Bowman Field (stadium)

For other uses, see Bowman Field (disambiguation).

Bowman Field
Historic Bowman Field
Location	Williamsport, Pennsylvania 17701
Broke ground	1925
Opened	April 22, 1926
Owner	City of Williamsport
Operator	Williamsport Crosscutters
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	$75,000 ($931 thousand in 2011 dollars[1])
Capacity	4,200
Field dimensions	Left Field: 345 feet (105 m) Center Field: 405 feet (123 m) Right Field: 350 feet (110 m)
Tenants
Williamsport Crosscutters (1999-present)
Bowman Field Pennsylvania Historical Marker signification Location of the Bowman Field in Pennsylvania Coordinates: 41°14′32″N 77°02′49″W / 41.242347°N 77.047067°W / 41.242347; -77.047067Coordinates: 41°14′32″N 77°02′49″W / 41.242347°N 77.047067°W / 41.242347; -77.047067 PA marker dedicated: July 29, 2000

Bowman Field is a minor league baseball stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is home to the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York - Penn League. Official seating capacity is 4,200. Bowman Field is the second oldest ballpark in minor league baseball, behind Centennial Field, home of the Vermont Lake Monsters in Burlington, Vermont.^[2] It is also the home field for the Wildcats of the Pennsylvania College of Technology.^[3]

History

Ballparks in Williamsport before Bowman Field

Williamsport has hosted minor league baseball since the late 19th century.^[4] The various teams played at differing sights in Williamsport. The earliest ballfield was near the West Branch Susquehanna River.^[4] It was long since been replaced by a levee and U.S. Route 220, U.S. Route 15 and Interstate 180. A second and more permanent facility was built in the Vallamont neighborhood.^[5] Cochran Elementary School sits on the former sight of the ballpark. The Williamsport Billies and later Williamsport Grays played the seasons at Williamsport High School's athletic field on West Third Street.^[6][7] It too is long since gone, this property is currently home to the Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Construction, opening, and renaming

Bowman Field was completed in 1926 to host the city's entry as an original franchise in the New York-Pennsylvania League called the Williamsport Grays. The Grays were a charter member of the New York-Pennsylvania league which was established in 1923.^[6] Two of the most important boosters and financial backers of the team were J. Walton Bowman for whom the stadium was named and Thomas Gray, the Lycoming County, for whom the Grays were named.^[6]

The Grays had previously been playing their home games on the athletic field of Williamsport High School. This facility proved to be much too small.^[8] A larger and more permanent stadium was needed. A group of civic leaders and baseball boosters lead the drive to construct a new stadium for the Grays on the western side of Williamsport on the banks of Lycoming Creek. An agreement between the Grays and the city was reached in July, 1925 to build what was then known as Memorial Field, which was named for the municipal park in which it is located.^[9] J. Walton Bowman headed an eleven member holding company that financed and managed the construction of the ballpark at a cost of $75,000.^[7][9] Ground was broken in the fall of 1925 and the stadium opened in time for the beginning of the 1926 New York-Pennsylvania League season.^[10]

The original dimensions of Bowman Field were quite large compared to the dimensions of modern baseball fields. Bowman Field measured 367 feet to the right field foul pole, 450 feet to dead center field and 400 feet to the left field foul pole.^[7][11] Another unusual feature of the stadium was a terrace that was located on left field near the fence.^[12]

The first game to be played at Bowman Field took place on April 22, 1926 when the Grays hosted the ballteam of nearby Bucknell University in an exhibition. The first professional opponent to appear at Bowman Field was the Harrisburg Colored Giants. The Grays lost two games to the Giants on April 27 and 29. The first New York-Pennsylvania League game took place on May 4. The Grays beat the Shamokin Indians 5-1.^[11]

Bowman Field was known as Memorial Field from 1926 until 1929. It was renamed on June 26, 1929 to honor J. Walton Bowman. Bowman was the president of the Grays at the time and head by instrumental in the effort of funding and constructing the stadium. He was additionally honored by the players of the team with a Swiss watch and his grand-daughter was given the honor of hoisting a pennant in center field bearing the name "Bowman Field".^[11]

Eastern League

The Eastern League was at Bowman off and on for nearly seventy years. The Willaimsport Grays started play in 1926 in Bowman Field. The final Eastern League team to call the park home was the 1991 Williamsport Bills. That team moved to Binghamton, New York, the next season and became the Binghamton Mets.

The Grays began playing in the forerunner of the Eastern League, the old New York - Pennsylvania League in 1923.^[7][13] The Class B league was made entirely of teams from New York and Pennsylvania. It kept this name until 1938 when the Scranton Miners move to Hartford, Connecticut.^[14] Williamsport was a member of the league for 46 years between 1923 and 1991. The teams were known as the Grays, Tigers, A's, Mets, Tomahawks and Bills. Williamsport had affiliations with the Philadelphia A's for three periods, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets for two separate periods, Cleveland Indians for two separate periods, and Seattle Mariners.

The potato incident

Dave Bresnahan was catching for the 1987 Williamsport Bills, who were in seventh place in an eight-team league, playing the last-place Reading Phillies in late-August game.^[15] With a runner on third base, Bresnahan switched catcher's mitts and put on a glove in which he had secreted a shaved-down potato. When the pitch came in, Bresnahan fired the white potato down the third-base line, enticing the runner to sprint home. Bresnahan then tagged the runner with the baseball, prompting the umpire to award the runner home plate for Bresnahan's deception, even though he clearly had been tagged out with the ball.^[15]

The president of the Eastern League took offense to what he perceived as Bresnahan's affront to the game, banning the grandnephew of Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan from the league. However, the citizens of Williamsport applauded Bresnahan for his ingenuity, eventually prompting the club to retire his number 59.^[15] At the retirement ceremony in 1998, Bresnahan was quoted as saying, “Lou Gehrig had to play in 2,130 consecutive games and hit .340 for his number to be retired, and all I had to do was bat .140 and throw a potato.”^[16]

New York - Penn League

For the 1994 season, baseball returned to Bowman with the New York - Penn League's Williamsport Cubs. The club became the Crosscutters, a Pittsburgh Pirates farm team, in 1999. Significant stadium upgrades took place prior to the 2002 season. The club became a farm team of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006.

Championship teams

Bowman Field has been the home to just four championship teams.

• 1934 Grays - New York - Pennsylvania
• 1960 Grays - Eastern co-champions
• 2001 Crosscutters - New York - Penn co-champions
• 2003 Crosscutters - New York - Penn

References

1. ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
2. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 77
3. ^ "Wildcat Baseball". Pennsylvania College of Technology. http://www.pct.edu/athletics/baseball/. Retrieved 2008-10-14. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Gateway to the Majors pg. 7
5. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 33
6. ^ ^{a b c} Gateway to the Majors pg. 46
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Hunsinger, Jr., Lou. "Welcome to Historic Bowman Field, Williamsport, PA.". Williamsport Crosscutters. http://www.crosscutters.com/historicbowmanfield.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 
8. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 78
9. ^ ^{a b} Gateway to the Majors pg. 79
10. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 79-80
11. ^ ^{a b c} Gateway to the Majors pg. 81
12. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 80
13. ^ Gateway to the Majors pg. 97
14. ^ "Eastern League Baseball: History". Eastern League. http://www.easternleague.com/history.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 
15. ^ ^{a b c} Tom Speicher. "The Great Potato Caper... Revisited". Williamsport Crosscutters. http://www.crosscutters.com/history.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 
16. ^ "Dave Bresnahan Potato". The Baseball Reliquary Inc.. http://www.baseballreliquary.org/Bresnahan.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 

Bibliography

Quigel, Jr., James P.; Hunsinger, Jr., Louis E. (2001). Gateway to the Majors: Williamsport and Minor League Baseball. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-02248-5. 

External links

• Bowman Field Views - Ball Parks of the Minor Leagues
• Williamsport Crosscutters
• Official New York - Penn League Website
• Photographs of Historic Bowman Field - Rochester Area Ballparks
• Baseball Reliquary's Exhibit of the Bresnahan potato