Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (International League) @ PNC Field (Moosic, PA)

Old friends and new friends in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre

*This trip occurred on August 17, 2025 - yes, that's right, YESTERDAY. I've decided to post about it it now rather than waiting to catch up with the rest of my backlog partially because there's a GOOD chance this won't be the only time I do this (just as a heads up).

Also, I’m sure at least some of you out there understand what I’m referencing in the subtitle - I couldn’t stop thinking about it after hearing how the “Barre” in Wilkes-Barre is pronounced…

In 1989, Lackawanna County Stadium opened in Moosic, PA - a town just south of Scranton, and a bit north of Wilkes-Barre. The new stadium was built to accommodate the Phillies AAA team, who had just moved in from Old Orchard Beach, Maine (fun fact: they played at a stadium historically and currently known simply as “The Ballpark”). The new team was called the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons as a nod to two previous minor league teams from the area. Before you ask...Ryan Howard played here during parts of the 2004 and 2005 seasons; as mentioned previously, he did NOT spend a single day working for Dunder Mifflin (though the Office character was apparently named after him).

In 2007, the stadium’s name changed to its current name of PNC Field. The affiliation also changed, as the Phillies entered an agreement with the team that eventually became the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The Red Barons became the new AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees¹…sorta: because George Steinbrenner couldn’t resist going on an ego trip (or something like that), the team was renamed the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (or as I like to call them: the Scrankees). Why’d they change it I can’t say; maybe people just liked it better that way², but it may also have to do with the fact that one of the teams the Red Barons were named after was a team called…the Red Sox³. In 2012, massive renovations to PNC Field forced the team to spend the whole season as a traveling team (as the Mets nixed a temporary stay in Newark, NJ⁴). When the team returned to their rebuilt stadium, they opted to rebrand again - this time becoming the RailRiders we know today.

I was never really sure if I wanted to come here as it’s kinda far; Google estimates it’s between 90 minutes and two hours away without traffic (plus the whole “being an affiliate of the Yankees” thing). However, while looking into them, I found out about a deal with the local trolley museum: for $25, you can get a ticket to a game (seating type not listed) AND a trolley ride to and from the local trolley museum (the only “catch” with this is that you have to do something known as “making a phone call” to book it). However, I realized that this would put me at the mercy not only of baseball’s lack of concrete timing, but whatever their schedule would entail, so that made me pause a bit (may do it next year though). In addition, I contemplated just visiting the team store and not seeing the rest of the ballpark by combining this visit with a Little League World Series trip (it’s more or less on the way to/from Williamsport though still about 90 minutes away), but once I decided the likely three+ hour drive one way wasn’t worth it (especially without any company)⁵, a game here ended up back on my radar. In the end, I was thankfully able to find a way to go to this game, and it’s a good thing I opted to skip the trolley - I ended up leaving WAY too late to have caught it thanks to a surprising amount of traffic.

As a Yankee affiliate, they’ve seen their fair share of prospects become Yankees (to varying degrees of success); however, they’ve never really been a “draw” in terms of fan attendance (even in the later Phillies days): a report on Minor League Baseball attendance in 2025 indicated that they had the second largest year-over-year dropoff in attendance behind the Buffalo Bisons. While I don’t know how attendance has been since this report came out, I can tell you that attendance for this particular game was…light. I’m not sure if that was because of the drop-off or if it was because of the weather (it was rather cloudy and a rainstorm did pass near but not over the stadium), but there were large swaths of empty seats.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area is rather hilly, and driving around nets you some very nice mountain views. However, the stadium is built INTO the side of a hill, so you don’t see a ton in and around it if you’re just looking at the game - but I think it’s still pretty cool. Seeing the cliffside in the outfield is kinda neat, and there’s a grassy area (sold as general admission) with trees INSIDE the stadium (the stadium has a concourse/walkway that completely circles the field, and there's a "kids area" in the outfield). High above the outfield, there’s a hotel which appears to have a view of the field; I obviously can’t confirm as I didn’t go to it, but given that I almost didn’t notice it until taking picture, I’d imagine it doesn’t have the same issues the SkyDome hotel does⁶.

One thing I think you should be aware of if you’re thinking of coming here: like the Yankees and Hudson Valley Renegades, the team uses TicketMaster for its ticketing (interestingly, however, the Somerset Patriots do NOT). It is possibly because of this that I ended up paying LESS for the ticket I got at the box office than I would have if I had bought it online (and I even bought it day of, which usually incurs a charge). I ended up going with a bleacher ticket, which entitles you to a section in right field of metal-back bleachers that go all the way down to field level. One seat in the front row of these bleachers can only be described as “the best seat in the house” - assuming you’re willing to try and spend a whole game trying to peek around a light pole.

The game was…mildly interesting: the #DamnScrankees won off the back of one singular huge inning, but I will note that their opponent for this game was the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates (they’re from Indianapolis, but their name is mildly controversial so I won’t say it here - it’s the name of their state with the last letter replaced with an "s"). I won’t go much further than that for now, but it’s something to keep in mind should I return to the area in the near future (though sadly, it’ll be after that Red Robin coupon they gave away expires).

MERCH

There's...honestly not much to say about merch. The store is decently sized (though it feels like it's the smallest among the AAA stadiums I've been to), and doesn't really stray too far from what you'd expect a minor league baseball team to have (outside of them having a few adjustable hats for non-Yankee MLB teams hidden in a shelf - including the Cleveland [REDACTED IN 2022]).

Most of the jerseys were sublimated, and the ones that weren't were mainly fashion jerseys. There was one that I was at least mildly interested in, but I didn't like that it was kinda short and it had the number 99 on it (stupid sexy Aaron Judge...).

One thing that was kept in the Red Barons to Yankees transition, however, was the classic "SWB" cap logo. I got two versions of this cap (fitted and flexfit), plus a fitted version of their "home" cap (featuring the letter R) as well as a logo ball (with both cap logos) and a mini helmet (that came with ice cream of course; I also ended up geting Chickie's & Pete's Crabfries again).

Finally, I MUST show you one of the most horrifying caps I have ever seen a Minor League Baseball team (attempt to) sell: