Thursday, November 15, 2012

The RailRiders






The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees will now be know as the RailRiders. The other choices were Blast, Black Diamond Bears, Porcupines, Trolley Frogs or Fireflies. The Porcupines was the second choice and they will use it as a mascot on the merchandising. Bleech. The Barons should be the name.

The politicians in Lackawanna County made a total hash of the 18 year relationship with the Phillies that chased them out of town then got the Yankees to relocate their AAA team from Columbus. Convicted criminal Bob Cordaro even ran campaign ads featuring Bombers GM Brian Cashman.

I'm glad that we still have a team and a professional sports company bought the team and politics has been taken out of the daily operation of the team but why did the taxpayers of Pennsylvania foot the bill for the renovation of the stadium? Baseball is a multi-billion dollar business so the teams should pay for their own buildings.

The renovation of the stadium in Moosic is reported to cost $43 million. That's less than the salaries of A Rod and Jeter in 2013. More corporate welfare.

The new taxpayer funded stadium in Miami has worked out well.

4 comments:

Coal Region Voice said...

Actually, the 43 million is less than the luxury tax the Yanks paid for overpaying their roster.

Anonymous said...

The reason the teams don't pay for stadiums and taxpayers do; are corporations are run by intelligent, shrewd business people who, for the most part, must earn their way into positions of responsibility by producing --- governments are run by the not so best nor brightest who win a popularity contest by promising the world to the even dumber electorate.

Anonymous said...

I agree about the name. If this is the best the minds behind the organization can come up with I do not feel hopeful about the future of the team. And a porcupine? I hope it works out but it seems like an opportunity lost. The Iron Pigs sound good in comparison.

Big Dan said...

#2: intelligent shrewd people? You mean satanic corporate welfare people. Business people & government ARE THE SAME PEOPLE, that's what's wrong with this country. Or at least the "shrewd business people" run the government, one or the other.