News & notes

As racing resumes today at Saratoga, Mechanicville native Chad Brown sits atop the leaderboard among trainers, having saddled six winners in the first four days. Joel Rosario & Jose Ortiz share the lead among jockeys, as each has won 8 races.

NYRA is reporting an increase in betting handle over the first four days, despite the fact that there have been no fans in attendance. Chalk it up to an increase in online betting.
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Fonda Speedway has been dark the last couple of weeks, and have announced plans to resume racing next month. They'd be well served to get a minor TV deal with a local station for the duration of the season. Just sayin'.
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The Albany Athletics managed to gain a measure of revenge on the Albany Dutch as the top two teams in the Independent Collegiate Baseball league met again on Monday. The first game ended in a 6-6 draw before the Athletics won the nightcap, 2-0.

Ex-Tri-City Valleycat Chris Salamida pitched the full 7 innings in game one, fanning 9, then moved to the outfield in game 2, and drove in a run for the Athletics. Troy High grad Nick Pastore had another big night, homering in game one, and driving in the other run in the second game. Tim Carroll & Anthony Raimo had the other homers for the Athletics in the first game.

Current standings:

Athletics 10-1-2.
Dutch 6-5-2.
Mohawks 4-6.
Independents 1-9.
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Governor Cuomo announced Tuesday that if there are college sports this fall, there won't be any fans in the bleachers. Not a surprise, and that announcement lends itself to the speculation about more schools going to online streaming so fans won't be shut out. I'd recommend the same things for high schools.
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UAlbany has slightly tweaked its Great Dane logo so that it's now:



You were expecting maybe a licensing deal to use Scooby-Doo?
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Sad news to close. Former area sportswriter and columnist Mike Dyer, one of the few to have worked for all three 518 dailies (Daily Gazette, Albany Times-Union, Troy Record), recently passed away at 81, according to Pete Dougherty of the Times-Union. Dyer had retired to Florida with his wife of 54 years, Carol, who has also passed away. Dyer has a Wikipedia page that has not been updated as of press time. His golf & bowling columns, especially the latter, at the Record were must-reads back in the day.

Rest in peace.