News and notes around the Eastern League.
Former president Jimmy Carter attended the Altoona Curve’s home game against the Reading Phillies on June 17 at Blair County Ballpark.
Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, watched the game from one of the ballpark’s luxury suites. The Curve won 4-3 before a crowd of 5,524.
It was the first time a U.S. president attended a game at Altoona. Carter is a frequent visitor to central Pennsylvania.
Vice president Dick Cheney attended an Altoona game on July 4, 2004, tossing out the ceremonial first pitch and addressing the crowd before that contest.
The Reading Phillies announced last week they have extended their player-development contract with the Philadelphia Phillies for two more seasons, through the 2010 season. Their previous four-year contract was set to expire at the end of this season.
Reading and Philadelphia have maintained an affiliation since 1967, which is tied with the Lakeland Flying Tigers and Detroit as the third-longest partnership between a minor league and major league city.
The Bluefield Orioles and Baltimore have been affiliated since 1958, and the Richmond Braves have been partnered with Atlanta since 1966.
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats attracted their second-largest home crowd in franchise history (8,129) in Saturday’s 7-0 loss to the Portland Sea Dogs at Merchantsauto.com Stadium.
By winning the first six games of a seven-game road trip last week on trips to bowie and Reading, the Akron Aeros extended their road winning streak to a franchise-record 11 games.
Binghamton was 39-32 at the halfway point of its schedule, the first time since 2004 the B-Mets have had a winning record at the midway point. The last time the B-Mets made the playoffs was 2004.
Eastern League umpire Lance Barrett recently was promoted to the Triple-A International League. His Eastern League replacement is Tripp Gibson, who was promoted from the Single-A Florida State League.
Bowie right-hander David Hernandez threw six no-hit innings on Saturday at Altoona, but left after a rain delay. The Baysox won, 5-0.
Four Harrisburg pitchers – right-handers Marco Estrada, Shairon Martis and Zech Zinicola and left-hander Tim Bittner – were promoted to Triple-A Columbus last week.
Portland right-hander Michael Bowden won his team-leading sixth game last week. In the outing, he allowed a home run for the first time in his last 60 1/3 innings.
Reading is 6-1 in seven Sunday home games this season.