The end run to the end run

Twenty-eight years ago today, the city of Harrisburg – armed with $6.7 million – pulls an end run on the city of Springfield, which earlier tries to pull another end run on Harrisburg in its attempt to lure the Senators from City Island to Massachusetts.

Instead, the city of Harrisburg ponies up the money to buy the Class AA baseball team from a quartet of owners that only a few months earlier purchase the Senators for $4.1 million with the clandestine, end run plan of their own to move the team.

The $6.7 million sale – then a record for a Class AA franchise – allows the Senators to stay in Harrisburg with the city taking ownership of the team.

In their first four full seasons with the city as their owners, the Senators win an Eastern League-record four straight championships from 1996-99.