Baseball is a game of myths, so here’s a poke at a growing York County legend
This aerial view from 2009 shows the Codorus Creek dividing York City’s two major sports venues – Sovereign Bank Stadium, left, and Small Field. As a point of history, a renovated Small Field, where William Penn Senior High School teams play, was one of the sites studied for the sports stadium that would become home to minor league baseball in York. Background posts: Revs will easily pass 1969’s full-season attendance stats and Baseball’s Methuselah played for White Roses and ‘That’s a stupid question;’ Brooksie played second base.
The 1,000,000th fan to attend a York Revolution baseball game passed through the turnstiles at Sovereign Bank Stadium this week.
That moment provides an opportunity to poke at a growing myth, put forth by some, about former Mayor Charlie Robertson’s standing as the father of baseball in York, or at least the papa of its rebirth.
Rather, we’ll let an excerpted York Daily Record/Sunday News editorial (7/13/10) (which I had a hand in) explode this legend:
And here’s a local myth/legend: Former Mayor Charlie Robertson is the father of baseball in York.
That’s a legend in Mr. Robertson’s own mind. In a recent story about Eric Menzer taking over as general manager of the Revolution, Mr. Robertson said, “He helped me bring the baseball stadium to York. I was the one who started the drive to bring baseball and a new stadium to York. I think it’s great that he’s making this step to promote and maintain the baseball situation in York.”
Also, a recent letter to the editor called for recognition of Mr. Robertson as the man who brought baseball to York.
We’ll give Mr. Robertson this much: He did “start the drive” to bring pro ball to the city.
But like so many other of his poorly-thought-out dreams (remember the rollercoaster for Memorial Park?), his drive — to switch sports for a moment — stalled at mid-field. Back to baseball: He was like a pitcher who gets hammered in the early innings: Embarrassing squabbles with Harrisburg’s mayor over minor league territorial rights, scandals over spending on a consultant hired to bring baseball here, and so on.
Baseball was saved in long relief by more competent pitchers such as Mr. Robertson’s successor, John Brenner, one of his predecessors, John Krout, as chairman of the York County Industrial Development Corp. that took the lead on the stadium, Mr. Menzer (after leaving the sinking Robertson administration), and a team of other movers and shakers who knew how to actually get things done.
Other posts with aerial views:
– Just try to resist studying this memory-tugging photograph
– Just try to resist studying this memory-tugging Sears photograph, Part II
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging photo of North York’s White Oak Park
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging aerial photograph of York Whitehull Airport and York Valley Inn and Playland and …
– So, can you find long-gone Springwood Park in this aerial photograph?
– Camp Security area of Springettsbury Township from the air
– Columbia-Wrightsville Susquehanna River bridges from the air.
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging photograph of northwest York, Pa.
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging aerial photograph of York’s Roosevelt Avenue Airport.
– Memorial Stadium, now Bob Hoffman Stadium, built to keep professional baseball in York.
– In York-area, famous Olmsted design firm left legacy in Wyndham Hills.
Also:
All York Town Square posts from the start. (Key word search by using “find” on browser).
