They're among the first things you see when you walk into Jon Danos' second-floor office at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

They're vertical, framed photos of Danos with his family — wife Laura, young twin sons Luca and Christopher and even younger daughter Ava — celebrating on a Sunday evening in 2006.

"That's what I remember most about that night," Danos is saying, smiling as he remembers, "being with family, all that excitement.

"It was pretty magical."

In Kittanning, Denny Harriger always remembers it "as a blessing from God that I personally was able to pitch the game that won the championship.

"But that whole season to me was a dream come true. You couldn't write a book and script it that way ... people wouldn't believe it."

In Norfolk, Va., the Lancaster Barnstormers' general manager five years ago, Joe Pinto, is reminiscing about the atmosphere, about the "Code Red" that encouraged the packed, enthusiastic crowds to wear red, when he stops for a second.

"I'm getting goose bumps just talking about it," Pinto says.

And here in Lancaster County, retired Major League all-star Tom Herr, who managed his hometown team to the championship, agrees that "it was just a magical year."

Five years ago this past Saturday, on Oct. 1, 2006, the Barnstormers, in only their second season, captured the Atlantic League championship in Lancaster's ballpark.

But the title, won by the only team in the league to this day to take both of the two regular-season titles and then sweep the playoffs, is only part of the story.

Team officials like Danos and Pinto and players like Harriger and Eric Ackerman say the story was as much about the red-wearing, excited sellout crowds at the stadium.

"I said it at the time and I still say it, I've never seen a crowd in minor-league baseball so over-the-top excited," says Danos, who has 21 years' experience in professional baseball.

Then there were the interesting side-stories. The then-37-year-old Harriger, for example, knew he was retiring from baseball.

So when he threw the last of his 135 pitches (a backdoor slider) that night for a called third strike to nail down the 5-2 win over the Bridgeport Bluefish, he did something few players will ever do.

Win a championship with their very last pitch as a pro.

For Dave Collins, the Voice of the Barnstormers since the team's inception in 2005, it's still the only chance he's had to call a championship for his team.

"It was pretty amazing," says Collins, who has broadcast close to 1,000 games in Lancaster and more than 3,000 in his 23-year broadcasting career.

Here's what people who played key roles in that championship now recall:

The general manager

Pinto, as the team's GM from the start, remembers thinking after the team's first season, in 2005, how "year two is always tough.

"With year one, it's always a big deal ... but with year two, the (novelty) is over."

But in 2006, the team started winning "and kept on winning," and the excitement never left, Pinto says.

After the championship, fans beeped their horns at the Barnstormers, who made their way from the ballpark down to the Brickyard Restaurant for the championship celebration.

"It was just very surreal, when you're on the street carrying the (championship) trophy," Pinto says, "and for a second it could have been anywhere, it could have been Boston, it could have been New York after a championship, the atmosphere was that strong.

"There are not many days that go by that I don't think about that," says Pinto, who since January has been director of business development and marketing for the Norfolk Tides, the Baltimore Orioles' Class AAA team, and works for two other O's farm teams.

"I was blessed and honored to be a part of that championship," he says. "I'm thankful that they gave me that chance, and we kicked butt."

The manager

Herr, the former Hempfield High star, had a long Major League career, appearing in All-Star Games and three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals, but says the '06 championship was "something that was truly special.

"Especially being from here, you could really feel the excitement with the fans, the way they responded to the team," he says. "And to win in only our second year was just phenomenal."

Players agreed that Herr was a steadying influence on the team, which despite winning both regular-season titles, did at one point lose nine games in a row in the second half of the season before righting itself for the playoffs.

"I felt like my job as the manager is to portray to the players that everything's under control," Herr says, noting that he also was helped by many veteran leaders on the team.

Harriger was one, "a real leader by example on that team," Herr says.

Asked for a favorite memory, Herr lists relief pitcher Charlie Weatherby's long relief stint in Game 2 of the championship series, which helped save the game, Harriger's gritty performance in the final game, and outfielder Eric Crozier's inside-the-park home run in the first-round game at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

Crozier was "a solid guy, not only a good player, but also a good leader on that team," Herr says, adding several others, like shortstop Jason Bowers, catcher Lance Burkhart and infielder Jose Ortiz, as great influences in '06.

The team president

Asked to recall a favorite play from the championship season and/or playoffs, Danos can't pick one.

"I tend to gravitate toward the larger rather than a particular play," he says. "The people, and the stark image of all the red in the ballpark ... is what I remember."

He also thinks of the dark moment that came just 12-plus hours after the 2006 team took the championship.

The Nickel Mines Amish school shooting came that Monday morning, Oct. 2, and the idea of a victory parade suddenly seemed wrong, says Danos, then and now the Barnstormers' president.

"That's what being a community is about. It's like being a family ... there are things that make you proud, and things that make you cry," he says.

The pitcher

The overriding image among the nearly 7,000 fans on hand for the last game was that of Harriger, not pitching his best but showing a bulldog determination to finish.

"If it had been a midseason game, I probably would have been taken out," says Harriger, who now teaches baseball for Christian Sports International in his hometown of Kittanning, 44 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Nothing will ever match the memory of the championship night and season, he says.

The crowd "fired me up so much that night," he recalls.

"Lancaster has the best fans I've ever seen in minor-league baseball. You hear people talk in football about 'the 12th Man,' well, at the stadium that night the crowd was definitely 'the 10th Man' for us."

Fellow pitcher Ackerman, a former Cocalico High star who stayed with the Barnstormers for several more seasons, remembers that night being "mentally prepared to come in the game, in case I had to get in there."

But it was clear Harriger had this one.

Announcer Collins remembers Harriger, before the opener of the first playoff series against the Atlantic City Surf, relaxing in the clubhouse, playing cards.

Meanwhile, Atlantic City's pitcher, player-coach Lincoln Mikkelsen, locked himself in his office.

In the last game, Herr was asking Harriger how he was feeling, and finally, "I just said, 'You're finishing this,'" the manager recalls.

The slugger

Jeremy Todd was a slugging first baseman whose home runs and clutch hitting played a big part in the championship.

Today a golf pro at Millersville's Crossgates course, he remembers the championship night and season as "probably the most enjoyable experience I've had" in baseball.

"The main thing I always think about is the crowd, just how much fun it was to be on the field ... plus, having a good team, just a bunch of fun guys to play with."

The night of the last game, "we felt going in we were going to win, and we were there to prove a point. (Bridgeport) thought they were going to steamroll us because of the lineup they had ... so we really wanted to come out and win.

"It goes by quick. I couldn't believe I've been here (Lancaster) in the five years since."

The announcer

As the championship game wound down, Collins "wasn't thinking anything that night except, 'Hold on, hold on, hold on!' " as Harriger worked into the ninth inning.

The first two games of the final series had been in Bridgeport, Conn., and while Collins can't remember much about the first game, the classic 9-8 second-game victory will always stay with him.

It didn't end until a Bridgeport outfielder dropped a routine fly ball in the 12th inning, letting the 'Stormers score the winning run.

The team's night wasn't over. Leaving a rest stop where the team had stopped to eat, Lancaster's bus rear-ended a slow-moving driver on an I-95 on-ramp. The bus driver did everything right, Collins recalls, but the car up ahead was driving way too slow, and nothing could be done.

No one was hurt, but it added more time onto the trip home.

Herr says the team was so fired up, however, they probably could have played the next game right when they got home, at 4 or 5 in the morning.

After the championship, Collins had brought a change of clothes, expecting the champagne-spraying of a celebration. But after getting doused in the clubhouse as expected and changing clothes, someone then got him again, out on the field.

"What do I do now?" thought Collins, knowing it was too chilly a night to walk around drenched in champagne. Fortunately, he had a team jacket he could wear to the celebration at the Brickyard.

doconnor@lnpnews.com