MOOSIC – The presence of a promising group of players on the rise together in Binghamton and a series of all-stars trying to work their way back to the Major Leagues through appearances in Moosic have added to the excitement of minor league baseball this summer for fans of the two nearest professional teams.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre arguably welcomed the biggest in a long line of stars to pass through PNC Field – and its predecessor, Lackawanna County Stadium – on injury rehabilitation assignments when Derek Jeter arrived Saturday night.
Binghamton’s 53-32 record through Sunday was the best in any of the three Class AA leagues and ranked second only to Indianapolis among the five leagues at the two highest levels of the minors.
Jeter drew a sellout crowd when he joined a lineup that also included former All-Star Michael Pineda as the starting pitcher Saturday for the RailRiders, top farm team of the New York Yankees. Another all-star, Curtis Granderson, has already made one trip to Moosic and may make another along with Alex Rodriguez, who ranks fifth on Major League Baseball’s all-time home run list behind only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre celebrated its first sellout crowd at the rebuilt PNC Field in Moosic July 4. The announcement of Jeter’s rehab assignment Friday, assured the team an advanced sellout Saturday, making it two crowds of 10,000 in three days.
Jeter, the all-time hit leader of baseball’s most famous and successful franchise, is trying to work his way back from breaking his ankle in last year’s American League playoffs and again in preparation for this season.
“I think each day it gets better,” Jeter said after playing five innings as shortstop Saturday night and playing the entire game as designated hitter Sunday afternoon.
The game action was the first for Jeter since re-injuring the ankle in spring training.
“It’s not like I just came off the couch and tested it,” Jeter said during a postgame press conference Sunday. “I’ve done a lot in Florida.”
Jeter was working out in Tampa where the Yankees hold spring training and have a Class A team that Rodriguez played with last week. He said he had taken about 50 at-bats in simulated games during practice sessions before beginning his injury rehabilitation assignment with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
When it was determined he was going to serve as the designated hitter Sunday, Jeter could extended infield practice, working on groundballs at his shortstop position prior to the game.
Once Jeter is deemed fit to return, he will go from the RailRiders to the Yankees.
“I understand I have to play some games,” Jeter said. “It’s not like I’m fighting them coming here and playing. I get it.”
Jeter said he knows he needs to go through the daily routine of playing baseball and get in more game time to prepare to jump back into the Yankees latest pennant race. His every move on the field is analyzed, then he faces questions about his progress after each game.
“The thing you want to do is when you play, don’t think about it,” Jeter said.
Jeter batted leadoff in each game, drawing a first-inning walk both times while helping the RailRiders improve their winning streak to four games.
In Saturday’s debut, Jeter was 0-for-2. His only fielding chance was a simple groundball on the last out of the fifth inning in which he flipped the ball underhand to second base for the forceout.
Pineda struck out seven in five innings of Saturday’s 4-2 win.
Jeter was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks in Sunday’s 6-2 win. He scored a run and raced from first to third on a single to right field, finishing the run with a hard slide even though the throw on the play went home.
Jeter’s 1-for-4 start with the RailRiders makes him 15-for-34 (.441) in 11 minor-league games since 1995. He has 3,304 hits in 2,585 career games with the Yankees.
Prior to Granderson, Pineda and Jeter, the list of players who made injury rehabilitation assignments for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons and Yankees included Terry Mulholland, Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Curt Schilling, Lenny Dykstra, Mike Lieberthal, Jason Giambi and Rodriguez. Roger Clemens pitched for the SWB Yankees while working his way back after coming out of retirement. Visiting players to appear in Moosic on injury rehab assignments included Darryl Strawberry, Manny Ramirez, Daisuke Matsuzaka and David Wells.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Lauren Wallis, a Scranton Prep student from Clifford Township, shot a nine-hole score of 39 July 1 to win the weather-shortened Anthracite Golf Association Junior Tour stop at Wilkes-Barre Golf Club.
Dylan O’Dell from Forest City shot a 38 to finish tied for sixth out of 38 boys’ players.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Binghamton Mets will be well represented in all-star games.
The Eastern League All-Star Game is scheduled for Wednesday in New Britain, Conn. and the Mets also have a player in the Futures Game, for all of minor-league baseball, Monday, July 15 in New York.
Binghamton and host New Britain had five players each selected to the Eastern Division team.
First baseman Allan Dykstra and outfielder Cesar Puello, who rank 1-2 in the EL in slugging percentage, were selected to represent the Mets along with pitchers Logan Verrett and Jeff Walters and third baseman Josh Rodriguez.
Pitcher Noah Syndergaard has been picked for the Futures Game.
Dykstra took a league-high .591 slugging percentage into Saturday with the help of 21 doubles and 13 home runs.
Along with having the second-best slugging percentage, Puello was second in batting average at .328 and tied for second with 15 homers.
Rodriguez was batting .296 while tying Puello for fourth in the league with 52 runs scored.
Verrett shared the league lead with eight wins.
Walters had 22 saves, at least six more than every other pitcher in the league.
Syndergaard is new to Binghamton.
The 20-year-old, 6-foot-6, right-hander is 1-0 with a 2.45 earned run average and 16 strikeouts in 11 innings through his first two starts. Syndergaard opened the season with St. Lucie in the Florida State League, going 3-3 with a 3.11 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings.
In the International League, the RailRiders are scheduled to wrap up their homestand with games Wednesday night against Rochester and Thursday and Friday against Syracuse, all at 7:05.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
JOHNSON COMPLETES DAYTONA SWEEP
Jimmie Johnson completes Daytona Sweep
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Jimmie Johnson won Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race in a green-white-checkered finish. He became the first driver to sweep both NASCAR events at Daytona in one season, since Bobby Allison in 1982.
On the way to his fourth win of the season, Johnson led 94 laps of the 161-lap race.
“I had a great horse,” said Johnson. “It was an amazing car all night. Been in some very close battles at the end and have surged by to win. But from a laps led standpoint, this has to be the most dominant performance we've had on a plate track.”
As Johnson neared the finish line, two multi-car accidents happened behind him. The second, third and fourth-place cars were able to avoid them.
“I didn’t get as good a restart as I wanted,” said second-place finisher, Tony Stewart. “But I think it kind of worked to our favor. It got Clint (Bowyer) a little bit ahead of me and it got Kevin (Harvick) a little bit ahead of Jimmie (Johnson). That let Jimmie and me both tuck down to those two guys and get going. Kurt Busch gave us a really good push from behind there and that got us back to getting Jimmie the shove he needed. It got us far enough ahead to where we could worry about racing him.”
The second-place finish was Stewart’s fourth top-five finish this season, and vaulted him six spots to 10th in the championship standings.
“It was definitely a good points night,” Stewart said. “If you can’t win, you always want to run second. With these things being as crazy as they are, you’re pretty happy if you can end up with a top-two, because normally if you leave here in the top-two, you’ve got a straight race car too.”
Kevin Harvick was third, but it was a bittersweet finish for him.
“Yeah, we didn’t win,” he said. “That was our expectation coming here. I’m kind of disappointed just for the fact that I felt like we were in the right position.”
Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, and Ryan Newman were the remaining top-10 finishers.
Top-12 leaders after 18 of 36: 1. Johnson-658, 2. Bowyer-609, 3. Edwards-587, 4. Harvick-585, 5. Earnhardt-548, 6. Kenseth-540, 7. Kyle Busch-533, 8. Biffle-516, 9. Kurt Busch-501, 10. Stewart-499, 11. Truex-493, 12. Kahne-490.
KENSETH GETS DAYTONA NATIONWIDE RACE
Matt Kenseth won Friday night’s Nationwide Series race in a green-white-checkered finish. Kenseth received a push from James Buescher for the remaining two laps to get his first Nationwide win of the year.
Buescher was second, followed by Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Sam Hornish, Regan Smith, Joey Logano, and Trevor Bayne.
Top-10 leaders after 16 of 33; 1. Smith-558, 2. Hornish-552, 3. Sadler-544, 4. Allgaier-543, 5. A. Dillon-541, 6. Larson-516, 7. Vickers-505, 8. Kligerman-501, 9. Scott-494, 10. Bayne-488.
LESS NASCAR SEATS, HIGHER PRICES
Are you on a tight budget?
Is it a struggle to find money for a NASCAR race weekend?
If the answer is yes, you are in trouble.
Ticket prices at 13 different tracks are going up.
Daytona Speedway announced earlier in the year they would be removing some spectator seats. Last week in a teleconference call to Wall Street bond analysts, John Saunders, Pres. of International Speedway Corporation, which owns Daytona Speedway and 12 other tracks said, “Too many empty seats are keeping the lid on ticket prices. We’re looking at removing more seats at all our tracks.”
Saunders admission of empty seats was an acknowledgement that “the NASCAR Experience” is losing steam.
From my own experience of attending races, I can tell there are more empty seats now than four or five years ago. Taking out or covering up some seats might make it appear to the television audience that the track is full of fans, but would it help those fans attending races?
“Removing seats also would enhance the race experience for the remaining spectators and help encourage patrons to return,” continued Saunders.
Exactly what does that mean? Will there be additional entertainment of some type? Does it mean each individual seat will be widened and padded? If there are fewer fans, will there be shorter bathroom lines? What about concession prices? Fewer people means less beer and hot dogs will be sold, so those prices must go up also.
If you can buy into Saunders’ statement, stay away from men in white coats from the “funny farm.”
A race fan would have to suffer from delusions if he/she believe ticket prices, and all associated costs of attending races aren’t going up.
It isn’t just track prices, but transportation and lodging as well.
With the cost of a race weekend escalating, it doesn’t bode well for the average fan.
Tracks really shouldn’t consider raising ticket prices, because they receive most of their revenue from television. The TV contract is set up where tracks get 65 per cent; teams-25 per cent, and NASCAR-10 per cent.
Although ISC is controlled by the France family, it is separate from NASCAR. About 35 per cent of the stock in ISC is owned by the France family and the remainder is owned by shareholders.
ISC is working to replace the current Daytona complex with a development called "Daytona Live!" which will include a movie theater, restaurants, and hotel.
The Daytona renovation also includes reducing the track’s seating capacity from 146,000, down to 100,000.
In addition to Daytona, ISC owns: Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland, Darlington, Homestead-Miami, Kansas, Martinsville, Michigan, Phoenix, Richmond, Talladega, Watkins Glen, and Route 66.
If you are an average working person reading this column, and hoping to attend future NASCAR races, you might want to consider a second job.
Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at the 1-mile New Hampshire Speedway, while the trucks race at the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway.
Sat., July 13, Nationwide Series race 17 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: ABC.
Sat., July 13, Camping World Truck Series, race 9 of 22; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET: TV:SPEED.
Sun., July 14, Sprint Cup race 19 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: TNT.
Racing Trivia Question: Terry Labonte, former NASCAR Cup champion is in negotiations to buy James Finch’s No. 51 Cup team. How many Cup championships did Labonte win?
Last Week’s Question: What old-time driver had three stints in NASCAR—1950-’54, 1971-’78, 1980-93, and didn’t retire from racing until 2001? Answer. It was Herschel McGriff.
You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
Katie Clark
Katie Clark started the Anthracite Golf Association’s Lawler Junior Tour with a second-place finish.
Clark did one better in her next event, taking the title at the AGA Tour stop in Berwick.
For her efforts, Clark is the latest Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month.
Clark, a recent Montrose graduate who plans to continue her golf career on a partial athletic scholarship at Division II West Chester University in the fall, shot 84 at Scranton Municipal June 17 to finish second by one stroke in the girls’ division in the Lawler Tour season opener.
A week later, Clark shot 81 at Berwick Golf Club to post a five-stroke victory. She had the best score on each side, shooting 41 on the front nine and 40 on the back.
“I had a lot of good shots around the green because my approach shots weren’t totally on,” Clark said of her winning effort. “I’m still trying to zone those in but my short game really kicked in that day.
“I got some help from my drives because there are a couple of lengthy holes there.”
Clark began practicing with the Montrose golf team as an eighth grader even though she could not officially compete until the next season. She played four years for the Meteors. In last year’s Jackman Memorial Girls' Tournament, Clark shot 81 at Scranton Muni to finish fifth overall and second among seniors in the preseason event.
The Montrose Country Club member also plans to play some Philadelphia Junior Tour event this summer as she prepares for West Chester where she plans to major in nutrition and dietetics.
“Overall, right now I’m just focusing on becoming a good consistent ball-striker,” Clark said. “I have all my distances down, so it’s just a fine-tuning thing.”
Katie is the daughter of Tom and Debbie Clark of Montrose.
