Hollywood comes to Harrisburg

Actor Omar Epps prepares to take batting practice on Harrisburg’s City Island

With the Harrisburg Senators on the road in Canton, Ohio, to complete an improbable comeback and win the 1993 Class AA Eastern League title, their home ballpark on City Island is being transformed 33 years ago today into the Cleveland Indians’ spring training home for the movie Major League 2.

The island, decked out with imported palm trees, is made to look like the Indians’ real spring home in Winter Haven, Fla.

Actors Dennis Haysbert, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Omar Epps, James Gammon and Corbin Bernsen then call Harrisburg home for a couple of weeks.

“It was a little strange to see palm trees in Harrisburg,” Senators first baseman Randy Wilstead later says. “We knew they were going to film there, but we didn’t realize it would happen before the season was over.”

Only the season is not quite over for the Senators, who while filming is going on in their ballpark they are winning three straight games – and the Eastern League title – 300 miles away in Canton, Ohio.

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