tigers to pay tribute to one of America’s greatest actors opining about America’s pastime. Interestingly, Jones grew up in Dublin, Michigan and went to college at the University of Michigan, which is about a 40 minute drive from Comerica Park as well as the site of the old Tigers Stadium.
Unfortunately for Detroit, people haven’t come this season. The Tigers’ average attendance in 2024 is 22,891, good for 24th in baseball. In all, 1,510,813 people have attended Tigers games this season, which is 26th in MLB.
The Tigers are two games above .500 entering play on Tuesday. The team is nine games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central and number 15 in the MLB Power Rankings. However, Detroit is still very much in the postseason picture as the Tigers are tied with the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners at three games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final AL Wild Card berth.
