When Kerry Wood retired in style last month, everyone assumed that he would ride off into the sunset and into the Field of Dreams to claim his spot in baseball folklore. Everyone that is, except the new corporate owners of the Field of Dreams, led by Timothy Putnam, an attorney who specializes in pointing his finger at people and telling them to get off his property.
“I was walking into the cornfields to play cards with Shoeless Joe Jackson,” Wood said. “And I was tipping my cap in farewell to my wife and son who were sitting in the grandstands when this corporation man with light sandy hair blindsided me from center field.”
Wood said he ignored the man and proceeded into the cornfields, but he said Shoeless Joe was in no mood to play cards. “He had his suitcase packed and he was holding an eviction notice,” Wood said.
He said that he asked Shoeless Joe where the other seven men were, and Shoeless Joe replied that they had already been kicked out. At that point Putnam entered the cornfields and shooed Wood away.
“We had every right to shoo Wood away,” Putnam said. “Since he never established residence we aren’t required to evict him. We run a business here. We’re sick of people who come here and think they own the place.”
By Rob C. Christiansen
