🌽 There’s always a Philly connection | Sports Daily Newsletter

Tonight, assuming the weather holds out, Phillies players will emerge from cornstalks and onto a field in Iowa, just like the characters in the iconic 1989 film Field of Dreams — and just like some legendary Phillies on Bryson Stott’s custom cleats for the game.

One of the film’s most memorable characters was “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball for life after the 1919 Black Sox betting scandal but maintained until his death that he did not throw the World Series. Before Jackson, played by Ray Liotta, jogs back into the outfield and disappears into the cornfield, he famously asks Kevin Costner’s character, “Hey, is this heaven?”

“No, it’s Iowa,” a stunned Costner replies.

While Jackson is best known for his time with the White Sox, his big-league career actually got its start in Philly a year after he earned the “Shoeless” moniker. But he likely never confused the city with heaven.

Despite manager Connie Mack’s best efforts to get Jackson to leave his hometown of Greenville, S.C., the then-minor leaguer just didn’t want to move North — so much so that after signing with the A’s, he hopped off a Philly-bound train overnight to avoid it. Jackson, who couldn’t read or write, went to work at a cotton mill instead.

Mack didn’t give up, sending a man named Socks to land a player called Shoeless, and Jackson eventually arrived before the end of the 1908 season. But he only played 10 games in Philly over two years before moving on to fame in Cleveland and ultimately infamy in Chicago.

New rules will allow Jackson to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as early as 2027, and if when he does, it won’t be as a member of the A’s. But his major-league career started right here. Although if you’ve been paying attention, that probably doesn’t shock you — there’s always a Philly angle.

— Matt Mullin, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

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Johnny Mundt was not the Eagles’ most heralded offseason signing, but he’s a critical symbol of the team’s new direction.

The veteran tight end’s familiarity with the new offensive scheme ushered in by coordinator Sean Mannion — he was also Mannion’s teammate once upon a time with the Rams — is a big reason why he’s here. The Eagles are asking their tight ends to do new things, with returnees including Dallas Goedert asked to block at the point of attack more than they ever have. Nick Sirianni has used the term “marrying the run and pass” so often that he’s probably at this point ordained to officiate a wedding.

“We’re huge in that,” Mundt said. “Being attached to the line of scrimmage, being the point of attack on a lot of these blocks, you can do a lot of play-action stuff off that. The marriage of the run and the pass has been core to this offense ever since its start.”

It’s a brand-new era for the tight ends.

Next: The Eagles visit the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday (7 p.m., NBC10) for their preseason opener.

For four innings on Wednesday, Zack Wheeler looked back to form. Coming off a rough stretch, Wheeler had allowed one run against the Cardinals in the series finale in St. Louis.

But then came the fifth inning: Four consecutive two-out hits turned into four runs and ballooned his ERA since the All-Star break to 6.04.

So what gives for one of the Phillies’ aces?

Said catcher J.T. Realmuto: “It looks like he might be fighting his mechanics a little bit.”

Next: The Phillies travel to Dyersville, Iowa to take on Minnesota in the Field of Dreams game tonight (7:30, Netflix). Aaron Nola (3-9, 5.47 ERA) is scheduled to start against Twins right-hander Taj Bradley (9-4, 3.76).

The minute the Sixers landed LeBron James, Philly artist Chenlin Cai knew what his next mural would be. On Wednesday, two and a half weeks later, Cai was at the corner of 10th and Arch Streets in Chinatown applying the seal coat to his new mural, which he hopes can shine a positive light on and draw more business to the area.

The mural pays tribute to Philadelphia (and LeBron’s) history with a bronze William Penn playing the role of Dwyane Wade in a recreation of the famous meme from their time together in Miami. More importantly, it honors his Chinese heritage with the wave on the right cresting to form an ancient Chinese legend known as the “Dragon’s Gate,” which symbolizes hard work, bravery, and good fortune.

As pedestrians passed by and fist bumped Cai, some stopping to chat about their excitement over the upcoming season, he encouraged them to post on social media and continue to spread his message.

“I am just so happy with the attention this has been getting,” Cai said. “It means so much for me and my family, and this is the true purpose of my art, to bring more traffic to Chinatown and help the small businesses here.”

Luigi Suigo has only been on campus for a few weeks, but he’s already had his Villanova rite of passage.

Suigo, a 7-foot-3, 19-year-old from Italy who goes by “Gigi,” went to Campus Corner, the longtime pizza shop on Lancaster Ave., and had his first cheesesteak. He thought it was “crazy good” and said he may “have them in secret” after being warned not to eat too many.

He better get them in while he can. Suigo’s stay on the Main Line is not expected to be long. The freshman big man, who played professionally in Serbia last season, is expected to join the short list of modern Villanova players who are on campus for one season before being selected in the NBA draft. His journey starts now.

On Aug. 13, 1972, 67-year-old daredevil Karl Wallenda completed his tightrope walk across Veterans Stadium between games of a Phillies doubleheader.

“In the early ‘70s, we didn’t win a lot of games,” Larry Bowa said in 2022, on the 50th anniversary of the stunt. “So we had to get people in there. It was like a circus.”

And indeed it was. In addition to the high-wire act, there was Kiteman, Cannon Man, Benny the Human Bomb, and a first pitch dropped from a helicopter. And while not everything went as planned, Wallenda successfully completed his walk.

Despite his implication that American hero Dr. Anthony Fauci somehow acted improperly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite his denials that he was considering retiring over the winter (he was), Vic Fangio is a compulsive truth-teller — at least, in his own mind. He dogged the Dolphins when he was there, he’s told us that Jalen Carter has been out of shape, and he said last year that Adoree’ Jackson was playing so badly he might not start.

On Tuesday, Veritas Vic revealed a truth about 2025 that had been self-evident: Jalen Hurts lost a step.

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Matt Breen, Devin Jackson, Antony R. Wood, Jeff Neiburg, DeAntae Prince, Gina Mizell, Conor Smith, Lauren Jones, Becca O’Reilly, Lochlahn March, and Marcus Hayes.

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