if you remember form my past post… i was hoping the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons would get picked up as a Orioles affiliate… not only has that not happened, but the worst has:
Closer to home
Yankees’ top minor league team to move to Scranton
Posted: Thursday September 21, 2006 10:33AM; Updated: Thursday September 21, 2006 1:12PMSCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — The New York Yankees reached an agreement Thursday to make the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons their Triple-A affiliate, after ending their relationship with the Columbus Clippers earlier this year.
The Red Barons, who play in the International League, were previously the top minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The agreement will make the Yankees’ top farm team much closer to the home club. Moosic, where the team plays, is about 120 miles from New York City.
“I would say that about 50 percent of the baseball fans in our area are Yankee fans,” said Lackawanna County commissioner Robert C. Cordaro, who announced the deal Thursday. “So there’s widespread jubilation.”
Cordaro also announced that California’s Mandalay Baseball Properties will manage the franchise, which will likely be renamed. Mandalay agreed to replace the artificial surface at Lackawanna County Stadium with natural turf and will have the option of purchasing the team for $16.4 million.
The arrangements with the Yankees and Mandalay will solve the financial woes of the franchise, which is owned by the county through a stadium authority. Cordaro said the franchise has lost about $10 million over the last six years.
“We’ve been trying to reverse that and this gets it done in one fell swoop,” Cordaro said.
The New York Mets also expressed an interest in having an affiliate in Scranton, but the Yankees were the sentimental favorite among local residents.
“Guaranteed income, professional management and the New York Yankees,” Cordaro said. “It doesn’t get much better.”
The Phillies previously announced plans to move their top minor league team to a new stadium in Allentown in 2008. The club will play in Ottawa in 2007. The Phillies had been affiliated with the Red Barons since the minor league club’s inception 18 years ago.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
[tags]scranton, wilkes-barre, yankees, red barons, new york, baseball, AAA[/tags]