Letters may spell doom for baseball here Paul Sokoloski Opinion

They will have new letters on their logos and shirts.

Does that mean the writing's on the wall for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees?

They will play this summer under a new name, the Empire State Yankees, in a bunch of new "homes" all across New York state.

It's fair to wonder if that'll leave the top farm team of the New York Yankees in an Empire State of mind.

Local fans are worried this isn't just a one-year proposition while PNC Field in Moosic is renovated throughout the year. They are concerned that the Triple-A Yankees are leaving Northeastern Pennsylvania with no intention of ever coming back.

Nothing can stop that scenario if the New York Yankees and their partner Mandalay Bay buy away Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's team.

"They can buy it today," Lackawanna County Commissioner Jim Wansacz said.

It's why Lackawanna County's current commissioners – Wansacz, Corey O'Brien and Patrick O'Malley – are trying to tear up the old deal and persuade the New York Yankees and Mandalay to sign a new one.

"We're trying to negotiate a new contract," Wansacz said.

He insisted the commissioners won't be discussing its details unless a new agreement is done.

But it's a safe bet the commissioners don't want the Yankees taking our team and running away with it.

The original contract gives them that right.

Signed into effect by former Lackawanna County Commissioner Bob Cordero, it gives the Yankees and Mandalay the option to buy the franchise – and takes away Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's original guarantee to host a Triple-A team no matter who's affiliate it happens to be. The running joke is Cordero sold our baseball soul for a couple tickets to a New York Yankees playoff game.

"He pretty much gave Mandalay the right to sell the team," Wansacz said.

Or move it away from this area, leaving Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with no assurance of a Triple-A future.

"The question is whether there will be baseball here, or no baseball here," Wansacz said.

But where else would the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees go?

Most of the ballparks they'll call home this season – Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and Lehigh Valley – already have hometown tenants playing in the International League for other organizations.

League president Randy Mobley has made it clear in the past that the IL frowns upon stadiums with capacities less than 10,000. So 3,000-seat Dwyer Stadium in Batavia, another host for a few Triple-A Yankees home games this season, wouldn't be an option.

Ottawa has already announced it expects to host a Double-A team beginning in 2013, meaning their stadium is full.

Swapping its short-season Single-A team in Staten Island with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre might make the most sense for the parent Yankees, since a little bit of expansion to Staten Island's Richmond County Bank Ballpark would put it in the ballpark of International League qualifications.

But that can only happen if Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's franchise is sold.

And the commissioners don't want to test that possibility.

They want Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's name back on the shirts of their Triple-A team in the future. And if the Yankees don't want to wear those letters, they'd fit just as well on someone else.