Universal York

York County has embraced the York Revolution minor league baseball team. Their win-loss record on the field wasn’t that great last year, but the combination of family-friendly entertainment with the chance to see a real live baseball game in a gem of a stadium still brought in the fans.
The Revs open their fourth season on Thursday. In the meantime, check out my Sunday News column below for the story of the rocky road to fielding a York baseball team in 1908.

York County has embraced the York Revolution minor league baseball team. Their win-loss record on the field wasn’t that great last year, but the combination of family-friendly entertainment with the chance to see a real live baseball game in a gem of a stadium still brought in the fans.
The Revs open their fourth season on Thursday. In the meantime, check out my Sunday News column below the story of the rocky road to fielding a York baseball team in 1908.

York County Has Always Loved Its Baseball

Prospects of seeing a good minor league game in York were low in early 1908. York’s franchise in the Tri-State league had recently moved to Reading. Hope appeared, however, in the person of W. G. Thomas who had purchased a franchise in the Atlantic league for a York team.
According to the February 3, 1908 Gazette, the other league clubs would be Hazleton, Shamokin, Allentown, Easton, Mt. Carmel, and Pottsville. The league would play “outlaw ball,” meaning they were independent and not under the “protection” of the minor leagues. They also didn’t have to follow minor league rules in such matters as recruiting players.
The newspapers avidly followed the story’s progress. Thomas announced that he had leased the Y.A.C. [York Athletic Club] grounds in the west end of the city and would have the field in shape for the season opener around May first. (The site is now Odeon Park, just off Richland Avenue at the Codorus Creek.) Local contractor Howard Gise was awarded a $1,200 contract to erect new bleachers and enlarge the grandstand for a total seating capacity of 4,000 persons. A press box, “one of the best in this section of the state,” would be on top of the grandstand.
The Gazette thought Yorkers would support the new team, especially if it won. The paper said that you could walk to the field in ten minutes from the center of town. Trolley transportation would also be available.
The first player signed was Eddie Shultz, who had played for York in the Tri-State league. Things seemed to be going smoothly until the Atlantic league announced that York would be dropped. There was a conflict between Thomas and league president J. W. Dobbins. Although Thomas was still reassuring the public that York would have a team in the league, the Atlantic league returned Thomas’s franchise money on April 8.
Baseball season would open in a few weeks, so Thomas moved fast. On April 9 he announced that the York team would play in the new Pennsylvania-New Jersey league, since he had realized “the inferior condition of the Atlantic baseball league.” The other teams would be Camden, Allentown, Newark, Chester, and Trenton.
Weather held up construction, but on April 17 work began on the fence, bleachers, and a grandstand partitioned into men’s and women’s sections. Players would have lockers and there would be showers in the clubhouse. The few players who had arrived started practicing with local hopefuls on the 18th, while carpenters feverishly worked on the stands.
M. H. Shuler, sports editor of the Gazette was appointed official scorekeeper. Thomas had new uniforms ready. York Street Railways cars would leave the square for the field every five minutes. General admission would be 25 cents with an additional 10 cents for the grandstand. Season ticket books were a real bargain–50 games for $10.
The official opening day game was to be at home against Newark. It would be preceded by a parade led by the Spring Garden band and featuring the York and Newark teams. Mayor Weaver would throw out the first ball.
By the 20th, Thomas had signed 15 players and left on day-long scouting trip to towns that still had a Tri-State team to see who else he could pick up.
The York team played together for the first time in an exhibition game on April 25, beating a Steelton team 4 to 0. As the newspaper puts it: “The victory was a surprise to nearly every person who knew under what conditions the local team played. York entered the game without any practice and the players were strangers.”
Several of the men were local, like Wallick from Red Lion. Two other players came straight to the game after a seven hour train ride from Brooklyn. The lineup had Bush pitching and Wilkes catching. Harrison was at first, Caroline at second and Shultz at third. Beggs was the shortstop. Johnson was in left field, Maxwell in center, and Wallick in right.
The freshly minted team didn’t do as well in their second exhibition game on the 27th. They fell to Red Lion ten to seven, partly because of York errors. The Gazette put a positive spin on the loss, pointing out that “Manager Thomas had a chance to look ’em over and discover the weak places.” They fared better on the 29th, beating Eureka, the reigning local amateur champions, by four to three in what was described as a “slow, but well played game.”
Opening day, May 2, was so frigid that only two Spring Garden band musicians showed up. Several hundred enthusiastic spectators, including one woman, didn’t let the cold keep them away. The York Team beat Newark nine to four, and professional baseball was back in town.

Click here for major leaguer and Glen Rock native Cliff Heathcote, who set some unusual records.
Click here for the history of Small’s Field, where the Revolution might have played.
Click here to find out what “historical mitigation” has to do with York’s Soverign Bank Stadium.