Terry Hartzell - David B. Stinson Author

This past Tuesday, March 18th, I had the pleasure of attending the monthly meeting of the Harrisburg Senators Fan Club. I was invited as guest speaker at the invitation of club president, Brian Williams, whom I had met at a Harrisburg Senators game last season.

From L to R, Harrisburg Senators Past President Barry Fealtman, David Stinson, Harrisburg Senators GM Randy Whitaker, and Terry Hartzell

With the D.C. area having just been hit with yet another winter storm, the snow covering the country side along I-83 toward Harrisburg belied the notion that spring is just around the corner. Judging from the number of people who turned out for an evening talking baseball, this winter’s harsh weather has done little to dampen fans’ excitement about baseball’s imminent return.

The Senators Fan Club meets in a banquet room at the Sons of the American Legion, Post 143, on Market Street in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, a place well suited as a winter home for baseball fans to congregate. Harrisburg fans know their baseball, and I truly appreciated the opportunity to talk with those in attendance about baseball, lost ballparks, and my book, Deadball.

Many thanks to Barry Fealtman, the club’s past president, and Jeanne Jacobs, the club’s Vice President, who both made me feel right at home, and Randy Whitaker, General Manager of the Harrisburg Senators, for providing the necessary projector for my presentation about lost ballparks. Thanks also to fan club members who shared with me stories about their visits long ago to stadiums now vanished. Those stories, and memories they invoke, help keep the ballparks alive and seemingly still present.

I look forward to heading back up I-83 to Harrisburg this summer (the snow should have melted by then). The Senators (AA Eastern League) play at Metro Bank Ballpark, one of the most unique ballparks in the country, as it is located on City Island in the middle of the Susquehanna River. Baseball has been played on that spot for over 100 years (since 1907) and the team has done a wonderful job of incorporating that history into the fans’ game day experience.

For more about the Harrisburg Senators Fan Club, visit their website here. For more information about the team, visit their website here.

Burt Solomon and Terry Hartzell Touring the Former Site of Union Park

As a die-hard Baltimore Orioles fan and amateur historian, one of my all-time favorite books is Burt Solomon’s Where They Ain’t, The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball, ranking right up there with James Bready’s Baseball in Baltimore, The First Hundred Years. Thanks to Terry Hartzell, a fan of both Burt’s book and my book Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel, I had the opportunity to take both Burt and Terry on one of my Lost Ballparks of Baltimore Tours. Our first stop was the former site of Union Park at the corner of East 25th Street and Guilford Avenue, followed by a walking tour up Barclay Street to East 29th Street and the former site of American League Park, which is now a McDonald’s.

Burt Solomon and David Stinson Standing in Front of Memorial Stadium's Former Infield, Now a Youth Baseball Park Courtesy of the Ripken Foundation.

Next we walked across East 29th Street to the former site of Terrapin Park/old Oriole Park, where we confirmed that the 16 original row houses that sat behind what was once right-center field all remain at the site. After walking back to the car, we drove less than a mile from Union Park to the former site of Memorial Stadium, where pieces of brick and concrete from the stadium still can be found amongst the dirt, exposed by the weather.

After bidding adieu to Burt, Terry and I continued on to New Cathedral Cemetery, where four Hall of Fame Orioles are interred (John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Ned Hanlon, and Wilbert Robinson). Our final stop for the day was the former site of St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, where a young Babe Ruth was raised as a ward of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The historic baseball site includes the field where Babe Ruth learned to play the game, a building from St. Mary’s dating back to Ruth’s time at the school (the former Industrial Arts Building), and the former St. Mary’s Chapel, which was converted into a school building prior to Cardinal Gibbons High School arriving there in 1962.

I hope to conduct another Lost Ballparks of Baltimore Tour some time this spring. If you are interested in coming along, just send me a comment to this post.

Harrisburg Senators Fan Club – True Fans of the Game

Touring the Lost Ballparks of Baltimore With Author Burt Solomon

Buy Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel

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