E. Scranton: Where Best Westerns put the Plus in shelter

With Scranton in the rear-view mirror, there is nothing but hills and trees in front of us as we barrel down I-80 toward the Ohio border. We left our oddly-shapped, yet tastefully decorated hotel after "enjoying" its free breakfast. Many of the same characters that were sucking down beer at the hotel bar, the Manhattan Drive Jazz Club, were back down at breakfast before 9 this morning.

Baseball-wise, it was a good start to the voyage. Minor League games are fun, move quickly without TV timeouts and feature lots of weird competitions between innings. We saw kids racing on stuffed horses, a crawling baby race (lost an exacta bet on that one), kids throwing water balloons at their dads' heads and two fat men dancing in tutus for the crowd's affection.

PNC Field, home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, is family friendly and offered a rather impressive 10-minute fireworks display after the game. Columbus beat the home team, 6-5. Scranton squandered a big chance in the 7th, leaving runners on the corners with one out. You'd think that would make Clippers first baseman Shelley Duncan, a former SWB and New York Yankee happy. But he never smiled despite going 2-3 with 3 RBI. Maybe he was upset that Nick Johnson was batting behind him and got to play DH while Shelley was stuck playing with the dirt beneath his feat at first base.

The SWB Starter gave up 9 hits and 6 runs (5 earned) in 4.1 innings. The Yankee bullpen was impressive, going the rest of the way without allowing a base runner the remaining 4.2 innings. Too bad Shelley Duncan took advantage of starter Mitchell.

Duncan's two-run double in the second inning put Columbus up 4-0. The Yankees clawed their way back to make it a game. But Shelley never seemed worried or interested — just ignored by his teammates. At one point, before the bottom of the ninth, when he was trying to throw infield warmups. But none of the infielders were looking at him. The second baseman and shortstop had their backs to first base, the third baseman was checking out a woman in the stands.

Poor, Shelley Duncan. Remember when he brought a lot of youthful exuberance to the big league Yankees? Now he's trying to get his batting average to .200 and get his teammates to pay attention to him.

If you ever make it to PNC Field, I suggest you skip the hot dog and go for the burger. It was made to order, rather basic but delicious. The hot dog was decent. But they only offered yellow mustard, which as you likely know, cannot help a hot dog like brown mustard does. Shelley Duncan is likely a ketchup man. You can tell by how his cutoff-man positioning.

You might also want to stay at the East Scranton Best Western Plus. We theorize it got the "Plus" in its name after Best Western decided to create a building on top of what was obviously an open-air style motel with a pool in the middle of it. Best Western has been know for decades for its innovative hotelling. I think they invented the front desk bell. They also were the first to offer each guest his own towel. And the bar was open "5 'til Close" — a step up from "5 'til ?".

But here's the pool. That raling separates the walkway beside our room door and you falling into the pool three stories below. The only window in our room looked into the walkway. It was cool to be able to see people waking in the morning and opening the shades in their underwear as I went out for morning coffee.

Tonight, we go Major League though. Jacob's Field is next.

Trip stats:
Ballpark hot dogs: 1
Home team record: 0-1
Bed bugs encountered: 0
Miles traveled: 330