Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City situated primarily on the island of the same name. It is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of about 477,377, Staten Island is the least populated of the five boroughs but is the third largest in area at .
The Borough of Staten Island is coterminous with Richmond County, the southernmost county in the state of New York. Until 1975, the borough was officially named the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has been sometimes called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.
Staten Island is overall the most suburban of the five boroughs of New York City. The North Shore, especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton, is the most urban part of the island; it contains the officially designated St. George Historic District and The St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian homes. The South Shore has more suburban-style residential neighborhoods and is home to the two and one-half mile long F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth longest in the world. Historically, the central and southern sections of the island were once dominated by dairy and poultry farms, almost all of which disappeared in the 20th century.
The borough is accessible to Brooklyn via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to New Jersey via the Goethals Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing, and Bayonne Bridge. Staten Island has MTA bus service and an MTA rapid transit line, the Staten Island Railway, which runs from the ferry terminal at St. George to Tottenville. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan and is a popular tourist attraction, providing views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and lower Manhattan.
The Heartland League was an independent baseball league that operated from 1996 to 1998 in the central United States.
The Heartland League was founded with teams in Lafayette, Indiana; Anderson, Indiana; Will County, Illinois; and Dubois County, Indiana. Lafayette won the championship in 1996. In 1997 the Clarkville Coyotes, Tennessee Tomahawks, and Columbia Mules joined the league from the Big South League. The Altoona Rail Kings also joined the league from the North Atlantic League. The four teams from the previous year remained, giving the league eight teams. In 1997 the league drew over 210,000 fans, more than three times as many fans as in 1996. The league fielded six teams in 1998, but teams in Huntington, West Virginia and Booneville, Mississippi suspended operations midway through the season and the league suspended operations after the Cook County Cheetahs jumped to the Frontier League. The Cheetahs moved to Crestwood IL and changed their name to the Windy City Thunderbolts. As of August 2005 they play at Hawkinson Ford Field.
The Mid-America League was based in Lafayette, Indiana, and was an independent baseball league located entirely within Indiana. The Mid-America League was the same league as the Heartland League with a different name and the same franchise. The Mid-America League operated in only four cities which were not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and is not affiliated with either.
"Heartland" is the thirteenth track from U2's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum. Unlike the other studio tracks from the album, "Heartland" was a leftover from The Joshua Tree, produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
