Back in business in the Burg

Thirty-eight years ago today, Harrisburg finds itself playing professional baseball for the first time since 1952 – starting here with Jim Neidlinger's first pitch in the Senators' Class AA season opener at still-freshly painted RiverSide Stadium on City Island.

The Senators lose that first game to the Vermont Reds 11-5 before a Saturday afternoon crowd of 4,083.

The first title celebration in 1987

Five months and two days later, the Senators close out the 1987 season with another game against Vermont on City Island, this time beating the Reds 5-1 in Game 4 of the finals for the first of Harrisburg's six Eastern League titles in a 12-year span.

The 1987 championship is the Senators’ first of six titles in a span of 13 seasons, a run that ends with a straight-out-of-Hollywood, two-out, two-strike grand slam by Milton Bradley against Norwich in the fifth and final game of the 1999 finals.

Alas, the Senators have not won a title since then, a quarter-century drought that is the longest current streak in the 12-team Eastern League.