Major League Baseball

How to bet the Field of Dreams Game between the Yankees and White Sox

Updated Aug. 12, 2021 1:24 p.m. ET

By Sam Panayotovich
FOX Sports Betting Analyst

"If you line it, they will bet."

That was the only possible way to begin a betting column on a Major League Baseball game that will pay homage to a legendary movie based around the 1919 Black Sox. (The irony just leaps off the page, doesn’t it?)

As the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees get set to play in a cornfield Thursday night in Dyersville, Iowa, with coverage starting at 6 p.m. ET on FOX, sportsbooks around this great country are willingly taking your legal bets on the "Field of Dreams" game.

My, how things have changed.

FOX Bet is currently dealing the White Sox as -175 favorites with a combined scoring total of 9.5 runs. Lance Lynn and Andrew Heaney are slated to be the starting pitchers.

Naturally, I was curious about how a bookmaker approaches a random baseball game in the middle of America’s breadbasket – so I asked.

"Ignoring the corn is the toughest part," Westgate SuperBook senior baseball trader Randy Blum told FOX Sports with a laugh. "We checked the dimensions to make sure it was a legit Major League field and checked the weather as we normally would. You’re just trying to gather as much info as possible. That’s all you can really do."

Chicago has clearly catapulted itself into the conversation as one of the best teams in baseball. The Sox hold a 10-game lead in the American League Central and have baseball’s fourth-best run differential at +129.

The South Siders (+650 to win the World Series, meaning a $10 bet would win you $75 total) solidified a dangerous back end of the bullpen with a deadline deal for future Hall of Famer Craig Kimbrel. Manager Tony La Russa can opt to go with Kimbrel and Liam Hendricks in back-to-back frames in October. Sheesh.

The White Sox offense is finally getting healthy, too, with Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert both expected in Thursday’s lineup. Both players missed multiple months with injuries, but Jimenez returned in late July and Robert rejoined the club just days ago.

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La Russa is going to stack his lineup with a string of dangerous righties. I wish Heaney all the best when he faces Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert a couple, two, three times.

I don’t love laying -175 regularly – because juice kills – but I love this White Sox team against left-handed pitching. Since Opening Day 2020, Chicago is 34-11 (76%) when the opposing starter is a southpaw.

Good luck stepping in front of that freight train.

Another bet I love in this game is "Over 6.5" strikeouts for Lance Lynn. The Yankees have struck out the ninth-most in baseball (1,032), and they’ll certainly struggle with a tough back drop and bad visibility as the sun sets over the endless acres of maize.

Lynn throws three different kinds of fastballs. He elevates his four-seamer exceptionally well around 96 miles per hour, which looks even faster when he pounds the zone with cutters and sinkers early in the count. That doesn’t bode well for a Yankee lineup that swings and misses a ton.

So here’s my Thursday trifecta at FOX Bet – White Sox (-160), Lance Lynn "Over" 6.5 strikeouts (-110) and Eloy Jimenez to hit a homer (+320).

"People will bet, Ray. They’ll bet for reasons they can’t even fathom."

Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and NESN. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. He'll probably pick against your favorite team. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot.