Bowman Field

Williamsport, PA

AKA: Memorial Field (1926-29), Historic Bowman Field (2000-14), Susquehanna Bank Park at Historic Bowman Field (2014-16), BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field (2017-)		Dimensions: LF 323 CF 411 RF 331
Surface: grass	Opening Day: April 22, 1926
Ground Breaking: October 1925	Capacity: 2,366
Cost: $75,000n	Contractor: James V. Bennett / Drennen Bros. / JC Dressler

Bowman Field was built to serve as a home to the city's newish team in the New York - Penn League, the Williamsport Grays, as the field at Williamsport High School proved to be too small. Bowman Field is named after J. Walton Bowman for being one of the team's biggest boosters and the man who paid for construction of the ballpark. The other main booster was Thomas Gray, who the team was named for.

In 1987, Dave Bresnahan was catching for the Williamsport Bills. He switched mits when a runner was on third. Hidden in his mit was a potato that was cut to look like a baseball. Bresnahan threw the potato to the third baseman which prompted the runner to head for home, where he was tagged out as Bresnahan had the ball in his glove. The Umpire awarded the runner home plate anyway. The president of the Eastern League banned Bresnahan, the grandson of Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan, from the league. The citizens of Williamsport were thrilled with Bresnahan's ingenuity, and the club retired his number 59. Bresnahan said, at the retirement ceremony in 1998,

"Lou Gehrig and to play in 2,130 consecutive games and hit .340 for his number to be retired, all I had to do was bat .140 and throw a potato."

Williamsport is home to the Little League World Series, and Major League Baseball has started to hold the "Little League Classic" there. on August 20, 2017, the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates played a regular season game here. As of this writing, the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets are slated to play in the 2018 Little League Classic, which will take place on August 19.