April is upon us, which means our ’4 in 24′ Extreme Field Renovation project is about 2-weeks away. Our Stadium Operations manager Keith Sweeney just recently completed an inspection of each field. After this long winter, he had to see what shape each field was in and see if any of them were still covered with snow. That might be irrelevant since they are forecasting up to a foot of snow in some areas of the Capital Region by Friday morning.

At this point, weather is our main enemy. For the most part, the fields need to be almost completely cleared of snow by the time the renovations begin on April 15th. There’s still plenty of time for the upcoming snow to melt, but that’s the main concern.

Here are some current photos of the four fields:

Scotia/Glenville Little League

Ballston Spa Junior Baseball

Westland Hills Little League, Albany

Scotia/Glenville Little League

Northside Little League, Schenectady

Ballston Spa Junior Baseball

The  plan is to split up into two groups and begin the renovations at 5 am on Friday, April 15th at Ballston Spa Junior Baseball League and Westland Hills in Albany. Sweeney estimates that it should take around 6-hours to do the following: Cut the sod, level the infield, square and straighten the baselines, rebuild the mound and homeplate areas and lay the new sod. More work will then need to be done with the aid of the volunteers who will rake, paint, weed wack and put on the finishing touches.

Volunteers will consist of ValleyCats staff members, league representatives and sponsor representatives from our corporate partners Friendly’s, CDTA, Price Chopper and the Brickman Group.

Following the work at those two fields, the crews will converge upon the Schenectady area and begin renovation on the Northside and Scotia/Glenville little league fields. Work will be done throughout the night to complete the project by early Saturday morning.

You can bet that by that time there will be some weary eyes, but there will definitely be a huge sense of accomplishment. It’s an amazing collaborative effort that will benefit so many of our youth playing the game we all love so much. To provide them with an adequate field to play on will be very satisfying.

For more information on the four fields being renovated, please click here. For complete ’4 in 24′ coverage, you can visit the official ’4 in 24′ page.

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Today officially marked opening day for Major League Baseball, which means baseball is back! There’s just something refreshing about being able to turn on television and catch a baseball game. Soon we’ll be able to enjoy games at “The Joe!”

To celebrate baseball’s opening day, ‘Cats individual game tickets went on sale this morning at 10 AM.  There’s been a steady influx of phone calls and people visiting the box office today to purchase their tickets. If you’re looking for seats to Opening Day on June 17th or for Independence Day on July 4th, I’d advise you to purchase those tickets as soon as possible. They are going fast for both dates.

To purchase your tickets, click here to view the 2011 schedule. Just click the ‘T’ next to the game date you want and you will be directed to the site to buy your tickets. There is a very cool new feature this year that allows you to see exactly what seats are available on a seating grid and pick your seats.

You can also call us in the office at (518) 629-2287 or visit the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium box office on the campus of Hudson Valley Community College.

If you call or visit us here at the stadium, chances are you will be dealing with our Box Office/Ticket Manager Jess Kaszeta. Here are a couple photos of Jess taking ticket orders:

Jess helping a fan purchase tickets

78 Days Until Opening Day!

In order to better prepare our office for an emergency at the ballpark, this morning our entire front office took a 3-hour CPR course certified by the American Heart Association. It was administered by John Hudson, who is an official EMT-B and also our head groundskeeper.

Many different topics were covered from first aid to the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and stroke, what to do in a situation when someone is choking and how to perform CPR on adults, children and infants. The entire organization feels these are all very important things to know in order to keep the fans that come to “The Joe” in good hands and make them feel as safe as possible. Although there are two EMT’s on staff at every ValleyCats home game, there’s always a chance that something might happen that requires on the spot attention.

Here are a few more photos from the class, held in the home clubhouse:

ValleyCats Food & Beverage Coordinator Gian Rafaniello

John Hudson teaching how to perform CPR

GM Rick Murphy giving the chest compressions

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In other news…Major League Baseball is back beginning this Thursday and there are six games to open up the 2011 regular season. Also don’t forget that ValleyCats individual tickets go on-sale that morning beginning at 10 AM. Fans can purchase tickets online at tcvalleycats.com, by phone at 518-629-CATS, or by visiting the Joseph L. Bruno Stadium box office during regular business hours.

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A few other things to note…you may notice a bit of a different look on this blog post. MLB has utilized an outside platform to enhance the blogging experience. One of the main differences is the photos…they appear a bit smaller in the post, but link to a much larger image.

A big thanks goes out to all those who followed our Spring Training coverage from Florida. Hopefully we brought back some memories of the 2010 season and captured the essence of the Spring Training experience. Unfortunately, it looks like we lost the last few posts due to the blog platform switch, but all the photos from Spring Training have been uploaded to our Facebook page.

We also gathered much more content that you will be seeing in future posts on this blog, our website and on our video board during the season.

80 Days Until Opening Day!