Here at All Things Trains, we love trains...and we love baseball! One of the best players in the major leagues since the 1960s was Dave Parker, who played for 6 teams, but was best known for his decade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
During his time as a minor leaguer with the Charleston (WV) Charlies, Parker once hit a home run on to a passing coal train on what is now the CSX Kanawha Subdivision, then part of Chessie System component Chesapeake & Ohio. Train...and the ball...traveled all the way to Cincinnati, OH. Imagine the exit velocity on that ball!
But if that wasn't enough railroading for you, a second franchise named the Charleston Charlies eventually found its way to Erie-Lackawanna territory in Moosic, PA and is now the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Railriders. And yes, you can ride the rails to the station, as the electrified tracks of the present-day Laurel Line come to PNC Field's parking lot (and we parked there to see the Big Boy earlier this summer!)
Link to the story of Dave Parker's Home Run on the MLB's Instagram Page: Dave Parker's Monster Home Run!
Photo Credit: MLB