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.

Chronological Tour: Stop 7

• Location: Fourth Street at Route 15, Williamsport, Pa. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1926 as Memorial Field
• Additional names: Bowman Field (1929), Susquehanna Bank Park at Historic Bowman Field (2014), BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field (2017), Muncy Bank Ballpark at Bowman Field (2021)
• 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 (1999-2019), New York-Penn League; Williamsport Crosscutters, MLB Draft League (2021-present); Pennsylvania College of Technology Wildcats, North Eastern Athletic Conference; Williamsport Outlaws, Federal Hockey League (2012-13)
• Capacity: 4,200

Rating: 3 baseballs

Over the years, various leagues have played at Bowman Field. The park was back in 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. Williamsport was omitted from the Major League Baseball restructuring of the minors for 2021, but the Crosscutters will play on as members of the MLB Draft League, an amateur league featuring the top draft-eligible players from high school and college.

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 the 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.

For the 2012-13 winter season, Bowman Field was outfitted with an ice rink and played host to the Williamsport Outlaws of the Federal Hockey League, a low-level professional league. The club, which played its previous season in Wayne, N.J., was the only pro hockey team in recent history to play an entire home season outdoors, although college and professional games have been scheduled at outdoor stadiums over the years.

The venerable facility finally earned a corporate sponsorship for 2014, but the various banks that have put their names on the facility have allowed the Bowman Field name to be retained as part of the official designation.

For 2017, Bowman Field is hosting the MLB Little League Classic, a scheduled Pittsburgh Pirates game held during the first weekend of the Little League World Series. That tournament’s players and families will be the primary attendees. As part of the deal to host the game, the park received additional upgrades, including a new playing surface and new bullpens beyond the fences (which shortened the distance down the lines slightly).

Additional recent improvements include the construction of Logger’s Landing down the first-base line, a premium seating area that includes the Millionaire’s Row Bar, another tribute to the city’s heritage.