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'Devastated' Kevin Costner Honors Ray Liotta With The Perfect 'Field Of Dreams' Moment

'Devastated' Kevin Costner Honors Ray Liotta With The Perfect 'Field Of Dreams' Moment
Universal Pictures

Iconic actor Ray Liotta passed away on Thursday at the age of 67, and in the wake of his loss, his fellow actor Kevin Costner paid the perfect tribute to his fallen friend.

Costner, who said he was "devastated" by Liotta's passing, co-starred with Liotta in the 1989 baseball-themed tearjerker Field of Dreams.

To honor Liotta, Costner tweeted about Liotta's most iconic moment in the film, when he, playing the ghost of baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson, hits two perfect balls—one of which nearly hits Costner in the leg.

But as Costner revealed, Liotta had no experience or skill as a ball player and the moment was a total stroke of luck.

See his tweet below.

Along with the clip of Liotta's two perfect bats, Costner wrote:

"Devastated to hear the news of Ray Liotta’s passing."
"While he leaves an incredible legacy, he’ll always be 'Shoeless Joe Jackson' in my heart."
"What happened that moment in the film was real. God gave us that stunt."
"Now God has Ray."

Costner's tweet was in reference to the moment when Liotta hit that low ball so hard and perfectly he nearly took Costner out at the shins—sending Costner flying to the ground to jump out of the way.

The moment was total dumb luck and Costner's reaction was a genuine shocked response—a perfect accidental result of Liotta's inexperience with the game.

Liotta trained extensively for the film, a story about a mystical baseball field built by a farmer played by Costner where ghosts of baseball stars, including Jackson and * spoiler alert * Costner's long-passed father, come to play ball and impart wisdom.

Liotta's performance is flawless but for one thing. Try as he might with the guidance of University of Southern California baseball coach Rod Dedeaux, he could never master Jackson's left-handed style of play.

In the film's DVD extras, Liotta gamely told a story of a baseball announcer calling out the inaccuracy on TV at the time.

"There used to be Monday Night Baseball and they were talking about the movie and how wonderful the movie was and some announcer who shall remain nameless said, ‘Yeah, but Shoeless Joe was batting the wrong way'."
"Well, he didn’t come down from heaven either, so..."

On Twitter, people were moved by Costner's tribute and loved the inside glimpse into the film's trivia.






Liotta passed away in the Dominican Republic where he was shooting an upcoming film titled Dangerous Waters.

His cause of death has not yet been determined.