LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Altoona Curve
built 636 days ago
From the very first game at Blair County Ballpark, the Altoona Curve has been a success story. The club drew 6,171 fans that first night in 1999, despite frigid temperatures and intermittent rain, and finished the season drawing 323,932 fans.
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Garach of Roaring Spring said she knew something was up when Harmon commented on how cute Derek, then the Altoona Curve’s director of ticketing, was when she attended ballgames. Garach and her husband, Mark, are season ticket holders.
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The Altoona Curve began their first season on the road at the Reading Phillies on April 9, 1999. Their first game was suspended by rain and completed the next day as part of a doubleheader. That first game was a 6-2 loss, but the Curve scored their first-ever victory in the second game, beating Reading 6-4. A few days later, on April 15, the Curve christened Blair County Ballpark by defeating the Bowie Baysox 6-1 in front of a crowd of 6,171.
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Curve Baseball LP, which operates both the Altoona Curve (AA/Eastern League) and the new State College Professional Baseball Club (A/New York-Penn League) in Central Pennsylvania, has announced a major expansion of its front office roster. As part of a unique, integrated front office structure, each member of the Curve Baseball LP front office staff will operate both franchises.
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The Altoona Curve franchise began when Arizona and Tampa Bay were both awarded major-league franchises in 1998. The addition of these two teams had a "domino-like" effect through baseball with the expansion of not only the major leagues, but throughout minor-league baseball as well. With this expansion, AA baseball received two new teams to begin play in the 1999 season. The Erie SeaWolves were already an established minor-league team with outstanding short-season attendance, and were quickly awarded one of the new franchises. The second spot in the new, larger Eastern League looked to be headed to Springfield, Massachusetts, but city native Bob Lozinak, developer Tate DeWeese, and a group of Pennsylvania lawmakers rallied to get the final spot, making a formal presentation to league officials on October 5, 1997. The proposal received unanimous support and Altoona won the other franchise.
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The next step for the start of the Altoona Curve was to find a major league affiliate. The Erie SeaWolves had already had several successful seasons in the Pirates' organization, as a short-season single-A affiliate. In the end... the Pirates chose Altoona for their AA affiliate.
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Altoona Curve