Scranton comes up short

Tuesday saw Bob and I driving north to Scranton's PNC Field, just off I-81 near the Montage Mountain ski area. Originally known as Lackawanna County All-Purpose Stadium, PNC Field ain't no PNC Park. Opened in 1989, it's now 20 years old and starting to show signs of age.

Arrival was good, with plentiful FREE parking next to the stadium. The stadium is a high, two-deck design but it looks unfinished due to the abrupt end of seats down both baselines. There is no outfield seating or outfield concourse for fans who want to take a walk.

One quickly understands that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team is the AAA affiliate of the Yankees. The Yankee name is all over and fans sport all kinds of Yankee pride in their attire.

We arrived in plenty of time and bought tickets at the gate for the front row of the high upper deck. But when Bob saw the infield still covered by a tarp, he knew something was wrong. Five minute before game time came an announcement the game would be delayed by rain. 10 minutes later, the heavy rain came and last about 25 minutes.

A nice feature of this stadium is there was plenty of room in the lower and upper concourses under the stands to stay completely dry. The crowd was sparse so it was not terribly crowded. A drawback of this stadium is the rows of seats are pretty tight so there is not too much legroom.

Bob and I were frustrated by long waits in the food lines. It was not the number of people in front of us. Rather it was the insufficient staffing of the food stands, for whatever reason. but it's not like we had somewhere else we needed to be during the rain delay.

Unlike the Yankee venues in the Bronx and in Tampa, the food here was not outrageously overpriced. Burgers ($4) and dogs ($2) were comparable with prices at our other stops. Beer is $5 but there is a very limited and uninspired selection. We splurged and got a box of white Old Forge Pizza.

We saw the first-place SWB Yankees play the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs (Phillies). Top prospects Austin Jackson (Yankees CF) and Joe Savery (Pigs SP) were both in action. It won't be long before they are playing in the big leagues.

Champ the mascot was assisted by a team of spirited college-age kids who tried to raise the enthusiasm of the crowd with little success. What are you going to do on a humid Tuesday night? The "Everybody Clap" cheer made its first appearance in the bottom of the 2nd and the PA system played numerous musical clips between hitters.

Owing to the hourlong rain delay, Bob and I left just three innings into the game so we could be home before midnight. A few hours later, in downtown Scranton, the landmark Community Bake Shop burned down, which would have been more exciting than anything we saw in the early stages of the Yankees' 10-5 win over the Pigs.

Overall, the stadium left a lot to be desired. The mildly dingy, two-decade old, concrete architecture reminded Bob and me of some of the less appealing aspects of Three Rivers Stadium. The wide-open outfield vista is useless because it faces a steep hill. The limited view is an apt metaphor for how PNC Field left us feeling.

Weather and work permitting, we'll travel to State College on Wednesday to see one of the jewels of minor league baseball parks.