At a press conference held Jan. 7, the Tri-City Valley Cats announced that the team is joining the Frontier League after losing its MBL affiliation a few weeks ago.
Please click here to read the team’s press release.
Click on the following links for additional coverage:
Times Union
The Schenectady Gazette
Observer-Reporter (Washington County, PA)
IndyBallIsland.com
WNYT TV 13 (NBC)
WRGB TV 6 (CBS)
WTEN TV 10 (ABC)
Spectrum TV News
The following article was posted by the Albany Business Review:
Tri-City ValleyCats to join independent baseball league for 2021 season
By Todd Kehoe – Jan. 7, 2021
A month after losing their affiliation with Major League Baseball, the Tri-City ValleyCats have joined a new league — and are planning on hosting games as early as this spring.
The ValleyCats have joined the Frontier League, which is an independent professional league but is an official partner of Major League Baseball.
“We are excited to join the Frontier League and eager to start this new chapter in ValleyCats baseball,” said team president Rick Murphy in a statement.
The team will continue to play games at Joseph L. Bruno stadium, which the team shares with Hudson Valley Community College.
Frontier League teams play a 96-game schedule starting in mid-May, which would mean 48 home games for the ValleyCats in Troy.
Though the schedule is not yet out, the team is selling ticket packages for the 2021 season on its website. Like the minor leagues, the Frontier League’s season was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid.
The 16-team Frontier League was founded in 1993 and is the longest-running independent league in the country. Teams are located as far west as Sauget, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, and as far north as Quebec City. The closest team is the New York Boulders in Rockland County.
Prior to joining an independent league, the ValleyCats had been affiliated with the Houston Astros since 2002. During that time, the ValleyCats won three New York-Penn League championships, sent more than 80 players to the major leagues and had been in the top three in attendance in their league every year since 2014.
The Adirondack Lumberjacks, based at East Field in Glens Falls, and the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs, at the former Heritage Park in Colonie, played in independent leagues in the ’90s and early 2000s.
Published: Fri, 08 Jan 2021 13:15:08 +0000 by d.gardner