As part of a new promotion, the Altoona Curve (Class AA; Eastern League) will play as the Allegheny Yinzers for seven home games during the 2019 season.
On select weekend home games at Peoples Natural Gas Field, the Curve will take the field as the Allegheny Yinzers. The new identity is a tribute to the familiar second-person plural pronoun “yinz” that is commonly used by people of Western and Central Pennsylvania.
These one-of-a-kind alternate uniforms will be on display for the first time on Saturday, January 26 during PiratesFest at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
“One of the trends in Minor League Baseball over the last few years have been changing team names or rebranding for a period of time that ties into the market,” said Curve General Manager Derek Martin. “Most teams have changed their names to food items and I wanted to be different.
“When I was watching the Steelers game the day after the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh, Bill Cowher talked on the CBS broadcast about how Pittsburgh is a tough community and everyone would come together because we are “Yinzer Nation”. After about the tenth time that Cowher said ‘Yinzer’, I knew we needed to do something revolving around Yinzers.”
Martin expects third-year field manager Michael Ryan to be particularly invested in the uniforms that will be worn for 10 percent of the team’s home games in 2019.
“When I first threw out the idea to Michael,” Martin said, “he said, ‘That is amazing. You know I’m a Yinzer!’
“With Michael coming back this year as a Western Pa. native and a Pittsburgh resident, our longstanding relationship with the Pirates, I thought this is the perfect time to launch this promotion.”
The first time the Curve take the field as the Yinzers will be Saturday, April 13, the first Saturday home game of the season. The unique Yinzers jerseys, presented by Keller Engineers for the 2019 campaign, will be auctioned off after the final night of the promotion on Thursday, August 8. A portion of the proceeds from the jersey auction will benefit the Roberto Clemente Foundation.
All seven dates for the Allegheny Yinzers uniforms include: April 13, May 31, June 13, June 29, July 6, July 26 and August 8. To bring those promotional nights to life, the Curve will also host various Pittsburgh celebrities that will be announced with the full promotional calendar at a later date.