Abner Bluestein
Abner Bluestein is the no-nonsense business partner of Mark, Ray Kinsella's brother-in-law, who is intent on evicting Ray from his farm.

Archie Graham
Archie Graham, also known as Moonlight Graham, is inspired by a real person who played a single game for the New York Giants in 1905. He appears in the novel in two distinct forms. First, he is depicted as an elderly man, Doc Graham, a physician in the small Minnesota town of Chisholm. Ray encounters him during a magical time travel episode that takes him back to 1955 when Graham is seventy-five years old. Doc Graham has some quirky habits, such as chewing paper and spitting it out, but he is a kind-hearted man adored and respected in his community, where he helps everyone who needs his care. He shares with Ray that he earned his nickname one night after a minor league game when he went for a walk outside the motel in his baseball uniform. A teammate saw him, and he was called Moonlight Graham from then on. Graham also appears in the novel as a young man in a baseball uniform who journeys from Minnesota to Iowa with Salinger and Ray in search of a game. He eventually plays on Ray's fantasy field, getting the opportunity to bat in the major leagues.

Gypsy
Gypsy is Richard Kinsella's girlfriend. She works at the carnival in the change booth. She is tough but also kind and wise, with an open heart that allows her to see all the baseball games happening on Ray's magical field.

Shoeless Joe Jackson
Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. His career with the Chicago White Sox ended in 1920 when he admitted to participating in a plot to throw the 1919 World Series. Consequently, he was banned from baseball for life. In the novel, Ray believes that although Shoeless Joe might have taken money from gamblers, he did not intentionally throw the series but was a victim of greedy baseball owners. Shoeless Joe is one of Ray's heroes and the first player to appear on Ray's baseball field. He is portrayed not only as a legendary baseball player but also as a man who loved the game so much that he would have played just for food money. He tells Ray that being banned for life felt like having a part of himself amputated.

Annie Kinsella
Annie Kinsella is Ray Kinsella's red-haired, twenty-four-year-old wife. She is beautiful, lively, humorous, and very loving. She always supports Ray and encourages him to pursue his dreams, never criticizing him for being impractical, even as their debts increase.

Johnny Kinsella
Johnny Kinsella is Ray's father. He served in World War I and was exposed to gas at Passchendaele. After the war, he settled in Chicago and became a devout White Sox fan. He played semi-professional baseball in Florida and California before marrying and moving to Montana. At the time of the story, he has been deceased for twenty years. Johnny and his son Ray shared a close bond, and he passed on his love for baseball to Ray. Shoeless Joe was his idol. In the novel, Johnny appears as a young man, playing catcher in games at Ray's baseball park. Initially, Ray is unsure how to approach him, but eventually, he finds a way and realizes he can converse with his father about many things.

Karin Kinsella
Karin Kinsella is Ray's five-year-old daughter. Like her father, she possesses a vivid imagination and has no difficulty seeing the baseball games that occur in the cornfield on their farm.

Ray Kinsella
Ray Kinsella narrates the story. Raised in Montana, he inherited a passion for baseball from his father. Ray later moved to Iowa to study, fell in love with the state, and decided to stay. He married Annie, his landlady's daughter. Unable to find suitable work, Ray took a job as a life insurance salesman, which he despised. Annie then suggested they rent and eventually buy a farm. Despite his lack of farming expertise and being confounded by machinery, Ray takes great pride in their farm. However, the economic climate makes it extremely difficult for small farmers to thrive, and he falls deeply into debt. Impractical when it comes to financial matters, Ray makes little effort to improve his situation. He harbors negative feelings towards his wife's family, who also dislike him. Additionally, Ray has a disdain for organized religion, big business, and authority figures who misuse their power.

Despite his practical shortcomings, Ray is blessed with imagination, an open heart, and the ability to dream big and work towards making those dreams a reality. When he hears the mysterious voice saying, "If you build it, he will come," he immediately understands its meaning and sets out to build the baseball field. He is also driven by a desire to reignite the passion for baseball in his favorite writer, J.D. Salinger, and to help heal Salinger's pain. Ray drives a thousand miles across the country to achieve this. Ultimately, Ray's dreams come true because of his deep belief in them. He also becomes a catalyst for the fulfillment of others' dreams, realizing that he is playing a part in a larger plan, the origins of which he does not ponder. In the end, what matters most to Ray is not baseball, but the love of family and friends.

Richard Kinsella
Richard Kinsella is Ray's twin brother. They haven't seen each other since their sixteenth birthday morning. That day, Richard had an argument with their father and left home. The family hadn't heard from him until he unexpectedly appeared at Ray's farm. It turns out Richard works with a traveling carnival that has stopped in Iowa City. Initially, Richard cannot see what happens in the baseball cornfield, but he asks Ray to teach him. Eventually, Richard is able to see and communicate with their father.

Mark
Mark is a professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and Ray's brother-in-law. His specialty is the corn weevil. He is also a businessman who, along with his partner Bluestein, owns apartment buildings and several thousand acres of farmland. Practical and tech-savvy, Mark contrasts sharply with Ray, the dreamer. Mark aims to buy Ray's farm to modernize it, pursuing his goal relentlessly, only to be thwarted by Salinger's creative solutions for Ray's financial troubles.

Moonlight
See Archie Graham

J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger is the real-life reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. In the novel, Salinger is depicted as a kind man with a sense of humor, though he has stopped writing and publishing, thereby denying himself his greatest talent. When Ray visits him at his home, Salinger agrees to accompany him to a Red Sox game in Boston. He then joins Ray in researching Moonlight Graham's life in Minnesota and travels to Iowa to witness the baseball field where Shoeless Joe and other legendary players perform. As a writer with a vivid imagination, Salinger can perceive everything happening on Ray's baseball field. When invited to join the players beyond the baseball park into a realm beyond ordinary reality, Salinger assures Ray that he will resume his writing career.

Eddie Scissons
Eddie Scissons is an elderly man who Ray befriends several years before the story starts. Ray first rents and later purchases Eddie's farm. Eddie resides at the Bishop Cridge Friendship Center in Iowa City and claims to be the oldest living member of the Chicago Cubs. He shares numerous baseball stories, boasting that he has followed the Cubs for eighty years. The Cubs have been his entire life, and he wishes to be buried in his Chicago Cubs uniform. However, it is eventually revealed that Eddie has been lying. He never actually played for the Cubs. The closest he got was playing part-time for one year with a Class D team in Montana. Eddie ultimately fulfills his dream when, as Kid Scissons, he pitches for the Chicago Cubs on Ray's baseball field. Unfortunately, he performs poorly and is heartbroken by the experience. Despite achieving his dream, it does not bring him happiness. Nonetheless, when Eddie passes away, his desire to be buried in his Cubs uniform is respected.