Letter to the Editor: Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act misrepresented by editorial

George Spohr: Sources are sometimes more than a Facebook search away

When the RailRiders faced Rochester on Saturday night, it marked the halfway point of the home season with game No. 36 being held at PNC Field.The first part of the team&#8217;s schedule has been front-loaded with home games. In contrast, last year Scranton/Wilkes-Barre didn&#8217;t reach its 36th home game of the season until June 24, nearly two weeks after. In 2013, the midway point of the home schedule was also reached later in the season on June 19.All this means is that there will be less home games for the club in the final two and half months of the campaign. That could be good or bad.The positives are that the RailRiders have played better on the road this season winning 20 of 28 games away from Moosic. They were three games under the .500 mark at PNC Field entering Saturday night.The negatives start with less time to see a team that&#8217;s budding with prospects and currently sitting in first place in the International League North Division. Another unfavorable condition for less home games is that if a prominent Yankee hitter hits the disabled list, that means fewer chances to see a Major League star on a rehab appearance.The RailRiders are currently in a stretch of playing 13 of 17 games on the road. After a seven-game homestand from June 22-28, SWB has just 12 home games in July. There&#8217;s a stretch in July when the team is away from PNC Field for two weeks when a homestand concludes on July 9, and the next home contest after that is July 24, with the All-Star also mixed into the away period.In case you missed itScranton/Wilkes-Barre surged into first place this late in the season for the first time since the 2012 Yankees won the division. The RailRiders have made their mark by winning 10 of their last 11 games entering Saturday night and are nine games over .500 at 36-27 for the first time since the 2012 squad finished the season 24 games over the mark.Mason Williams, who had been in Triple-A for three weeks, earned his first Major League call-up last week and had quite a debut. The center fielder went 1 for 2 with a two-run homer in his Big League debut on Friday night.Don&#8217;t miss thisThere are no home games for the next seven days, except for today when SWB wraps up a four-game set with Rochester. After this afternoon&#8217;s Family FunDay activities, the next chance to visit PNC Field will be for the Father&#8217;s Day Legends Game. With there will be nearly three dozen former Yankees.If you miss seeing the first-place RailRiders between now and then, you can always take a ride down the Pennsylvania Turnpike to catch SWB playing Lehigh Valley on Friday and Saturday at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.Looking aheadWhen the next four days over, the RailRiders will have had their full of Rochester.SWB and the Red Wings play four more games, including today&#8217;s afternoon affair at PNC Field before the RailRiders head to Allentown for three contests with their closest rival in the International League, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.Rochester and the RailRiders will be wrapping up a 12-game stint when they played each other nine times. The teams don&#8217;t square off again until mid-August when they will play six out of nine contests versus each other.While SWB will have played five games this season in Rochester after Wednesday, the team will go to Lehigh Valley for the first time in 2015. The IronPigs are the only divisional opponent SWB hasn&#8217;t seen yet on the road. In fact, the RailRiders will play in Allentown eight times between now and July 30.

Backloaded schedule could benefit Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders