{"id":323981,"date":"2026-11-09T04:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/323981\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T04:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T04:28:09","slug":"new-for-2027-scranton-wilkes-barre-highlanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/323981\/","title":{"rendered":"New for 2027: Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre Highlanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre<\/a>We have another rebranding for the 2027 season, as the SWB RailRiders are no more, replaced by a New York Yankees-inspired moniker: the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre Highlanders.<\/p>\n

Highlanders, of course, was one of the names parent club Yankees originally went by when joining the American League in 1903. It wasn\u2019t necessarily official, and it was just one of several names the team went by in those early AL days, per MLB historian John Thorn<\/a>: press reports pegged the team variously as \u201cGreater New Yorks\u201d (a reference to the unification of the five boroughs in 1898), Hilltoppers and Highlanders before the Yankees name was formally adopted. The names make sense when you take into account a few factors. First, the team played at Hilltop Park in Manhattan\u2019s Washington Heights (hence the Hilltoppers); second, the team was owned by Joseph Gordon, so newspaper writers linked the team with the Scottish regiment Gordon Highlanders, in coverage of the team.<\/p>\n

With Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre, according to the team, the name honors the \u201cNEPA terrain, where PNC Field sits surrounded by wooded hills, trails, and the natural beauty that shapes life in the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre area, while also honoring the earliest identity in Yankees history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ecstatic to usher in this new era of Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre baseball,\u201d said Shawn Reilly, the SWB Highlanders<\/a> Team President & General Manager, via press release. \u201cWe gravitate towards our love of NEPA\u2019s terrain, its activities, and, most definitely, its people. All those fans who love where we live and enjoy every aspect that Northeastern Pennsylvania has to offer. And historically, before they were the Yankees, they were the Highlanders. Once again, you are a Highlander before you are a Yankee!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SWB<\/a>The team also unveiled a new club mascot: yet-to-be-named bear wearing a classic cap featuring a bold \u201cH,\u201d carries a hiking backpack and is never far from his trusted walking stick\u2013a well-worn wooden bat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED STORIES: New for 2027: Wichita Turbo Tubs<\/a><\/p>\n

\t
\n\t <\/p>\n

\t\tAbout Kevin Reichard
\n\t\tKevin Reichard is founder and publisher of Ballpark Digest.
\n\t\t\t
\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have another rebranding for the 2027 season, as the SWB RailRiders are no more, replaced by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2012,4559,178,180,179,131261,83749],"class_list":["post-323981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-2012","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-scranton-wilkes-barre-highlanders","tag-scranton-wilkes-barre-railriders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}