News & notes

A typical season in the New York-Penn League has more ups & downs than an average week at the NY Stock Exchange.

That being said, the Tri-City Valleycats have lost three straight since walking off Vermont on Saturday night. The Lake Monsters salvaged the final game of the series at Bruno Stadium in another 11 inning affair on Sunday. Then, after a rainout on Tuesday, the 'Cats were swept by Stedler Division leader Lowell in a doubleheader on Wednesday. The first game went 8 innings (minor league doubleheaders, including the Perfect Game Collegiate League, are 7 innings per game) before Lowell walked it off, 2-1. The Spinners then completed the sweep with a 6-0 shutout. The series concludes tonight before Tri-City comes home to play Aberdeen tomorrow.
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The Albany Dutchmen's bats woke up in a big way in a 19-7 pounding of Glens Falls on Wednesday night. Albany had lost three of four prior to this game, but are still within striking distance of a playoff berth.

However, the Dutchmen will finish the season without Connor McCaffrey. McCaffrey is out for the season with an injury, per Mark Singelais of the Albany Times-Union, and has returned home to Iowa to rehab and prepare for basketball season for the Hawkeyes. Connor's dad, of course, is Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey, who won a few fans in the 518 during his days coaching Siena, which is why Connor signing with the Dutchmen was big news.
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40 years ago, Peter Torncello was a basketball star at Watervliet High, and made a number of regional all-star teams, including the All-City Team selected by the now-defunct Knickerbocker News, a team that also included Richard Foglia, of Catholic Central, and future NBA star Sam Perkins (Shaker), after the 1979-80 season.

Today, Torncello is a lawyer who's also running for a seat on the Watervliet City Council. Torncello defeated Frank McGrouty in a primary on Tuesday, and will run in the general election in November. Because his high school career was so long ago, the local press hasn't bothered to reach into the archives to bring it to the voters' attention. In Watervliet, he's the hometown boy who made good, and that might have been enough to put away McGrouty.

One wonders if this isn't the first step on a political journey for Torncello. After all, we have had a former NBA player in the US Senate (Bill Bradley), and a Hall of Fame pitcher in Congress (Jim Bunning)........