Friday, May 18th
Ghost Player
Mark Danker Speaks
8:00 pm
Field of Dreams 8:30 pm
Mark Danker, actor from the Field of Dreams, is shown here with his Upper Iowa Baseball Players
Ghost Player from Field of Dreams to Speak at Riverside Cinema
The Independence Public Library presents the first base ghost player in the Field of Dreams, Mark Danker, this Friday, May 18th, at the River Walk Park. Mark Danker will begin speaking at 8 pm at the Band Pavilion. He will share stories and anecdotes about being an actor in this popular movie with Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, and James Earl Jones. The Riverside Cinema movie showing will follow.
It was appropriate that Mark Danker would be a baseball player in the Field of Dreams. He has been involved with baseball as a player and as a coach. Danker’s college playing experience includes two seasons at Waldorf College, when it was a junior college. At Waldorf, Danker still owns school records for ERA and most shutouts in a single season. During his sophomore year, the team went 41-7 and was ranked as high as fifth nationally. Coach Danker played at Iowa State University in 1982 and 1983. He was named Iowa State’s most valuable pitcher for the 1982 season.
Mark Danker is now the head coach of the Upper Iowa University Baseball Team. He has been with the baseball team for 18 years, eight of them as the head coach. As a coach, Coach Danker and his staff stress the importance of "preparing to succeed" in all aspects of their players' lives. This year his team’s record was 29-21, and the Upper Iowa Baseball team was rated as high as 6th in the region.
Danker lives in Fayette with his wife, Sarri, and their two sons, Samuel, 10, and Levi, 3. Sarri is a middle school language arts teacher with the Jesup Community Schools.
Come to the River Walk Park Band Pavilion
at 8 pm on Friday, May 18th to enjoy hearing about Danker’s
experiences as one of the ghost players in the Field of Dreams. Stay
to enjoy a great movie experience under the stars. Bring a chair or blanket
to sit on and an appetite for popcorn, pop, and smoothies! The movie,
hosted by the Independence Public Library and sponsored by Veridian Credit
Union, is free!!