Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s wait to host another All-Star Game just got longer.
The 2020 Triple-A All-Star Game in Moosic is canceled, RailRiders co-managing owner David Abrams told The Scranton Times-Tribune in an exclusive interview Thursday, adding that the team will now focus on hosting the 2022 game.
“Obviously, we’re not having our All-Star Game this summer,” Abrams said in regard to the shutdown of Minor League Baseball and the uncertainty of their return this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Minor League Baseball wants to officially come out in May and tell people, but I’ll tell you guys I view this as quote unquote ‘lemons to lemonade’ because we’re pushing it back to 2022.”
The International League has not officially announced the cancellation.
“We have made no announcement at this point in time,” Randy Mobley, International League president, said Thursday.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre hasn’t hosted the mid-summer classic since 1995 when New York Yankees star Derek Jeter played in the game. This year’s game between the International League and Pacific Coast League was set for July 15, with the home run derby scheduled for the day before. The 2021 game was already awarded to Round Rock in Texas.
“(Round Rock) already had it for next year and I don’t know what the world will look like next year,” Abrams said, “but I think by 2022 hopefully (the) economy’s recovered, people are feeling a little bit better about the world and we can make that event even bigger and better. That is something that we all agreed upon with the league, so I think that’s a positive.”
The RailRiders’ season was supposed to begin April 9.
Conor Foley goes beyond the box score with in-depth coverage of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. He has worked at The Times-Tribune since graduating from University of Scranton in 2011, and he has covered the RailRiders since 2017. Contact: cfoley@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9125; or @railridersTT