Opening Day Awaits!

by David Banyas with Lisa Hummel

Soon, the flat trickling of the Susquehanna will give in to the national anthem, blunt cracks of ash bats, the satisfying slaps of leather balls into leather gloves, and the waves of excitement rolling through a crowd in tune with the action or inaction on the diamond. Baseball season is on deck and this town is warming up with doughnuts on the bat in anticipation of the first pitch on April 5 when the Senators take on the Bowie Baysox for the first of seven home games.

The Senators are not just a gallery of scruffy palookas who play ball. They are a success story with six championships. They are fans, parents, patrons, and friends of Greater Harrisburg who bring millions of dollars of revenue to the city every season. They are kids, men, with a dream to go to The Show. They are the mascot mugging for the camera, the vendor slinging hotdogs, the groundskeeper meticulously grooming in between games. They are the new outfielder with a .332 batting average and the third baseman returning for the fifth year. The Senators are the part of Harrisburg in which we all can find pride. Not because it’s a baseball club, but because it’s our baseball club. It’s our hopes of doing well under pressure, our expectations of reward from hard work, and our embarrassment when we screw it all up.

More than just baseball, the Harrisburg Senators have come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. To Barry Fealtman, who loved seeing the young talent farmed out of the Senators enough to become the president of the fan club, the Senators are good, clean, inexpensive fun. To Mayor Stephen R. Reed, who brought the Senators to Harrisburg in 1987 ending the 30-year baseball drought in Central PA, the team is valuable for the smiles it puts on our faces and the money it puts into our town. To Billy “The Greek” Kaldes, owner of Harrisburg’s best hotdog in town, the Senators are much more than simple entertainment or charitable co-partners: they are good friends.

Since 1987, Billy Kaldes and the Senators have been gathering yearly for their sports auction, an early summer event held on City Island that has raised nearly $600,000 in its existence for United Cerebral Palsy. Over the years, a slew of prized items have graced the auction block, from Tom Prince’s spikes and other Senators memorabilia to an autographed photo of Mark McGwire crossing the plate after his 70th homerun. A majority of the items were collected by current and former members of the Senators line-up, a fact that does not go unnoticed — or unappreciated — by Kaldes, whose youngest daughter, Jessica, suffers from the disability. “It is just an overwhelming experience that the people reached out to the children and adults who have cerebral palsy or whatever it is, that they would come out and reach out to make it just a little better for someone else,” said Kaldes. “My youngest daughter, Jessica, can’t speak, she can’t talk, and it’s a tough thing, but when I see her smiling I know that we’re doing something right. The administration, all of the ball players, all of the fans who have been so supportive of all that goes on in Harrisburg. The Senators should get a pat on the back for what they do.”

And to think they almost left.

In 1995, the Senators ownership decided to pull up stakes and move the team from the city, with plans to relocate to Springfield, Massachusetts. As expensive as it was to ensure the team stayed, it would have been even more costly to convince another team to play in Harrisburg, to renovate the Stadium, and to wait and watch hopefully for their growth in the community. Placed in somewhat of a tough spot, city leader and baseball fan Mayor Stephen R. Reed, with the backing of the City, convinced the reluctant owners to sell — and the rest is history. Baseball remains alive on the Island. With purchasing costs totaling $8.2 million dollars spread out over 15 years, Reed explains that the purchase of the Senators was more than a smart move. “While that was considered high at the time, the value of minor league clubs has skyrocketed these past few years, and it is now beginning to look like we got a very good deal,” he said. “City ownership officially began with the 1996 season, the first of four consecutive Eastern League Championships with the team under city ownership. Ironic wasn’t it? Harrisburg was and still is the only city in the Nation to own its own AA franchise.”

Reed sets the average annual net profit of the club between $250,000 and $300,000, but targets $600,000 as the total number when considering the direct economic spin-off to the city via taxes, user fees, and other related revenue. Clearly, the Senators are an economic commodity — but they’re a source of enjoyment for the Mayor, too. From the first pitch in 1987 and the team’s first foray into post-season play, to the clinching of the 1999 championship, the fourth in as many years, a moment the baseball fan in Reed remembers: “Down by three runs, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, full count, an eerie fog blanketing the field and a light rain slowly turning into a downpour — meaning the game could have been called at any time — everybody thinking the season’s over, and bang. Grand slam home run! That experience remains as surreal and unbelievable in memory today as it did in reality that night.”

Like Reed, there are a number of moments Billy Kaldes will never forget, though most of them have nothing to do with on-field play or last second heroics. There are the big things, like being presented with the autographed McGwire photo and the joy in watching the faces of children and adults light up as a result of the help and charitable acts from his team of friends, and the little, everyday things, like the vision of then opposing minor leaguer-now current Arizona Diamondback Mark Grace eating a cheeseburger and fries at The Spot or his view from the restaurant windows of the parade of people who walk down Walnut Street to the Island, game after game. All of them different and all a result of merely having the presence of the Senators in the city. “It’s just wonderful,” said Kaldes. “I don’t know what else you can say. It’s just a positive thing that has happened in my life and hopefully a lot of other people’s lives. It’s amazing.”

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