Home of the Potato Play

Home plate entrance to Bowman Field, Jul-2010.

The seating bowl, as seen from down the right-field line.

Looking out at the field from beyond home plate.

• Location: Fourth Street at Route 15, Williamsport, Pa.
• Opened: 1926 as Memorial Field
• Additional names: Bowman Field (1929)
• Renovations: 1947, 1958, 1987, 1994, 2000
• Home team: Williamsport Grays (1926-42, 1944-46, 1954-56, 1958-62), Tigers (1947-52), Athletics (1953), Mets (1964-67), Tomahawks (1976), Bills (1987-91), New York-Pennsylvania/Eastern League; Williamsport Astros (1968-70), Red Sox (1971-72), Cubs (1994-98), Crosscutters (1999-present), New York-Penn League
• Capacity: 4,200

Chronological Tour: Stop 7

Rating: 3 baseballs

Over the years, various leagues have played at Bowman Field. The park was home to the Eastern League for a while until 1992, when the New York Mets moved the Williamsport Bills up to Binghamton, N.Y. The New York-Penn League promptly moved in, and the club adopted the Crosscutters name, evoking the city’s logging heritage, in 1999.

In 1987, catcher Dave Bresnahan of the Bills pulled off a classic stunt. His club was in seventh place in an eight-team league, playing the last-place Reading Phillies in a meaningless late-August game.

With a runner on third, 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 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 base for Bresnahan’s deception.

The president of the Eastern League took offense to what it perceived as Bresnahan’s affront to the game, banning the grandnephew of Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan from its league. However, the citizens of Williamsport applauded Bresnahan for his ingenuity, eventually prompting the club to retire his number. The displayed retired number shown here used to be atop the concession stand; now it is on the left-field wall.