The Capital Region has a rich history when it comes to the sport of baseball. Minor league baseball has been weaved in the fabric of this area for decades. From the Albany Senators, to the Albany-Colonie A's, to the A-C Yankees, then Diamond Dogs and now the Tri City ValleyCats, this community has witnessed greatness in many stages on local diamonds.
The ValleyCats Return to the Joe Friday Night
It’s been nearly two years since the Tri-City ValleyCats have played a game at Joe Bruno Stadium. A lot has happened, to say the least. The world suffered a pandemic. The ValleyCats longtime Chairman, principal owner and New York Penn League icon, Bill Gladstone, passed away during that time. The team also lost its affiliation with a Major League Baseball Organization.
This year the ValleyCats will play in the Independent Frontier League. Some fans may howl for a little while that Tri-City won’t be the pipeline to the Astros or some other team. However, most baseball fans will enjoy the ValleyCats emphasis on winning, while developing talent. That’s the goal of Independent baseball and the Frontier League has been successful at it for decades.
The Drive with Charlie and Dan
It’s been a while since somebody not named Jeff Levack has been orchestrating the afternoon drive on WTMM. They are certainly big shoes to fill. So, what feet will be filling those late afternoon kicks and how will they do it? The general answer is: the Drive with Charlie and Dan will continue to bring you a fun look at sports, life and entertainment, with awesome local and national interviews everyday from 3 to 7pm on 104.5 FM.
But, you want to know more, right?
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Well, I’m the Charlie part of Charlie and Dan. I am.was the host of Sunday Sports Buzz here on The Team and spent a good part of January through the end of March as Levack’s fill-in co-host in the afternoons before Dan took that seat. Prior to that, I spent 17 years at UAlbany as the Associate Athletic Director of External Affairs overseeing various Division I sports, athletic marketing, media, corporate sales and spirit squads. Before that a six year stint in
News broke yesterday that the Tri-City ValleyCats had hired former 12 plus year Major Leaguer Pete Incaviglia to be their manager for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. I instantly flashed back to being a kid and teenager watching Inky play both for and against my New York Yankees. So I challenged Charlie to get Pete Inky Incaviglia s phone number from the ValleyCats. Spoiler alert. Charlie came through and so did Incaviglia!
Having never spoke to Incaviglia before it was a little tense not knowing how he d respond to a random phone call about 24 hours after he was announced as the ValleyCats new manager. The good news is not only did he answer but Inky was as cool as the other side of the pillow! You get the vibe instantly that this is not only a guy you want leading your baseball team but this is a guy you d want to watch a game with. Literally got this tweet form a listener while Inky was on the show.