Unusual alliance pushes seeks policing reforms in New Mexico

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Welcome back Pa. fans: Penguins top Flyers in front of 2,800

Nearing the 18-month mark since their last game, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders will have to wait a little longer to get back on the field.
				The RailRiders were one of a handful of teams to announce Tuesday that the start of the Triple-A season will be delayed &ldquo;by at least four weeks&rdquo; by MLB, pushing it back from April 6 to a tentative start of May 4.
				The delay, which was first reported by ESPN, will allow major league teams to have players work at alternate training sites for the start of the MLB season as they did during the entire truncated 2020 campaign.
				The RailRiders&rsquo; PNC Field served as the alternate site for the parent New York Yankees last year, and the team confirmed Tuesday night that the venue will again serve that role until the Triple-A season opens.
				Though there was no official announcement from MLB on the changes, individual teams began delivering the news Tuesday night following ESPN&rsquo;s report.
				Scranton/Wilkes-Barre followed suit with an announcement made by division rival Lehigh Valley earlier in the evening.
				The IronPigs said that their stadium, Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, will host the parent Philadelphia Phillies&rsquo; taxi squad while serving as the Phillies&rsquo; alternate site beginning April 1.
				Bringing back these alternate sites allows major league teams more flexibility in the early season with coronavirus protocols. ESPN also reported that the hope is that the extra time will allow players to be receive COVID-19 vaccines before being assigned to play in the minors.
				MLB had previously aimed to push back the start of the major league season because of coronavirus concerns, but the players union rejected the idea.
				As it is, the RailRiders have not played a game since being eliminated from the playoffs by Durham on Sept. 17, 2019. The pandemic wiped out the entire 2020 minor league season at all levels.
				For now, the RailRiders would finally return to play on May 4 on the road at Syracuse before hosting a home opener on May 11 against Lehigh Valley.
				Last month, an overhauled minor league structure was announced along with a tentative Triple-A schedule that had the RailRiders set to open a 142-game season on April 6 against Worcester in Moosic.
				But even when that announcement was made on Feb. 18, there were doubts that the new Triple-A East League would start in April. The lower levels of the minor leagues were set to start on May 4, and the Associated Press reported at the time that the Triple-A season was likely to follow suit.
				The later start likely wouldn&rsquo;t affect some of the changes that have already been made.
				The RailRiders&rsquo; entire schedule was set to be played exclusively against the five other teams in the Northeast Division in the newly configured 20-team Triple-A East League &mdash; Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Syracuse and Worcester.
				To minimize travel, teams would play six-game series against each other in the same city from Tuesday through Sunday with Monday serving as an off day each week.
				Typically the minor league schedule runs until Labor Day, though the original 2021 Triple-A schedule had games going through Sept. 19 with no determination made on a potential postseason.

MLB tells teams that Triple-A season will be pushed back ‘at least four weeks’ until May