One Patch of Grass

For more than 100 years, minor league baseball has been played in hundreds of cities, towns and 'burgs from Maine to California. And, every one of those cities, towns and 'burgs from Orchard Park to Rancho Cucamonga has shared a commonality of great moments on the field, oddball occurrences off the field and encounters with hundreds of players who have passed through on their way either to starring in the major leagues or, more likely, to toiling in 9-to-5 jobs in the real world.Only...
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For more than 100 years, minor league baseball has been played in hundreds of cities, towns and 'burgs from Maine to California. And, every one of those cities, towns and 'burgs from Orchard Park to Rancho Cucamonga has shared a commonality of great moments on the field, oddball occurrences off the field and encounters with hundreds of players who have passed through on their way either to starring in the major leagues or, more likely, to toiling in 9-to-5 jobs in the real world.Only one place can claim a uniqueness of its own, a place where one-of-a-kind moments have occurred on the same patch of grass since 1890.The place: City Island, a 63-acre parcel of land that sits in the middle of the Susquehanna River, a short walk from downtown Harrisburg to the grandstand behind home plate. Fans today can look upon a field where -- plus or minus a foot or two in location and elevation -- baseball has been played in the same spot as it was in 1890, when Frank Grant and Hughie Jennings became the first pair of black-and-white teammates who eventually were inducted into the Hall of Fame; in 1928, when Babe Ruth umpired a kids' game in the afternoon before homering on the same field later that day; in 1952, when Eleanor Engle became the first woman to sign a pro baseball contract; and in 1999, when Milton Bradley - the player, not the board game company - launched a Hollywood moment of a grand slam that was beyond anything Bernard Malamud ever conceived for his fictional Roy Hobbs.Their stories, and dozens more, are profiled in the book "One Patch of Grass" that was released in May 2012. More information on "One Patch of Grass" may be found at www.harrisburgbaseball.com.