Bryson Stott pays tribute to late Phillies legends on Field of Dreams game cleats

On Aug. 13, the lights will come back on in Dyersville, Iowa for the Minnesota Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies to walk out of a field of cornstalks and play in MLB’s third Field of Dreams game at the site where the 1989 film was shot.

Imagery from the film will be incorporated into all aspects of the game, including some of the gear worn on the field by players. Phillies infielder Bryson Stott tasked Ryan Stevens, head artist and owner of NXT LVL Customs, with designing a special pair of cleats for the moment.

On the side of Stott’s cleats, Phillies legends Tug McGraw, Roy Halladay, Darren Daulton, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Harry Kalas emerge from the corn, just as the departed players from yesteryear did in the film. McGraw died in 2004 at the age of 59 from glioblastoma, Halladay died in 2017 at the age of 40 in a plane crash, Daulton also died in 2017 at the age of 55 from glioblastoma, Roberts died in 2010 at the age of 83 from natural causes, Ashburn died in 1997 at the age of 70 from a heart attack, and Kalas died in 2009 at the age of 73 from heart disease. The selection of legends includes players from different Phillies eras, plus Kalas, whose 38 years as the team’s play-by-play announcer linked many of those generations together.

“Every year we go down to Clearwater (Florida) for spring training and we’ve been working with Bryson since 2023,” Stevens said. “He got on our podcast and I was like, ‘I have this idea.’ I pitched him the idea I had since the game was announced, and he said, ‘I fully trust you and whatever you think is cool.’

“I came across this daytime shot of the players coming out of the cornfield and it was blurry, but what stuck out to me was the catcher – the catcher was holding his mask for some reason and I thought it resembled Darren Daulton. I searched Darren and that was the first picture that popped up, in a similar stance.”

The vision inspired Stevens to include other Phillies legends in there who have passed. “It kind of resembled the movie, but the Phillies version of it.”

From left to right: McGraw, Halladay, Daulton, Roberts, Ashburn and Kalas as depicted on Stott’s cleats. (Photo courtesy of NXT LVL Customs)

The intent was for the approach to be realistic, not cartoonish. Stevens enlisted help from his friend and fellow artists Stephen Hatala on the image, using pictures of the legends. It took a week to complete.

On the other side of the cleat, the Field of Dreams text logo sits basking in a sky blue background with the corn stalk look featuring swooshes with quotes from the movie and signatures of each Phillies’ player featured.

The cleats were delivered to Stott on Aug. 7. According to Stevens, Stott was impressed by the design’s realism, which differed from last year’s Elmo cleats for Players Weekend.

Stevens has designed cleats for Stott and other baseball players for years. He’s also worked with former Phillie Kody Clemens, who is now playing for the Twins.

Expect to see similar themes from both teams during the Field of Dreams game. This year mark the first edition of the game since Marucci and Victus became the official bat, and the latter is unveiling a special corn bat for the occasion.

The new buttered corn bat. (Photo courtesy of Victus)

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