Sunbury Indians

The Sunbury Indians were a minor league baseball team based in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. They began play in the Interstate League in 1939 as the Sunbury Senators and were renamed the Sunbury Indians in 1940. Despite the nicknames, they were unaffiliated with any major league baseball team. They played at Meredith Park. The team relocated to Hagerstown, Maryland after the 1940 season as the Hagerstown Owls.

Professional baseball started in Sunbury the late nineteenth century. Sunbury fielded professional teams in the Central Pennsylvania League in 1887, 1896, 1897 and 1898. Another Sunbury team was part of the Atlantic League in 1909.

In 1931, banker and factory owner Oren Sterling owned and managed the Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania Senators, part of the Lower Circuit of the semi-professional West Branch League. He succeeded in getting his team to the league championship series in 1931 and 1933. In 1934, the Senators moved to the semi-professional Central Pennsylvania League, playing an exhibition game that year against the Williamsport Grays of the professional Class-A New York–Pennsylvania League. The Senators won the Central Pennsylvania League championship in 1935, 1936 and 1937.

In 1938, Sterling received permission to move his team from Mifflinburg to Sunbury. This was due to the poor support his team had received in Mifflinburg. Sterling moved virtually the entire physical structure of the park from Mifflenburg to Sunbury to construct Meredith Field. His players initially continued to use the same shirts they wore in Mifflinburg by wearing them inside out to hide the "Mifflinburg" embroidery. However, the Sunbury fans were not very happy with this arrangement. Sterling's Senators won the Central Pennsylvania League championship in 1938 as well. Sterling was a major proponent of the creation of the fully professional Class C Interstate League in 1939 and his club became one of its charter members.

The dominant player in 1939 for the Senators was David Kelly. He had a .404 batting average while leading the league in home runs and runs batted in. Even with this impressive performance, Kelly played only one more season in professional baseball. The pitching staff was led by right-hander Joseph Kleskie (14 wins to 13 losses, 3.13 earned run average (ERA), 187.0 innings pitched (IP)) and left-hander Jacob Yaros (11 wins to 7 losses, 4.44 ERA, 144.0 IP). First baseman Kelly and shortstop Michael Shimko were named to the 1939 Interstate League End of Season All-Star Team. The Sunbury team qualified for the league championship by beating the Trenton team (also named the Senators) in a one-game playoff. In the Interstate League championship, Sunbury gained a 3 games to 1 lead in the series over the Allentown Fleetwings. However, they lost the next three games to lose the series 4 games to 3.