Day 3 of this journey took a few unexpected turns and twists, but it is days like this which make our road trip adventures especially exciting.

On this day’s schedule was a trip to Metro Bank Park, home of the AA Harrisburg Senators. In the middle of the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg lies City Island, a splendid park with gorgeous waterfront vistas, nature trails, and views of the Harrisburg skyline, and in the midst of this park there has always been a ballpark and an accompanying football/soccer field.

We visited here bank in 2006, but since that time the venue has undergone extensive renovations, so this place was penciled in for a return USRT visit way back when.

So the Farrells were having a family party up north of Cortland, NY this very same day, and basically we had decided in advance to book about 4PM to catch the tail end of those festivities, about a 200 mile jaunt straight up the I-81. We departed at the 7th inning stretch, with Trenton up 3-2 (Harrisburg would pull this game out 6-5 in 10 innings).

This is where it got interesting… as we made our way northward, Pete gets the call from the relations, and then his dad, that ostensibly informs us that the party is now over, things are breaking up and everyone has gone home. Whaaattt?

So “Plan B” became a no brainer… we were driving up the I-81 and were just about 30 miles south of Wilkes-Barre, PA. Our Buffalo Bisons were playing against the SWB Yankees at PNC Field in Moosic, and in fact we had the game on the radio as it had just started. LET’S PLAY TWO!

We raced to the stadium, arriving just as the third inning was winding down. We grabbed our camera and our Bisons credentials, and it was just so awesome walking up to the main gate and having the ticket takers and security just wave us in as we announce ourselves as “Bisons Media.” We are soooooo cool!

The USRT had last visited in 2003, and back then we were disappointed in this brutalist concrete monstrosity of a stadium. Since the Yankees have come in, there have been numerous positive renovations, none more important than a real grass field. New outfield picnic pavilions, seats, tarping the upper rows of the second deck, colorful signage and splashes of concourse paint, not to mention some really great Yankees murals in the main concourses, have really given this ballpark a new life.

For our Bisons it was all bad news… they were being one hit until the 9th inning, down 5-0 going into the 9th, yet they managed to claw out one run and loaded the bases. With two outs and Mike Cervenak representing the tying run, his long fly ball wasn’t far enough, and just like that Scranton-Wilkes Barre had their fifth consecutive IL North Division title. I’m sure the locals were dancing in the streets and tipping over cars downtown well into the night. We booked for our car as soon as the final out was recorded.

So back to the B-lo we went, arriving about midnight. Four ballparks over the course of 60 hours, something we do these days without breaking a sweat. Any by the way… Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick on Friday night was the 120th separate and distinct professional baseball venue that we have set foot in since starting this craziness in 1998. Damn we’re good!