As fireworks light asterisks over the San Francisco skies...

Reading today about Alex Rodriguez's trick play yesterday set me off on a Google search for a dimly remembered minor-league incident.

It turns out that this August 18 is the 20th anniversary of the "Great Potato Caper" — in which catcher Dave Bresnahan of the then Williamsport Bills, a AA Cleveland Indians affiliate in Pennsylvania, threw a potato into left field to fool the runner on third into coming home, only to be tagged by Bresnahan with the real baseball. The umpire, alas, wasn't amused and called the runner safe, and Bresnahan was fined $50 and cut from the team — only to become an instant celebrity.

This August, the current team, the single-A Phillies affiliate Williamsport Crosscutters, is marking the 20th anniversary, including Dave Bresnahan bobblehead dolls for the first 1,000 attendees...