News

July 17, 2009

Baseball talks held behind shut doors

Luzerne, Lackawanna commissioners discuss Triple-A’s future in NEPA.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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PITTSTON TWP. – After meeting privately Thursday, commissioners from Lackawanna and Luzerne counties publicly pledged to work together to keep Triple-A baseball in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The closed-door meeting followed an exchange of letters last week between commissioners over the possible sale of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees franchise, half owned by Luzerne County.

The postponement of several games due to drainage problems on the grass field raised concerns that Mandalay Baseball and the New York Yankees would exercise their option to buy the franchise and take it elsewhere under the terms of an agreement they made with Lackawanna County commissioners in 2007.

“Our goal is to make sure the residents of this area, Northeastern Pennsylvania, have Triple-A baseball,” said Luzerne County Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla. “Whatever has to be done, we’re going to have to do.”

Whether that entailed Luzerne County contributing more financially to the stadium operation and paying for repairs, Petrilla would not say.

“That’s a commitment we couldn’t discuss,” she said. “I can’t say that right now. I have to remain broad.”

Petrilla and Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien answered questions after they emerged from the 30-minute meeting.

She also defended the private meeting of all six commissioners from both counties, saying it was an informational session. A Times Leader reporter’s objection to the closed-door meeting was noted by the commissioner.

“When no decisions are being made, when there’s no deliberation, the commissioners are well within their rights to meet and discuss issues as long as no decisions are made in the meeting,” Petrilla said.

They met following the monthly meeting of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Bi-County Board of Commissioners, which is composed of the six commissioners.

O’Brien said the group discussed the field conditions, the assessment of PNC Field and the need for improvements at the stadium in Moosic and what long-term commitments the counties have to baseball.

“Lackawanna County is not an island. Luzerne County is not an island. We’re one region,” O’Brien said.

He, too, declined to go into detail about what the counties planned to talk about with Mandalay and the Yankees.

“We don’t want to talk to them through the press,” he said.

But some comments from the commissioners could be heard in the waiting area outside the room where they met.

At one point someone said they were being held “hostage” in a situation not of their making.

Petrilla acknowledged the term was used and used it herself to describe what the commissioners are facing in terms of the franchise and the stadium.

“We are living with some decisions that were made in the past, and we are now faced with or held hostage to deal with those issues,” she said.

O’Brien added that talking about the details of those “bad decisions gets us nowhere. We need to be focused on where we are today.”

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.

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