While July 4 will celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, this year’s April 22 Webb Weekly publication date marks an historic marker of its own for local baseball fans; on that April 22, 1926, date, Bowman Field opened the gates to its first baseball game.
Now, 100 years later, the venue known as Journey Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field is set for a season-long celebration when MLB Draft League play begins June 2 with the Crosscutters hosting the defending league champion West Virginia Black Bears.
On that memorable date 100 years ago, the Williamsport Grays hosted Bucknell University in an exhibition game. The first professional opponent to appear at Bowman Field was the Harrisburg Colored Giants, who beat the locals in two games on April 27 & 29. An original franchise in the New York-Pennsylvania League, the team won its first league game, defeating Shamokin 5-1 on May 4.
“This 100th celebration has been on our to-do list for the past couple of years, but most of our hard planning began immediately following last season,” explained Crosscutters Director of Marketing Gabe Sinicropi. “We had many brainstorming sessions regarding things we wanted to do and thought we could pull off. It’s endless the number of things we could do, only limited by budget.”
What is about to be celebrated appeared unlikely when Sinicropi and the current team Vice President/General Manager Doug Estes made their first visit to Williamsport in 1993.
“Our initial reaction was, ‘What the heck are we doing?’ Our owners told us about the possibility of the team being moved. We knew we were moving, but didn’t know where. Williamsport was on the list of prospective places, so the owners asked Doug and me to go down and look around.
“We pulled into the stadium, and wow, we just thought what were our owners thinking. This place was a shambles, from the outside all the way into the field. It was bad. At that time, we didn’t feel we had the money to put into it, and didn’t know what the City could put into it, as it was their property.
“It was much bigger than the stadium we had in Geneva. This looked like a real stadium, although one that needed so much work. Our Geneva field was more like a glorified high school field. Although we didn’t think our owners knew what they were doing, we took a leap of faith, and thirty-three years later, here we are.
“Obviously, the stadium has been totally transformed. When we came, the box seats were rusty metal folding chairs. That’s where we began, and with everything that has happened over the past three decades, here we are celebrating the 100th anniversary in a beautiful stadium we all can be proud of.”
Asked to share any favorite memories, Sinicropi was remorseful that he hadn’t taken the time to write them all down.
“I wish I had kept a diary of all my forty years spent in baseball because I’ve experienced so many things, and my memory isn’t that great. I purposely always try to be in the moment instead of thinking this is great, I need to remember this. I don’t do that, and I wish that I had. I know I have some incredible stories that are buried in my brain, never to be seen again.
“I think back to our first year in Williamsport in 1994, and because there hadn’t been baseball here in a few years, it was new to everybody. The way we did things was different than the previous operations, and every day was like a new, cool toy. We look back on those days fondly, which in many ways seem a bit prehistoric to us now. It’s just surreal.
“The advent of the Little League Classic and the things that have happened to the stadium, much of that has been so great. When I think, this is our 33rd year, so we’ve been here for one-third of the 100-year history of the stadium. That boggles my mind. It feels like we just celebrated our 75th anniversary. I would have never thought, looking back on our first trip to Williamsport, that we would still be here celebrating this milestone. This was the greatest move I‘ve ever had the privilege to make.”
The Crosscutters have planned a full line-up of special events, promotions, and limited-edition centennial merchandise designed to celebrate the ballpark’s storied past. On the playing field, a new outfield wall has been added.
“We have a new outfield wall which will neaten up the place a bit,” Sinicropi added. “It is a padded wall, much of which will be covered with sponsorship signs, but I think fans will notice the improvement. The fence will be the same height and the distance from home plate as it was previously. New drainage has been installed in front and behind the wall.”
This year’s schedule includes 41 home games, which Sinicropi describes as “the more the better.” Last year’s schedule featured 40 home dates, whereas the old NYPEN League schedule had 38. It is a scheduling anomaly. This summer, each team in the MLB Draft League will host one home game against either the Canadian Junior National Team or the Mexican Junior National Team that will be touring the league.
100 years of baseball at Bowman Field is a cause for celebration!
