His big-league career was over in only 2 innings, but he became immortalized in the movie “Field of Dreams” that I love to talk about in my BoomtownUSA talk. You see, there really was a “Moonlight” Graham played by Burt Lancaster in the film, and his one major league appearance was 100 years ago today.
The 28 year old rookie came into the game in the bottom of the eighth and was on the on-deck circle waiting to bat when pitcher Claude Elliott flied out. In the movie Moonlight asks, “Is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make dreams come true?”
Moonlight moved to Chisholm, MN (population 4,960), in northern MN, in 1912 when the town placed a newspaper ad looking for a doctor. He lived there until he died in 1965, never boasting about his ballplaying. He was known in Chisholm only as Dr. Archie Graham.
Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies. It exemplifies what many of the agurbs that I’ve visited have gone thru when they dreamed a BIG dream and were scoffed at by others. Agurbs® like Branson, Leavenworth, Mooresville and others pop to mind. Yes, there are other towns that dreamt the big dreams and didn’t make it. But, it is the dreamers like Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) who take a dream and built into reality.
Is there a dream in your town that needs to be lit by the moon?
Doc Graham’s adapted hometown of Chisholm has been raising funds for two college scholarships/year in his name by selling his baseball card shown here and other memorabilia. Go to their website at http://www.cardmall.com/moonlight-graham/ and check it out for yourself.
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