Gateway to the Majors
Williamsport and Minor League Baseball
208 pages | 56 illustrations | 7 x 10 | 2001
ISBN 978-0-271-02098-3 | cloth: $46.00 sh
ISBN 978-0-271-02248-2 | paper: $27.95 tr
A Keystone Book®
2001 Casey Award Finalist sponsored by Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine
Although many people know Williamsport, Pennsylvania, as the "birthplace of Little League Baseball," it is a city with a rich professional baseball tradition. Since the earliest days of the Pennsylvania State Association in the nineteenth century, professional minor league baseball has flourished in Williamsport, and over the years hundreds of players and managers have passed through historic Bowman Field on their way to the major leagues, including Jim Bunning, Ferguson Jenkins, and Nolan Ryan. Gateway to the Majors is a comprehensive history of professional minor league baseball in Williamsport from the earliest days up until the present.
This book breaks new ground by weaving in social history and collective biography to capture the essence of the minor league experience in one city. Drawing upon local Williamsport newspapers, extensive oral histories of former players, baseball administrators, boosters and fans, rare photograph collections, and primary source material from the Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Archives, Gateway to the Majors reconstructs the totality of the professional baseball experience.
Beyond chronicling the seasons, this book sheds light on the contributions of Williamsport native Tommy Richardson as a pioneering minor league administrator and promoter of the game. The accompanying appendix of former Williamsport players who played in the Major Leagues is a valuable reference tool for baseball historians. This book also illustrates how the city’s relationship with baseball forged a distinct civic identity and national reputation as "Baseball Town, USA."
James P. Quigel Jr. is Head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Paterno Library, Penn State University. He grew up in the Williamsport area and has been a lifelong fan of Williamsport baseball.
Louis E. Hunsinger Jr. is a local baseball historian who lives in Williamsport. He is a reporter for the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and a member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR). The authors previously collaborated on a pictorial history of professional baseball in Williamport.