Harrisburg Senators

MiLB infobox
name = Harrisburg Senators
founded = 1987
city = Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
misc =

uniform
class level = AA
past class level=
current league = Eastern League (1987-)
conference =
division = Southern Division
past league =
majorleague = Washington Nationals 2005-present
pastmajorleague = Montreal Expos 1991-2004
* Pittsburgh Pirates 1987-1990
uniform =
nickname = Harrisburg Senators (1987-present)
pastnames =
ballpark = Commerce Bank Park
pastparks = Island Field
leaguechamps = Original: 1927, 1928, 1931
Modern Era: 1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
divisionchamps = 1994, 1997
misc6 =
owner = Senators Partners LLC
manager = John Stearns
gm = Randy Whitaker

The Harrisburg Senators are a minor league baseball team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the AA affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The Senators play in Commerce Bank Park, located on City Island in Harrisburg; originally opened in 1987 as Riverside Stadium, the stadium seats 6,302 fans. The "Senators" nickname refers to the host city being the capital and thus home of the Pennsylvania legislature. The team colors are red, navy blue, and gold, the same colors of the parent club, the Washington Nationals.

Harrisburg has won nine Eastern League titles and is the first team in league history to win four titles in a row: 1927, 1928, 1931, 1987, 1993, and 1996-1999.

Franchise history

The city of Harrisburg has a long history of professional baseball. In 1901, the first baseball club in Harrisburg was created. In 1912, Harrisburg won the first of three Tri-State Association championships in a row. In 1915, an affilitated International League team moved from Newark, New Jersey to Harrisburg. The club lasted one year before moving to the New York State League, and disbanding. This left the city without professional baseball for seven years.

The original Senators

In 1924, the first incarnation of the Senators joined the newly formed New York-Penn League, which was eventually renamed the Eastern League. Initially, the Senators and most of the other New York-Penn League teams were not affiliated with a Major League Baseball team. In 1925, Joe Munson hit a .400 batting average, a record which stands to this day in Senators history, and 33 home runs, a Senators record that was not broken until 1999. In 1927, the Senators started a five-year campaign with three Eastern league championships, winning titles in 1927, 1928, and 1931. The year 1932 brought the Senators an affiliation with the Boston Braves. The original Harrisburg Senators' reign ended in 1936, when flood waters from the surrounding Susquehanna River ruined their home ballpark, Island Field. The flood effectively ended Eastern League participation for the next fifty-one years.

Another team representing Harrisburg affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates formed four years later, though in the smaller Interstate League. Like the Senators before it, the team gained success quickly, winning the league title one year later with stars Billy Cox and Dennis Taylor. The success, however, was short lived, as the team moved to nearby York in 1943. Another team affiliated with the Cleveland Indians was created, but was not as successful. The Interstate League disbanded this Harrisburg team in 1952, and any form of professional baseball was not played in the city for the next 35 years.

The current Senators

In the mid 1980s, Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed initiated a revitalization plan that included a ballpark for a new Minor League Baseball team in the city. In 1987, Harrisburg opened Commerce Bank Park (then known as Riverside Stadium) to the current Senators of the Eastern League, originally affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This franchise was moved to Harrisburg from Nashua, New Hampshire, and had also played in the Massachusetts cities of Holyoke and Pittsfield.

Like the original Senators, success was quick, winning the Eastern League championship in its very first season. In 1991, affiliation shifted from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Montreal Expos, an affiliation continuing through that team's move to Washington, D.C. The first several years of affiliation with Montreal brought consecutive championships from 1996 to 1998. In 1999, the Senators played the Norwich Navigators for a shot at their record-setting fourth consecutive Eastern League Championship. In the bottom of the ninth inning of game 5, the Senators trailed by 3 runs, but with 2 outs, the bases loaded, and a full count Milton Bradley hit a walk-off grand slam to right center field to win the fourth straight championship for the Senators, an Eastern League first. [ [http://www.senatorsbaseball.com/cgi-bin/featured/news.cgi?id=6 Harrisburg Senators ] ] In 2003, Sueng Song pitched the first no-hitter in modern Senators history.

Uniforms and logo

The official colors of the Harrisburg Senators are red, navy blue and metallic gold. The home and away uniforms resemble those of the Washington Nationals, with a red cap for home games and navy blue for away. Both caps include the "H" and streaking baseball logo, with the "H" in the same script as the Nationals' pretzel-shaped "W." The white home jerseys include red and navy blue trim around the collar and sleeves with the "Senators" wordmark in red with metallic gold bevels and navy blue outline. The grey away jersey has navy blue and red trim around the collar and sleeves, with the "Harrisburg" wordmark in navy blue with metallic gold bevels and red outline. Both wordmarks are identical to the Nationals brand.

In 2007, the Senators added a unique logo to their brand, incorporating the prevalent and much reviled mayfly into the "H." Because of Commerce Bank Park's location on City Island in the Susquehanna River, thousands of mayflies are attracted to the ballpark's bright lights and die. The dead mayflies fall onto the fans below, obscuring their view.

Ownership

The city of Harrisburg paid $6.7 million in 1995 to acquire the team from the previous owners of the franchise, who were planning to move the team to a new taxpayer-financed ballpark in Springfield, Massachusetts.cite web|url=http://www.pennlive.com/sports/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1168131331144770.xml&coll=1| date=January 7, 2007| title=Reed, Interest in Senators' sale is on rise|first=Geoff| last=Morrow| publisher="Harrisburg Patriot-News"| accessdate=2007-01-07] Instead of appeasing the desires of the ownership group with a new stadium, Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed led the city of Harrisburg to purchase the team instead. The previous owners had bought the team only six months earlier for just $4.1 million. Citing the ballpark as the major link in his downtown revitalization project, when asked how he could afford the hefty price tag, Mayor Reed responded by asking, "how could we not?" For a time, the Senators remained one of the only sports franchises in the United States to be completely owned by the community it is based in. In 2006, the city put the team up for sale to combat a major budget deficit. Mayor Reed stipulated that the new owner must keep the team in Harrisburg for at least 29 years. The team was eventually bought by Senators Partners, LLC of Northbrook, Illinois, headed by Jerry Reinsdorf's son Michael, for an Eastern League record $13.25 Million.

Triple-A franchise bid

In mid 2005, Peter Angelos, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, gained the permission of the AA Eastern League and the AAA International League to move Baltimore's AAA affiliate from Ottawa to Harrisburg.cite web| url=http://www.washtimes.com/sports/20050818-125641-2879r.htm| date=August 18, 2005| title=O's, Nats battle over Harrisburg|first=Thom| last=Loverro| publisher="The Washington Times"| accessdate=2007-01-07] One of the hangups with the agreement was that a buyer for the AA Senators franchise had to be found. The Ottawa franchise moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania as the AAA team for the Philadelphia Phillies, renamed as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The Baltimore Orioles also signed a player development deal with the Norfolk Tides of the International League. The Tides will now be the AAA affiliate of the Orioles. With all links to the next level of baseball ended, with two AAA teams now in eastern Pennsylvania, and the nearby cities of Lancaster and York gaining independent franchises, the future of AAA ball in Harrisburg is doubtful.

tadium renovation

Commerce Bank Park will receive a much awaited $30 million renovation ($19.1 million in state funding). Originally the renovation was to begin in 2005, however delays in state funding for the project were postponed until 2008, meaning the improvements won't be implemented for Senators fans until the 2009 season at the earliest. Final designs for the project have been completed by HOK Sport, and the city has floated $18 million in bonds to cover its share of the projected $30 million cost. The project calls for 1,700 more seats, 20 skyboxes, 766 club seats, a second level, a new party deck and restaurant, new picnic areas, a children's play area, new clubhouses, state-of-the-art concession areas, and a new entryway. The overall look and feel of the new stadium improvements will ultimately give a "Camden Yards" feel to it, utilizing historic brick architecture for the stadium's new entryway and grandstands. [ [http://www.senatorsbaseball.com/releases/040905NewStadiumDrawings.html Harrisburg Senators - Press Release ] ]

Broadcast

Every Harrisburg Senators ballgame is aired on 1460 the Ticket (AM 1460 WTKT - Clear Channel). The games are also streamed on the team's website "senatorsbaseball.com." Some games are also aired on the local TV station, CN8, and occasionally has games aired on MASN.

Roster

Prominent Senators that made the Major Leagues

The players listed below had at one time or another, played for the Senators before going on to the Major Leagues. [http://www.senatorsbaseball.com/pdf/alltimeroster.pdf]

*Moisés Alou
*Pedro Astacio
*Tony Armas
*Michael Barrett
*Miguel Batista
*Chad Bentz
*Geoff Blum
*Milton Bradley

*Orlando Cabrera
*Wil Cordero
*Cliff Floyd
*Vladimir Guerrero
*Cliff Lee
*Guillermo Mota
*Brian Schneider

*Ugueth Urbina
*Jose Vidro
*Jake Westbrook
*Rondell White
*Brad Wilkerson
*Ryan Zimmerman
*Chris Young (pitcher)

Team records

eason records

"This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Senators. For the full season-by-season history, see Harrisburg Senators seasons"

*All info from 2007 Eastern League Media Guide

References

External links

* [http://www.senatorsbaseball.com/ Harrisburg Senators official site]
* [http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t547 Harrisburg Senators' MiLB Page]
* [http://www.frontiernet.net/~rochballparks3/harrisburg/harrisburg.htm Photographs of Commerce Bank Park, home of the Harrisburg Senators - "Rochester Area Ballparks"]