At the end of this season of AAA baseball Red Barons will be without and affiliation to MLB. Currently the Barons are affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies – which has always been especially great for the area because I’d guesstimate 50% of the Area’s fans are Phillies fans. (The other 48% are probably Yankees Fans.) With the promise of Allentown building a AAA baseball franchise – the Phillies look to have an agreement to farm with them. With the outward expansion away from Philadelphia – Allentown and the rest of the Lehigh Valley are now by many considered suburbs of Philadlephia. The commute is about an hour. I’m guessing the populations of the Lehigh Valley surely can susatin a AAA franchise as it well exceeds Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metro.
So without a stadium… and without a team… Philadelphia and Allentown will look to persuade a cheap and lackluster team to hijack. Odds are looking like it will be you Ottawa. This is where I get happy.
Ottawa is currently the affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles. I am an Orioles fan. Perhaps if the cards are dealt right – the Phillies will affilaitre with Ottawa and eventually bring them to Allentown… leaving the Orioles to affiliate with the Scranton. This would be anytime I go home to visit my family I could scout the minors to see whats working up the ranks to the O’s.
Another consideration is that the Washington Nationals may try and affiliate with Scranton. I don’t hate this idea – but from a Scrantonian standpoint – how good do we feel about the longevity of the Nationals on the east coast?