The Nationals aren’t waiting until the annual affiliation shuffle after the season to lock up deals with their minor league partners.

The team announced today that they are extending player development contracts with four of their affiliates: Triple-A Syracuse (International), Double-A Harrisburg (Eastern), high Class A Potomac (Carolina) and short-season Auburn (New York-Penn).

The Nationals’ PDCs with Syracuse and Harrisburg were set to expire after this season and will now run through 2014. Washington had previously extended its contract with Potomac and their relationship is now guaranteed through the 2016 season.

Player development contracts between major and minor league teams are for a minimum of two years and may be extended in two-year increments. Teams can extend PDCs at any time but cannot negotiate with other affiliates until after the season concludes.

Taking Syracuse off the market leaves just five International League teams with contracts expiring after this season—Buffalo (currently affiliated with the Mets), Indianapolis (Pirates), Lehigh Valley (Phillies), Pawtucket (Red Sox) and Rochester (Twins)—with a couple likely to continue with their current agreements. That leaves few options for teams hoping to move their Triple-A club closer to home. The Blue Jays, for example, are entering their fourth season in Las Vegas but would be a likely candidate to relocate to Buffalo when the Mets’ deal expires after this season.

Meanwhile, eight Pacific Coast League teams are slated to become available after the season: Albuquerque (Dodgers), Fresno (Giants), Iowa (Cubs), Las Vegas (Blue Jays), Nashville (Brewers), New Orleans (Marlins), Oklahoma City (Astros) and Reno (Diamondbacks).

The Nationals deal with Potomac is an indication that the two sides have made up since the public feud last season between Washington general manager Mike Rizzo and P-Nats owner Art Silber over the playing conditions at Potomac’s Pfitzner Stadium. Potomac underwent a much-needed $250,000 renovation to the playing field during the offseason fixing drainage problems that forced the team to relocate a three-game series last year and led to Rizzo calling the field a “safety hazard.” Silber responded by saying the field is fine and that Rizzo “doesn’t know what he was talking about.”

The repair seems to have done the trick for the Nationals, which last year skipped top prospect Bryce Harper from low Class A Hagerstown directly to Double-A Harrisburg. And keeping a relationship with the local big league team makes sense for Potomac. Silber is also trying to put the finishing touches on a deal for a new ballpark in Northern Virginia.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees may be without a home this season, but they do have a new name: The Empire State Yankees.

The Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate will play its home schedule on the road in 2012 while its ballpark undergoes a $40-million facelift and the team felt a new name would enhance the extended road trip. The Yankees will call six different ballparks home, with fellow International League franchise Rochester serving as its base. The team will play 37 of their 72 home dates at Rochester’s Frontier Field with another seven at neighboring short-season Batavia.

The Yankees play the rest of their home dates at other IL affiliates, including Empire State destinations Buffalo and Syracuse. In all, the Yankees will play 60 of their 72 home games—and 84 of their 144-game schedule—in New York, the team announced. The only non-New York hosts are Pawtucket (R.I.) and Lehigh Valley (Pa.).

Empire State hats can be purchased at the Rochester Red Wings team store at Frontier Field and their online store.

“With so many games to be played in upstate New York this season we wanted to make the club feel even more at home this year,” Rochester general manager Dan Mason said in a release. “We approached the New York Yankees with a few suggestions and they actually came up with the Empire State Yankees moniker.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for both the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre franchise and the other IL clubs that will be hosting them this year and we wanted to make this as much fun for our fans and the players as possible. The Empire State Yankees merchandise and logos will only be available this season so they are sure to be collectors’ items.”

The new nickname makes sense in many ways—it certainly sounds better than the Rochester/Batavia/Buffalo/Lehigh Valley/Pawtucket/Syracuse Yankees. But it likely also gives the Yankees a chance to make up for some lost revenue, as the host teams will cover the expense and take any profit from hosting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s home dates.

While the name has collector-item appeal, the logo itself lacks creativity. It’s appears to be the same logo the team has used in previous years—the Uncle Sam stars-and-stripes top hat resting on a baseball bat behind Yankees written in cursive. The only difference is “Empire State” replaces “Scranton/Wilkes-Barre” on a banner running across the bottom.

Don Mincher, the man largely responsible for saving organized baseball in Huntsville, Ala., and who brought rare perspective to the post of league president, passed away over the weekend at the age of 73.

Mincher had served as Southern League president from the spring of 2000 until last October, when he stepped down due to health reasons and was named president emeritus. This role may have been his final post in baseball, but his first impact on the game began many years earlier.

Mincher spent 13 seasons in the majors, retiring after the 1972 season with 200 home runs, over 1,000 hits and two All-Star Game appearances. In 1965 with the Twins, Mincher homered off of Don Drysdale in his first World Series at-bat.

Mincher would earn a ring seven years later with the A’s when Oakland toppled the mighty Reds in seven games in the 1972 World Series. In his lone at-bat of the Series, Mincher drove in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth of Oakland’s 3-2 win in Game Four.

That would prove to be his final at-bat in baseball, but he returned to the game 12 years later when Double-A baseball came to his hometown of Huntsville. When hearing the news that the Huntsville Stars were being formed, Mincher offered his services to team owner Larry Schmittou, who promptly named him general manager.

Mincher would remain in the role until 1994, when he assembled a group of local owners that kept the team in town. He ultimately sold his stake of the team in 2000 when he was appointed Southern League president.

“He really was a gentleman. He always wanted to do what was right,” Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner said this afternoon. “I don’t know if I have seen many people exhibit the balance that Don did. He was concerned with how things affected the players, the umpires and the teams. And most importantly, he cared about how things affected the fans.”

Mincher did seem to have a keen understanding of how to run a baseball team. And he combined that with a great sense of humor. When talking to Baseball America’s Conor Glassey about the Birmingham Barons winning the Double-A Freitas Award in 2008, Mincher explained why it was so important for the Barons to focus on customer service and keep the ballpark clean.

“The one thing you want to do in minor league baseball is to keep the Mamas happy,” Mincher told Glassey. “If Mama walks in that ballpark and the bathroom is dirty, Mama isn’t coming back. Birmingham does that really well. Daddy’s going to come and bring the kids no matter what, but it’s important to keep the females happy to keep the entire family coming out to the ballpark.”

Mincher was often the cool head in gatherings at the Winter Meetings, a soft-spoken leader whose opinion was respected. “He was a guy who wouldn’t always talk a lot, but when he had things to say, people would stop and listen.”

And nearly everybody stopped to applaud at the 2010 Winter Meetings when Mincher was named King of Baseball. “He told me several times afterward how it touched his heart,” O’Conner said.

“I’m going to miss him,” O’Conner said. “I’m not supposed to have favorites, and I don’t professionally. But personally, Don was a special guy.”

Two of minor league baseball’s ballparks most in need of facelifts may soon be going under the wrecking ball.

The Bakersfield Blaze (California League) and Richmond Flying Squirrels (Eastern) each recently took a step closer to landing new or renovated ballparks, as the Blaze were sold last Friday to a local ownership group intent on keeping the team in town, and local leaders in Richmond have identified funding to contribute to a new facility.

It’s been a long road for both franchises, whose aging ballparks have threatened keeping baseball in town.

The Braves spent eight years trying to replace the Diamond in Richmond, before moving its Triple-A affiliate in 2008 out of frustration—and for the lure of a new facility—to Gwinnett, Ga. In Bakersfield, more than one owner of the Blaze has failed to replace Sam Lynn Ballpark since the early 1990s, leaving the team to play in a facility that no longer meets facility standards and is considered the worst among full-season clubs while facing rumors of a move to the Carolina League.
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Which Eastern League team is heading north of the border to Ottawa’s sure-to-be-renamed Ottawa Stadium? Well, that’s the 64-Million Canadian Dollar Question.

According to the Ottawa Citizen, the city of Ottawa has announced that it has reached a deal in principle with a Double-A Eastern League team to relocate to Ottawa and sign a 10-year lease, perhaps as soon as the 2013 season.

However, Eastern League president Joe McEacharn says that while the league has been in exploratory discussions about moving a team there, any sort of deal is far from complete. A team moving there for the 2013 season would be overly optimistic because of the amount of work that needs to be done to make Ottawa Stadium playable, McEacharn said.

“Even if we were to announce (a deal) tomorrow, I think you’re up against it (for 2013),” McEacharn said. “There is a tremendous amount of work to be done. We’ve done some exploration and will continue to do some exploration and we’ll go through the process. If at some point there is a decision to try and relocate a club, we’ll look at it then. As of now, we’re planning our 2013 season as the way we are set up now.”
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As Major League Baseball prepares to announce sport-altering changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Players Association, a much smaller but still significant agreement has been reached between Minor League Baseball and its umpires.

The Professional Baseball Umpires Corporation, the organization that manages umpires for MILB, and the Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU) agreed to a new working agreement before the contract expired on Nov. 30. The deal avoids a repeat of the labor strife that occurred when the umpires went on strike during the 2006 season after an agreement could not be reached the previous offseason.

The agreement still needs to be ratified by the AMLU body, but union president Shaun Francis expects a deal to be done. Francis declined to go into specifics of the agreement since it had not been presented to the union body, but said “the entire contract got better.”

Compensation went up slightly, Francis said, and many issues focusing on umpires’ quality of life on the road were addressed.

“It indirectly addresses the quality of hotels, and the safety of hotels,” he said. “Internet access, who pays for it on the road? A lot of those type of things in the contract that when you add them up, it makes it a lot better for the umpires.”

The two sides hammered out the deal over three weeks in a much more amicable environment than last time. The AMLU affiliated with the AFL-CIO last year and had a professional negotiator at the table, which Francis said proved invaluable.

The process was a far cry from what happened after the 2005 season, when negotiations throughout the winter failed to produce a new contract and umpires did not show up for work at the start of the season. A federal negotiator was called in and a deal was struck in April only to be voted down by the body of the umpires’ union. A deal was finally reached in May and included a $100 a month salary increase.

The newly negotiated deal also avoids any possibility of using replacement umpires again. Though games went on in 2006, player development could have been jeopardized if inexperienced umpires had remained on the field—as many players and managers complained about their work.

“The relationship over the past five or six years has improved greatly,” Francis said. “The negotiations were very professional and courteous. While our interests lie in different areas, we went about it in a professional manner.”

Minor League Baseball has apparently found a solution to its financial problems at Vero Beach Sports Village, at the same time infusing a bit of history and new investors into the former Dodgertown complex in Florida.

Minor League Baseball announced today that it has formed a partnership with former Dodgers president Peter O’Malley and his sister Terry Seidler, along with former Dodgers pitchers Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park. Each of the five entities will have an equal stake in the Vero Beach complex, which Minor League Baseball has been operating at a loss as a training and sports destination facility for the past two and a half years.

The deal requires approval by officials from Indian River County, which owns the complex and leases it to Minor League Baseball.

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The Ottawa City Council has made official its interest in luring affiliated baseball back to town and government officials have said that a Double-A team has expressed interest in relocating to Ottawa Stadium.

City officials voted unanimously to explore finding a full-time tenant to lease out the ballpark that hosted a Triple-A International League team from 1993-2007.

The identity of the mystery team—or if it even exists—interested in heading north of the border remains unclear.

As was the case when the Richmond market opened up two years ago, the Erie Sea Wolves and Binghamton Mets are rumored to be interested in relocating. However, both teams, which ranked at the bottom of Eastern League attendance this season, have denied any involvement in Ottawa.

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The Ghosts are on the move.

The Rockies are set to move their Rookie-level Pioneer League affiliate from Casper, where it has played for the past 10 years, to Grand Junction, Colo. The relocation is pending approval by the Grand Junction city council, which is scheduled to vote on the issue today.

Rumors of a potential move started soon after Rockies majority owners Charles and Richard Monfort purchased the Casper club last offseason. According to the Caspar Star-Tribune, the Monforts believe moving the team to a larger market in Grand Junction will provide an opportunity to develop a bigger fanbase for the club.

Playing conditions have also long been in an issue in Casper, where the Ghosts’ Mike Lansing Field has long been prone to flooding. The team had operated without a groundscrew before this season and did not have a tarp to cover the infield other than the pitcher’s mound.

In late 2008, a four-game homestand against Billings ended with just one inning being played after both team managers refused to allow their players take the field due to poor playing conditions.

“The field issues haven’t been settled, but it’s improved,” Rockies farm director Marc Gustafson said earlier this season. “When you’re talking about a field that has had so many issues with drainage problems over the years, it is probably a frustrating process for a lot of folks. But the important thing for us is having a quality surface for our players.”

The Rockies will apparently get just that in Grand Junction, whose Stocker Stadium is undergoing an $8.3 million. Also home to the Junior College World Series and Mesa State College athletics, the stadium will feature new dugouts in addition to renovated seating, concessions and concourse.

Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes/Barre still has no plans in place for where it will play next season while its ballpark gets a $40 million facelift.

The deadline previously set by the International League came and went today without a proposal from Scranton leadership on a potential site (or sites) for where the team hopes to play in 2012. International League president Randy Mobley had set today’s board of directors meeting in Albuquerque as the deadline for a final proposal from the team. Mobley said in a statement today that “league directors have established a timeline and process that will assure this matter is resolved in a timely manner.”

Mobley did not immediately return a phone call seeking further comment.

Mobley had previously said that the Yankees were considering roughly six locations to play next season and would prefer the team to stay within the International League footprint.

One source familiar with the situation said that Scranton had narrowed its choices down to a couple teams and expected a decision shortly. Figuring out how to make the schedules work was the main roadblock, the source said.

Among possible sites under consideration are fellow International League affiliates Lehigh Valley and Rochester. Both Lehigh Valley president Kurt Landes and Rochester CEO Naomi Silver have said they are open to hosting the Yankees, though Silver said the Red Wings could accommodate Scranton for just half the season.

In May, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett approved a $20 million state grant to renovate PNC Field. The Lackawanna County Stadium Authority will match the grant with $20 million to complete the project. The majority of that money will come from the proceeds of a previously agreed upon $14.6 million sale of the team to SWB Yankees LLC—an entity made up of the New York Yankees and Mandalay Baseball that currently operates the team.

The sale of the team had yet to be brought before the league, and Mobley had previously said he expected it to be finalized at today’s meetings. He also said he expected it to be approved.

“Everybody realizes how significant the sales proceeds are to make this (ballpark renovation) happen, so you aren’t going to let them continue down this path if you anticipate there to be opposition to the sale,” Mobley said lat month. “If there were something in the early phases that would cause the league to blow it up, that would have already occurred.”

Even though Metro Bank Park currently looks better suited to host a Bassmasters tournament than a baseball game, Double-A Harrisburg general manager Randy Whitaker is optimistic that the field could be ready if the Senators advance past Richmond in the Eastern League Divisional Series.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee has inundated much of the East Coast this week, and Metro Bank Park—which sits on an island in the middle of the Susquahanna River was hit particularly hard. The stadium, in its second season since undergoing a $32-million renovation, took on roughly seven feet of water. The playing field appeared to be completely submerged and water looked to have spilled into the lower bowl of seating.
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Minor league baseball continued to fare well in a tough economic climate, as more teams saw an increase at the gate this season despite overall attendance dropping slightly in 2011.

Unofficially, the minor leagues drew 41,237,943 spectators this season, down 0.47 percent from last year’s total of 41,432,456. Like last year, staying flat in a recession—when most professional sports are seeing significant decreases at the gate—should be viewed as a success.

In 2011, 83 teams saw an increase at the gate compared to 63 teams last year and 58 in 2009. However, overall attendance dipped for a third straight season after the sport set attendance records for five straight years, culminating in 2008 with 43,263,740.

Unofficial attendance figures for every minor league team are listed below. (Minor League Baseball will announce official attendance figures, which includes the Triple-A Mexican League, in the coming days.)

Though 83 teams saw an increase at the gate, that included just 12 of 30 Triple-A teams. Just two (Gwinnett and Memphis) were up by more than 5 percent. Meanwhile, nine Triple-A teams’ attendance went down at least 5 percent compared to last season.

Gwinnett saw its attendance increase after struggling to gain footing in its market after relocating from Richmond in 2009. The Braves ranked 12th in the 14-team International League with a 5,085 per-game average after ranking 13th last season at 4,818.

Memphis, once one of minor league baseball’s flagship franchises, had been hit hard by the recession as it struggled to make its $5.5 million annual payment on AutoZone Park. The Redbirds ranked fifth in the 16-team PCL with a 7,050 average, up 8.33 percent from 6,508 average last season (seventh in the PCL).

Lehigh Valley topped the minors in attendance for a second straight season, averaging 9,249 fans to outpace fellow International League affiliates Louisville (8,716) and Columbus (8,704). Round Rock finished fourth with a 8,587 average, though its 618,261 total was second to Lehigh Valley (628,925).

Sacramento, which led the minors in attendance for nine straight seasons before finishing second to Columbus in 2009, dipped 7.47 percent in 2011 to finish fifth.

Nolan Ryan’s latest find will be on display tonight when the Rangers host the Red Sox, but don’t look to the pitcher’s mound to find this prospect.

BBoy McCoy, the break-dancing bat boy, will make his major league debut tonight in Texas after spending four years spinning and poppin’ on top of dugouts throughout the minors. McCoy’s call to the big leagues comes after a recent appearance at Ryan-owned Triple-A Round Rock, where he apparently caught the eye of the Rangers president.

“Nolan suggested that we bring him up,” Rangers vice president of in-park entertainment Chuck Morgan said. “Nolan said to get him here because he heard good things about him in Round Rock.”

McCoy’s appearance at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington will cap an unlikely rise for the 21-year-old former Atlanta street performer that includes a run on the hit show “America’s Got Talent.” It was there in 2008 that McCoy, whose real name is Kenneth Paryo, met Dominic Latkovski, the veteran minor league performer and founder of BirdZerk and ZOOperstars.
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The Lynchburg Hillcats may have a tough time finding a spot in their ballpark to honor Calvin Falwell. That’s because there are few part of it available that don’t already pay homage to the team’s founder, who passed away on Saturday night at the age of 90 after suffering a heart attack on his way to a Hillcats game.

The stadium is named in his honor—Calvin Falwell Field at Lynchburg City Stadium—and Falwell’s name is displayed in center field and on the front of the building. He is honored in the stadium lobby as part of the city’s hall of fame and on another plaque in the garden area by the front gate.

“The best thing about it,” Lynchburg general manager Paul Sunwall says, “is that he got to see it all done while he was living.”

The recognition is certainly just for Falwell, who spearheaded the ownership group that brought the team to town in 1966 and worked hard to make sure it stuck around one of minor league baseball’s smallest markets.
Falwell attended all but a handful of Lynchburg’s home games this season and was a familiar face for fans in his suite. He remained team president until November 2009, passing on the duties vice president Rex Angel. Falwell ran the team’s monthly owners meetings until the past few years.

Sunwall, in his 32nd season with the Hillcats, says Falwell will be missed for more than his business acumen. “He will be missed for his presence and smile and southern hospitality. He was well liked and loved in the community.”

And it was in the community that Falwell embodied much of what minor league baseball strives to be. He opened Falwell Airport with his brother Lawrence in 1947 and worked on a number of community endeavors, including helping form the Lynchburg Little League in 1957, as well as being a regular contributor to the city’s Boys and Girls Clubs, Salvation Army and the local hospital.

“He was a very community-oriented guy,” Sunwall said. “He was very down to earth, very humble. He was never one to brag about his wealth.”

The Carolina League fell upon hard times in the 1970s as its enrollment dwindled to four teams. Falwell was one of the leaders in reviving the league.

“But for him and a few colleagues, we may not have had a league,” says John Hopkins, who has served as Carolina League president since 1984. “For me, personally, he was a beloved friend and a trusted confidante.”

Falwell was the Carolina League’s first representative on Minor League Baseball’s board of trustees and remained an officer in the league until 2010.

“He worked with four or five league presidents over the years,” Hopkins said. “There isn’t much he didn’t do.”

The man who helped build one of minor league baseball's most successful franchises is stepping down. Alan Ledford, the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats president/general manager/chief operating officer, announced his resignation on Thursday.

Ledford is leaving "to pursue future business interests in the sports and entertainment industry," the team announced in a release. His resignation will be effective June 24. Vice president of business operations Jeff Savage, the son of team owner Susan Savage, will take over Ledford's responsibilities as general manager.

Ledford did not immediately return a request for an interview.

Ledford, Baseball America's Executive of the Year in 2006, joined the River Cats in 2002 as president and COO before adding GM duties in 2004. He helped the River Cats top all of minor league baseball in attendance for 10 straight seasons beginning when the club debut in 2000.

The team was equally innovative at the ballpark and in the community under Ledford. Sacramento's Raley Field was one of the first stadiums in professional sports to go wireless in 2002, and has made fan amenities and entertainment one of its top priorities. In 2005, the River Cats helped form and sponsor a field in the community where children with disabilities can play baseball.

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After several months of deliberating over his future, Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner decided to run for a second four-year term in office. He notified the National Association board of trustees of his decision on May 24, one week before the required deadline.

O’Conner joined Minor League Baseball 19 years ago and spent 12 years as former president Mike Moore’s right-hand man before replacing him in December 2007. He had previously expressed concerns about serving a second term due to differing philosophies with the board of trustees on the direction of the sport.

O'Conner has worked to build the sport's national brand, leading the industry on several endeavors that go beyond teams' individual markets. And while many members of the board previously praised O'Conner's work—which includes extending the Professional Baseball Agreement with Major League Baseball, the launch of the Baseball Internet Rights Co., and overseeing the sport's growth during the recession—they also expressed doubts about some of his big ideas.

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I read one of those cute blog posts this morning highlighting all of the pop-culture reasons why you're old, including the fact that the cast of the television show "Boy Meets World" are now all in their early 30s. Does it make me even older if I never heard of "Boy Meets World?"

Apparently, plenty of people in Fresno are familiar with the hit '90s show, as nearly 7,000 fans came out to Chukchansi Park last night for this promotion: Mad Tight 90s Night Meets World, featuring Ben "Cory Matthews" Savage appearance from Boy Meets World.

The biggest draw of the night came in Indianapolis, as the Indians filled Victory Field with 12,565 fans on Education Day and Thursday Value Pack Night—which, for a $15 ticket, included a hot dog, unlimited soda and choice of souvenir item.

Fortunately, my kids don't read this blog and thus won't know that two teams offered Silly Bandz giveaways last night. Otherwise, there would be plenty of clamoring for a road trip to Peoria and Syracuse.

As Always, Thirsty Thursday was the promotion du jour, as 33 of the scheduled 60 games last night offered some variety of the promotion. Two of those games were rained out, leaving 31 Thirsty Thursday games that drew a total of 95,686 fans (or a 3,086 per-game average). 

Again, factors other than promotions do impact attendance, like weather (which has been a challenge for many teams this season) and Josh Hamilton minor league starts (Frisco drew 10,998 as the AL MVP made his second rehab start last night).

Below is a list of the scheduled promotions and attendance figures from last night's games.

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The weather was pretty miserable throughout much of the Eastern League last night, so perhaps "Richard Simmons Short Shorts Night" in Akron and "Fisher Cats Wing-Off" in New Hampshire could have been even bigger hits with better temperatures. The two promotions still drew 2,508 and 3,177 fans, respectively, close to each team's average attendance. 

The Double-A Frisco Roughriders had no promotion for last night listed on their schedule but still drew a minor league-high 8,313 fans. Perhaps they knew all along that Josh Hamilton would be starting a five-game rehab stint.

There were discounted drinks and food aplenty around the minors. The Double-A Mobile BayBears offered $1 glasses of wine for "Ladies Night" while high Class A Modesto Nuts offered $2 vino as part of "Wine Down Wednesday." The best bargain may have been in high Class A Lake Elsinore, where fans could feast on free hot dogs as part of "Wacky Weenie Wednesday." The low Class A Lexington Legends upped the ante a bit by offering "34-Cent Hot Dog Night" and drew 7,861 fans. And the Triple-A Columbus Clippers drew 6,651 on "50-Cent Wing Night."

Below is a complete listing of last night's promotions and attendance figures.

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Whether it be a Bark in the Park afternoon, an Awful Night or a Thirsty Thursday, the ultimate goal of minor league promotions is the same: to draw attention to your team and fans to the ballpark.

With that in mind, below is a chart tracking last night's attendance figures and promotions for every minor league baseball team. While promotions certainly impact a team's performance at the gate, they are not the only factor in how a team draws—weather, rehab starts, Stephen Strasburg (last year) and other factors can certainly determine how many fans come through the turnstiles.

The big winner of the day appears to be Triple-A Las Vegas, which sold out Cashman Field (11,001) on an Education Day promotion. Sadly, Double-A Akron's Fish Appreciation Night got washed out.

All but a handful of minor league teams participate in the Kraft Singles Tuesday Night Tickets deal, in which fans can redeem two tickets for the price of one when they bring a wrapper to the ballpark. Minor League Baseball reports that wrapper redemption is up 13 percent compared to last year.

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The future of minor league baseball in Scranton looks significantly brighter after new Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett approved a $20 million state grant last week, as part of a $40 million stadium renovation project.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre franchise has been on a years-long quest to spruce up its deteriorating ballpark, which now ranks behind only Buffalo's ballpark as the oldest in the International League. While Buffalo's Coca-Cola Field has been frequently updated in its 23 years, however, PNC Field has not been since opening in 1989.

The state grant gives ballpark renovation efforts a huge boost, though plenty of questions still need resolution—ranging from the status of the team's sale to where the Yankees will play during construction—before it is time to roll out the wrecking ball.

"There are more questions than answers right now," International League president Randy Mobley said. "Hopefully over the next several weeks, we will be able to fill in some of those questions with answers."

The renovation project was put in motion last year when outgoing Gov. Ed Rendell signed off on the $20 million grant from the state's redevelopment fund. Corbett had spent the past four months reviewing the project before approving it.

The Lackawanna County stadium authority will match the grant with $20 million to complete the project. The majority of that money will come from the proceeds of a previously agreed upon $14.6 million sale of the team to SWB Yankees LLC—the entity made up of the New York Yankees and Mandalay Baseball that currently operates the team.

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