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Love of baseball keeps season ticket holders returning to PNC Field

By Paul Sokoloski

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Season ticket holders (L/R) Joann Roberts, Dave Roberts, Lynn Langdon, Joe Bowanko at the PNC Field in Moosic on Saturday.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_ticket_holders1-Faa.jpg.optimal.jpgSeason ticket holders (L/R) Joann Roberts, Dave Roberts, Lynn Langdon, Joe Bowanko at the PNC Field in Moosic on Saturday.

Lynn Langdon a season ticket holder sits next to 14-year-old Colin Bowanko and his father Joe Bowanko during the RailRiders game against Buffalo on the 4th of July.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_ticket_holders2_faa.jpg.optimal.jpgLynn Langdon a season ticket holder sits next to 14-year-old Colin Bowanko and his father Joe Bowanko during the RailRiders game against Buffalo on the 4th of July.

First, the affiliation switched.

Then the stadium shrunk.

Later the team name went through the turnstiles.

But during more than a quarter of a century of change, at least one thing remained the same.

The fascination many long-time Luzerne County minor league baseball fans have for watching the game never waivered.

Their love of the game kept them returning regularly to a rebranded and refurbished stadium and watching a team that began as a Philadelphia Phillies minor league franchise turn into a New York Yankees now called the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

But it doesn’t seem to matter what big league team they represent or what their nickname happens to be. The boys of summer who take their swings at PNC Field have made a connection with Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“I enjoy it,” said David Roberts of Bear Creek, who can be found watching some 30 games from his wheelchair each season at PNC Field. “You see a good brand of baseball. It’s a nice night out – enjoyable, affordable.”

The main attraction, many long-time season ticket-holding fans say, is the game.

“I’m a baseball fan, through and through,” said Jeff Acornley of Wilkes-Barre, now in his 26th season of attending Triple-A baseball games at PNC Field. “I am a life-long baseball fan. I was just very excited about pro baseball coming to the area. I was a season ticket holder right from day one.”

Those who share his passion for the sport are still going back.

It doesn’t seem to matter who the parent team of the local minor league team happens to be, what the team’s called or the name on the building it plays in. A large group of Luzerne County residents remain captivated by sitting in the stands to watch the team that’s turned into the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Maybe those staunch supports believe they can’t afford to let opportunity pass them by.

Because for 30 years, Northeastern Pennsylvania was without a professional baseball team after boasting two minor league clubs in the 1950s – the old Wilkes-Barre Barons and Scranton Red Sox.

The team that followed them to the area decades later became an honorary hybrid of those two clubs, playing as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. They arrived in the area in 1989 as the Triple-A minor affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, and remained through the 2006 season while playing on an artificial surface field originally known as Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium.

For many, it proved the perfect match.

“It’s very interesting,” said Lynn Langdon of Hanover Twp. “At the time, it was the Phillies (franchise). My dad is a long-time Phillies fan and I used to sit with him every single day and watch the Phillies. We never had a lot of money. I graduated high school in 1988 and the stadium was (opened) here in 1989.

“The only thing I wanted was to be a season ticket holder and watch baseball every night.”

They watched in a hulking, double-decker facility modeled after the Phillies old Veterans Stadium home, as future Phillies stars such as Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard made their mark on the International League playing for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“I like baseball,” said Walter Kuharchik of Exeter, who owns a contruction company and has been a season ticket holder at PNC Field since the inaugural 1989 season of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. “And all of the people who work with me like baseball. I’ve been a season ticket holder since the days of the Phillies. We just try to do our part as part of the county. We’d like to keep the team here, so we want to support it.”

The sale of the franchise by co-owners Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties to a partnership group made up of the New York Yankees and Madalay Baseball in 2013 didn’t gain much support. And six years before that, the affiliation switch drew mixed reviews.

Because although the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre franchise didn’t leave, the top prospects of the Phillies did – bolting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre following the 1996 season to eventually become the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

“My heart was broken,” Langdon said.

Then the Yankees eventually won her heart.

They brought their top farm team to town in 1997, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Triple-A team suddenly became a launching pad for players trying to make it all the way to Yankee Stadium.

For many fans, their allegiance to the area’s only Triple-A team never shifted.

“I was at first disappointed that the Phillies left,” said James English of West Pittston. “Then the Yankees came in and I had to grow to love the Yankees.

“I did.”

But it became almost a love-hate relationship at the start of the Yankees’ reign.

“The attitude of the franchise changed drastically, and it bothered me,” Acornley said. “The transition wasn’t smooth. I think they alienated some of the fans. With the Red Barons, we (season ticket holders) used to trade tickets in if you couldn’t go to the game that night. They (the new Scranton/Wilkes-Barre executives) didn’t like that idea. It became almost militant – ‘We’re the Yankees and you’re going to like us.’ I found them to be very arrogant and unconcerned about the fans. ‘How can they possibly not come to see the prospects of the Yankees?’ was the attitude.

“Sometimes you have to grind your teeth.”

He believes fan-friendliness took a big hit with the exchange.

“The (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) Yankees – particularly the front office – weren’t as community-oriented as the Red Barons were,” Acornley said. “It seemed like the Red Barons got it way more than the RailRiders do. If you didn’t have Chase Utley’s autograph when he was here, it was your fault – and Chase Utley was not a real friendly guy. But he got it. These Yankees players, I’ve seen them walk right by Little League teams. It felt distant. Once you kick your fans in the teeth, it’s a long way back. I think a lot of fans are still alienated. But I hung in there.

“I’m a baseball fan.”

Yet, the affiliation shift left other fans whistling the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, as New York’s top minor league club became known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. At the same time, Lackawanna County Stadium turned into PNC Field.

“Heck yes, it made a difference,” Roberts said. “I’m a Yankee fan. I could care less about the Phillies.”

They cared more about the summer without a season.

In 2012, the team played that entire year on the road as PNC Field was renovated into a circular concourse absent of the old stadium’s gigantic and steep upper deck, leaving many area baseball fans out of the game for a spell.

“It was one year I think I was bored the whole summer,” Langdon said. “When they left, I missed that. I went to the IronPigs Stadium in Allentown.”

When the team returned to Moosic, it had a new name – the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, chosen by a fan vote.

“I think the RailRiders now are trying,” Acornley said.

“When they announced it was the RailRiders, it was in Scranton and they invited the public,” remembered Langdon, who started taking her father to watch Scranton/Wilkes-Barre games and now shares that same bond with her son. “Now they have new owners that are local – Bob Mills is one, and he walks around talking to fans, getting their opinions … this guy is like an everyday person. Our ticket rep, Bob McClain, he actually asks for feedback. They listen to you. They actually make you feel like you’re welcome there.”

Langdon’s thankful for that, but even moreso for a special moment she had while throwing out a first pitch at a RailRiders home game earlier this year – an honor that’s become a perk for select season ticket holders.

“Something like that is very special, and a memory to me,” Langdon said. “How can I drop a season ticket?”

The RailRiders didn’t drop the ball with their stadium renovation, putting the team into a spruced-up home field complete with a wrap-around concourse and grass seating in the outfield in 2013 after the team went out of town through 2012.

“Now, with the railings, it’s easier to get to your seat,” Roberts said.

“I think it’s an improvement,” English said of the stadium. “This is much better, more conducive to watching baseball, more intimate.”

For many long-time season ticket holders, however, the conveniences and amenities of the new-looking place take a back seat to the action and entertainment on the field.

It’s what keeps them coming back, year after year.

“I’m a baseball fan,” Acornley said. “And having a minor league affiliate 20 minutes from the house is too intoxicating to give up. I love baseball.

“And I have to go.”

Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski