At the “Field of Dreams,” some U.S. Capitol Police officers made happy memories

Where do 15 United States Capitol Police officers meet for a summer getaway?

That would be the Field of Dreams movie site outside Dyersville, where the most stressful thing is outrunning a grounder or getting a good jump on a fly ball.

Saturday afternoon, U.S. Capitol Police played a team of New York court officers in a baseball game at Iowa’s most-famous pop-culture tourist attraction. It doesn’t jibe with what you first think about when you hear “U.S. Capitol Police.” That’s Jan. 6, 2021, and we’ll get to that.

First, why did these men come to Iowa for this? The answer, to use the title of another Kevin Costner baseball film, is for love of the game.

“I think they’re just a group of guys who love playing baseball and just see this as a great opportunity to bond together.”

That was said by a woman named Kathee who is the mother of a man named Josh, a 30-year-old U.S. Capitol police officer of seven years. That’s as much as they wish to identify themselves. It’s not standard journalistic practice to just use first names like this, but that’s how this will go.

Josh doesn’t want publicity by nature. Plus, the family had a bad experience a few years ago after television footage aired of Josh throwing out the honorary first pitch at a summer college league game in his hometown out East. “Because of the vitriol that was directed at Josh” when video of that moment was put online, his mother said, and they asked the station to take it down.

They and Josh’s father, Robert, were in Cedar Rapids visiting friends here last week before going to Dyersville on Saturday.

“Robert and I saw (the movie) it the summer before we were engaged,” Kathee said Friday. “Just to get the feel again, we watched it Wednesday before we flew out here and I cried just as much watching it 35 years later. To think that we’re actually going to be there is pretty amazing.

“One of the sweetest moments of all this was three or four months ago when it became pretty clear we were going to buy plane tickets and go with Josh. He’s a pretty low-key, quiet kid. He turned to Robert and said ‘You’re going to bring your glove, right, Dad?’

“I could feel the tears when he said that, because it’s going to be pretty amazing that he gets to play catch with his dad on that field. Just saying it even now gets me choked up.”

Josh played baseball from Little League all the way to a Division III college team in his home state. He was a starting pitcher Saturday.

“Our lieutenant who runs the team first put it out last year to gauge interest,” Josh said. “Once we were able to put this all together, we all got really excited because it's our first time coming out to Iowa, first time at the Field of Dreams. For all us baseball players, it holds a certain amount of sentimental value as well. Just to be able to share this with my parents, it’s pretty special.”

Josh was working on a university police force after college when he got the job at the Capitol.

“He knew all along that he wanted to do federal,” Kathee said. So he flooded all the different law enforcement agencies. Capitol Police invited him down. They asked him about what was his feeling on teamwork. He answered with talking about college baseball. They use that analogy, comparing a baseball team to a police force, communication and leadership. And Josh was captain of his team.

“They joked afterwards that they wanted him because he was a lefty pitcher.”

The seriousness of Josh’s job, of course, was on display for the world on Jan. 6. As a member of the Capitol Police’s civil disturbance unit, he was on the front line defending the Capitol, members of Congress, and the U.S. vice president.

About 100 Capitol and D.C. police officers were injured that day. One, Brian Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died the next day. Two others committed suicide within a few days after the riot. Josh was beaten, and burned by bear spray.

That day, he was able to make a very quick call to his parents with just enough time to tell them he loved them, then adding ‘I thought they were going to kill me.’ ”

Josh’s mother, a retired psychologist, said she preferred to talk about the positive takeaways from her family received from people after the ordeal.

“I think the good that's come from that for us, personally as a family,” Kathee said, “is just the number of people have reached out with kindness.”

She said her family’s Cedar Rapids friends “really care about Josh, in part because they saw the horror of what he went through.”

Josh’s interest in law enforcement is traced all the way back to another dark day in U.S. history, Sept. 11, 2001.

“Josh was in first-grade,” Kathee said. “He was really kind of ahead of his age at that point. He said ‘I just want to keep people safe.’

“He's such a gentle soul, and so at first we were a little worried about him being in the police, but, he's really good at what he does.”

Iowans go to Washington and marvel at the architecture. Josh’s jaw dropped when he saw our landscape.

“There’s like an astronomical amount of corn here,” he said. “It was one thing to see pictures of it, but to see it for myself, it just goes on for miles. This entire trip has been fun, to just get a different experience, especially to get away from the Hill for a while.”

Kathee said several Capitol Police ballplayers brought their families, and that she and Robert weren’t the only parents present. One of the players had a family reunion, with 20 relatives from around the country.

“If you love baseball, you’ve got to make one pilgrimage out here,” one player said.

Saturday was about making happy memories on a field of dreams. Maybe it even It put a movie voice in the participants’ heads, as idealistic as the words from James Earl Jones’ “Field of Dreams” character may be.

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

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