Gdansk

Gdansk, also known by its German name, Danzig, is a port city on the Baltic Sea. Having a largely German population, but located at what was the ethnic border between Poland and Germany, the city was claimed by both sides after the reconstitution of Poland following World War I. As a compromise, it was constituted as a free city, independent of both countries, in order to serve as Poland's principal port. Adolph Hitler's decision to annex the city in 1939 was one of the triggers of World War II. Borders were completely redefined after that conflict, with East Prussia disappearing off the map, and Poland shifting westward, to the point that Gdansk is now squarely within Polish territory. Massive population movements after World War II also meant that the old German population has disappeared from the city. Still a major port and industrial city, it was the birth place of Lech Walesa's "Solidarnosc" trade movement in the 1970s, which led to the fall of Poland's communist government.

Gdansk's connection to baseball is that Skel Roach was born here in 1871, when the city was still the German port of Danzig.