Altoona’s Peoples Natural Gas Field served as the alternate training site for Pirates minor leaguers last year, when there was no minor league season. And there had been speculation that Altoona would be used as an alternate site for a while again this year, with the minor league season pushed back a month.
That will not be the case, however, as the Pirates announced their plans today for how they will utilize their alternate training sites over the next month or so. Altoona will not be used in this scenario.
Here’s the news release from the Pirates:
The Altoona Curve’s season is set to open May 4. That’s about a month later than usual, but minor league spring training was pushed back a month this year because of COVID protocols, thereby delaying the start of the season.