Around the horn: All wet in Scranton

We start our Monday musings with a pretty interesting ongoing story in Scranton. The condition of Scranton's PNC Field is nearly beyond repair after heavy June rains. The baby Yankees had their second straight sunny day postponement Sunday and you have to believe the parent Yankees are not pleased. GM Brian Cashman had little to say in this story in the Scranton Times.

Scranton lost a July 4 sellout crowd Saturday night but still invited people to the ballpark for a fireworks show. It will try again tonight and then come to Buffalo for games Tuesday and Wednesday. In a release on its official Web site, the Scranton front office admitted Saturday if may have to move home games if the situation persists.

The agreement with the Yankees and Scranton goes through 2010. PNC Field, opened one year after Coca-Cola Field debuted in Buffalo in 1988, already needs $13 million in repairs and it's hard to believe there's money for a new park. This could get interesting. With the Mets disaster ongoing, have to wonder how closely the Bisons are watching this situation.

---Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe gives it up to Red Sox knuckleballerTim Wakefield for getting his first All-Star nod at age 42. Sure is a long way from that 5-15 nightmare in the summer of '94 in Buffalo, isn't it?

---The Yankees have rotation issues just like the Mets. Bill Madden of the Daily News wonders what's wrong with Joba Chamberlain.  

---The Mets start a series with the Dodgers at home Tuesday night and Oliver Perez pitches Wednesday. From what I saw here Friday night, good luck to them with that. The Mets are so bad that Mike Vaccaro writes in the Post that Sunday's game was over as soon as Jimmy Rollins touched Johan Santana for a leadoff home run.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bharrington)

Comments

[Mike Harrington]

Ralph: Our situation in LF the other day was not the same as Scranton's. We have a lot of runoff and rain coming the from the Thruway and parking lot and we have a clay base that gets saturated rather than a sand one. Scranton has very little drainage cuz they used to have turf rather than grass and I'm told what drainage they had was getting plugged by all their run.

That said, no excuse for what happened in LF in our place either. But at least it was just one day and hasn't been a problem going on 5 weeks like theirs.

On another note, more info on the Rich family-Steinbrenners, please Don't know anything about that. Not to mention The Boss obviously isn't in charge of anything anymore.

Thanx! MH

[Ward]

Re: Mets organization. Four teams in the minors have lost 50 games so far. Two are Mets' affiliates--Buffalo and Binghamton.

If "minor league baseball is up and down all of the time", how come fourteen years of affiliation with low-budget Cleveland never brought us such results?

[Ralph from Amherst]

Mike:

You will never see the Yankees here. The Rich family has very hard feelings for the Steinbrenners. By the way, I wonder if our playing field is headed the way of Scranton's after our Thursday afternoon "wet out".

[Ted Straub]

The Scranton situation has been an embarrassment for years. As you may recall few years back, the League had threatened to take over the franchise, due to its owners not paying their bills.

And the counties that own the field (Luzerne & Lackawanna Counties) have been and continue to suffer from money troubles themselves, thus much maintenance has been deferred, and probably paying for the needed repairs is out of the question.

And it's not just the playing surface that needs attention, the stadium itself needs a lot of work.

Prior to the Yankees affiliating themselves in Scranton, the field had an artificial surface which was replaced by grass at the Yankees' insistence. How shortsighted it was not to have had the drainage system replaced at that time.

It's only a matter of time before pro baseball will be lost in Scranton.

I wouldn't be so quick to jump off of the Mets' bandwagon re: their support of the Bisons. Minor League baseball is up and down all of the time. As a developmental team, this is part of a minor league team's reason for existence.

The unwise decisions of the NY Mets' administration will not be tolerated much longer. Once that regime changes, which logically should be soon, things will improve throughout the system!

[Aaron]

With the abudance of Yankees fans in this area, it would be absolutely huge if the Yanks left Scranton and affiliated with the Bisons.

[Jon]

Mike...what would be some of the options for Scranton if their field remains unplayable?

[Mark]

If you read the article and comments on the stadium issue, it is not a done deal by any means, but one which Buffalo will have to deal with down the road when the Bills start making demands at the end of the current lease or something happens to Mr. Wilson.