Everyone has to have a hometown–Binghamton’s mine, once quipped Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling. Ditto for yours truly. Now safely back in my adopted surroundings of Northern Virginia I can report that during my entire stay in New York I was not even once approached by the governor in any unwelcome manner.

(Pause for uncomfortable chuckle.)

The most enjoyable part of my journey, of course, was going home, not just because it brought me home but because I did make a stop along the way. For several years now I’ve wanted to visit PNC Field, home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders, AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees. Christened “Lackawanna County Stadium” when it opened in 1989, it was rebuilt, remodeled, and totally overhauled in 2013 with “Yankee money.” Yeah, the big club has money to spend and it has done so lavishly in Scranton (actually in nearby Moosic, PA), making the field the most famous tourist stop in Scranton this side of the Dunder-Mifflin branch office.

I’ve been to probably a thousand bush league baseball games in my life. This one wasn’t no bush. No question this was the nicest minor league stadium (it’s a stadium, not a park) I’d ever been to, though that’s a little like saying out of all the ’60s bands that came from Liverpool The Beatles are my favorite. It’s an impressive act, though I’ll be honest I did miss the little homespun nuances found in other minor league parks. This one’s pretty corporate. Home run seats (there are seats around the entire outfield which is unusual for minor leagues) and a grassy berm on which one can view the game are a nice touch, but overall it’s a little devoid of color. One minor league touch I did appreciate: my general admission ticket was two dollars. Coupled with free parking my total investment on the evening ended up pretty reasonable, more signs the Yankees are obviously subsidizing this place. And speaking of the big club, as an unexpected bonus I did get to see 2020 home run champ Luke Voit at first base making a rehab start. [Given the big club’s recent addition, however, of Anthony Rizzo (the new Sultan of Swat thus far) one wonders whether Voit’s “rehab” start was not exactly temporary.]

For what it’s worth the Railriders fell to the Worcester Red Sox 7-2. I was on the road long before the end of the game, but it did mark the second time in my life I’d seen a Yankees-Red Sox clash. Actually I’ve never seen a real Yankees-Red Sox game, but I’ve done the AAA equivalent twice, having seen the then-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees play the now-defunct Pawtucket Red Sox in 2008. That was at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, before the PawSox moved to Worcester, Mass.

I used to call it the best minor league park I’d ever been to.

Used to.