Aaron Margolis grew up attending Harrisburg Senators games. Idolizing the ballplayers. Enjoying time with his dad. Now, he sees kids doing the same things.
“There’s a responsibility to make this place special for them,” says the Senators assistant general manager. “There’s so much to do that the whole family can be here.”
The Harrisburg Senators celebrate their 30th season this year, looking back on highlights since re-forming in the Eastern League in 1987—and looking forward to increasing their community footprint.
The highlights over three decades encapsulate the aspirations and whimsy that is Minor League baseball:
Ownership and affiliations: Former Mayor Steve Reed’s tattered legacy still includes a handful of shining moments, and restoring baseball to City Island—on the same field graced by Babe Ruth and Satchel Paige—is one of them. Major league affiliation started with the Pittsburgh Pirates, changed to the Montreal Expos in 1991, and, in a happy marriage, shifted to the Washington Nationals when the Expos folded and moved to D.C.
Great players: Vladimir Guerrero. Stephen Strasburg. Bryce Harper. Dozens of future major leaguers have come through Harrisburg. Rehabbers down from the bigs stop here, too.
Great moments: Four consecutive Eastern League championships, 1996 to 1999. A rebuilt stadium, unveiled in 2008 and 2009, including a state-of-the-art video system. And of course, “The Slam”—Milton Bradley’s improbable, rain-soaked, two-out, full-count grand slam to win the 1999 championship (this writer was there—really.)
Great lunacy: Hovering helicopters drying the field in time for Opening Day (1987). Mayflies raining on ticketholders (a problem solved when lightstands were moved). A meandering skunk on the field (2015).
What do team administrators want the people of the Harrisburg area to know as they launch this season?
“They don’t have to like baseball to have a good time,” says President Kevin Kulp.
Kulp, with General Manager Randy Whitaker and Ticket Sales Director Jon Boles, has no say in the on-field product. That’s the Nationals’ job. These guys (and a staff of 18-plus interns) want to get you to the newly renamed FNB Field. You’ll have so much fun that you’ll tell all your friends, and record-breaking attendance will follow.
It worked in 2015. The Senators had a mediocre on-field record of 67-75, but record-breaking attendance of 301,588. Promotions for 2016 promise even more goofiness. Bring your dog to “Wet Nose Wednesdays!” Experience the rare confluence of cowboy monkeys, Community Aid free parking, $2 beers and Cinco de Mayo on May 5. Take a selfie with giant bobbleheads of Floyd, Guerrero and Harper, enshrined in the Senators’ “One & Only World Famous, Life Size Bobblehead Hall of Fame” (an original idea that’s generating national attention).
In Minor League baseball, it’s okay to try new things, says Kulp. When something’s bad, “we just don’t do those anymore.”
“The things we do are not designed necessarily to always appeal to the hardcore baseball fan,” he says. “It’s for affordable family entertainment. It’s friends hanging out for a night together. It’s a place to be, and we try to make it as fun of an atmosphere with a great baseball game in the background.”
Senior Corporate Sales Executive Todd Matthews tells intern interviewees that “it’s not about sports. It’s about entertainment. What we’re here to do is throw a block party every night and have a good time, and oh, by the way, there’s a baseball game that happens.”
Matthews is a veteran Senators fan who attended Opening Day in 1987 and was there for “The Slam” (he has photographic evidence). He sees buttoned-down business clients light up like kids when their names appear on the billboard. In 2015, he showed the staff young’uns that old guys have got moves when he and five other staff O.G.s, including Kulp and Whitaker, started taking the field after third innings to dance to “Uptown Funk.”
“If we could go out and make fools of ourselves, anyone can,” he says. “You’ve got to be a ham in Minor League baseball.”
A baseball season is exhausting for O.G.s and young’uns alike. The Senators’ long-suffering interns work 100-hour weeks during the season. They learn to catch up on sleep after every home stand, says Boles, a former intern whose internship started with grounds maintenance and sucking grease out of the concession stand fryers.
On many nights, the entire staff picks the stadium clean after games. Kulp and Whitaker can often be found directing traffic, and “that’s the right example to set,” says Boles.
“Randy’s out there dodging cars, so don’t complain to me about what you can and can’t do,” he says.
In this 30th season, it could be said that the Senators are reaching a new level of maturity. Kulp says that owner Mark Butler takes a hands-on interest in the team—not micromanaging, but supportive and encouraging even the wacky ideas. Management continues striving to be a community player, noting the $100,000 they’ve helped local groups raise since 2014, while also providing the area’s largest public venue, on the field and over radio broadcasts, for promoting their causes.
“You can’t put a price on that,” says Boles. “We’ve absolutely grown with the community.”
Minor League baseball teaches participants to be nimble, say the Senators staff. Even before the Red Land Little League team vied for the 2015 Little League World Series championship, the Senators reached out to arrange a celebration of their accomplishments, says Margolis. With the team’s national championship in hand, that night turned into “a de facto victory parade,” where the community “showed how much these kids meant to them.”
“This is a special area that takes an incredible amount of pride in the people and things that are here,” says Margolis. “Whenever we are able to be a part of that, we can’t ask for anything better.”
The Harrisburg Senators’ season starts April 7 in Altoona. The first home game is April 14. To learn more, including schedule and ticket information, visit www.senatorsbaseball.com.
On the Way Up
One of the joys of Minor League baseball is spotting fresh young talent on the way up. Still, those hot prospects are rarely household names. Harrisburg Senators officials admit they captured lightning in a bottle when the hotly touted Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper came through town two years in a row.
So, whom to watch for this year? Don’t expect the hot players to stay more than half a season, says Andrew Linker, author of “One Patch of Grass,” a history of baseball on City Island. “The minor leagues are as fluid now as they’ve ever been in terms of player development,” he says.
According to Linker, keep an eye out for:
- Lucas Giolito: “He arguably is the best right-handed pitcher prospect in baseball.” At 6-foot-6, “he’s looking very large out there” to batters, but he needs to learn consistency.
- Pedro Severino: Catcher, “terrific catch-and-throw guy” with great defensive skills, but in Linker’s opinion, needs to lose some “sloppy habits.”
- Reynaldo Lopez: Another right-handed pitcher. Native of the Dominican Republic, where youngsters start playing “when they can pick up a rock.”
And Linker’s tip for getting the most out of AA baseball: Ask around, and “find out who the three best players are on the field, whether they’re the top prospects to watch, or statistically. Those are the guys that are gonna go on to the big leagues, probably.”
