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Another position change with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders leaves Rob Refsnyder facing a learning curve

Letter to the Editor: Yankees fan wants speedy resolution to cable TV dispute causing blackout of games

<p>More than six inches of snow fell in Syracuse, N.Y. last weekend forcing the Syracuse Chiefs to postpone their first four games of the season against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.</p><p>The Washington Nationals&#8217; Triple-A affiliate issued a statement on Wednesday siting unsafe playing conditions as the reason for the postponements.</p><p>&#8220;The last thing we want to do is put our fans and our players in danger,&#8221; Chiefs general manager Jason Smorol said in the release. &#8220;Over the past few days, our grounds crew and I have been closely monitoring the field and playing surfaces. Because of the heavy snow this past week, and with rain, snow and freezing temperatures in the forecast, we&#8217;ve determined that the weather has made playing unsuitable through Sunday. Our spirits remain high - we&#8217;re going to move forward and get ready for a fantastic opening week starting with Opening Day against Buffalo on Monday!&#8221;</p><p>Two of the four games were moved to Lehigh Valley&#8217;s Coca-Cola Park with a doubleheader held on Friday starting at 11:05 a.m., but the twinbill will not be open to the public and fans are not permitted to attend due to construction at the IronPigs&#8217; ballpark. The other two games of the series will be made up at Syracuse&#8217;s NBT Bank Stadium at a time and date to be announced.</p><p>&#8220;On behalf of the International League, we&#8217;d like to thank the Lehigh Valley IronPigs for hosting these two games at Coca-Cola Park on extremely short notice,&#8221; International League President Randy Mobley said. &#8220;These were unforeseen circumstances but it&#8217;s extremely beneficial to both teams along with their parent clubs to get the season underway this weekend.&#8221;</p><p>IronPigs president and general manager Kurt Landes explained in a release by the IronPigs why the team can&#8217;t allow fans to Friday&#8217;s doubleheader, while saying that he&#8217;s always willing to help out a fellow member of the International League.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re sympathetic to the uncontrollable weather issues in upstate New York this weekend. As a fellow member of the International League alongside the Chiefs, the IronPigs organization is doing everything it can on short notice to assist the Chiefs and the league in their efforts to ensure that two games are played this weekend,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Unfortunately, we&#8217;re unable to open Coca-Cola Park to the public for these games due to safety issues concerning installations with contractors and vendors on-site in anticipation of our home opener on April 14.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>drosengrant@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Syracuse postpones first 4 games, 2 moved to Allentown