Two strong presences in the Altoona sports scene will be missed with the sale of the Curve to the Lozinak family.
With the sale of the Altoona Curve (Class AA; Eastern League) to its former owners, the Lozinak family, the local sports scene will be saying goodbye to two strong operators: GM Todd "Parney" Parnell and owner Chunk Greenberg.
To say the pair are forces of nature is an understatement. As an owner, Greenberg spent millions on improvements to Blair County Ballpark and saw it thrive as a destination ballpark; he was also crucial in the county procuring state aid to finally fix a bad playing playing field. Parney, as all who know him, is a whirlwind of activity; other teams regularly borrow from the cornucopia of promotions unveiled annually by the team.
The pair aren’t leaving baseball — they’ll be involved in the State College-based Greenberg Sports Group and will continue operating the State College Spikes (short season; NY-Penn League) and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (High Class A; Carolina League), with assistant GM Jeff Garner and CFO John Donley joining them. And the return of the Lozinaks, who founded the team and are natives to the community, certainly makes for a nice story as well. So it may be happy endings for all involved.
Cory Giger has a nice column in the Altoona Mirror.
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