Photo for the Mirror by Jarrod Prugar On display Monday night at Levity Brewing in downtown Altoona were two of the specialty jerseys the Curve will wear this season.

The weather outside might not indicate opening day is inching closer, but the Altoona Curve’s annual “First Pitch” event certainly does.

Levity Brewing hosted the event Monday night with the organization’s front office that announced new happenings at Peoples’ Natural Gas Field as well as the team’s promotional schedule for the 2026 season.

“This is the third year in a row we’ve done it here at Levity, but it’s something some of the other teams do around the country,” Curve general manager Nate Bowen said. “We’ve been looking for a way to be able to bring everyone together, and instead of just hitting send over and over on social media and sending out 60 different promotions at the same time, to be able to physically show some different things off and talk to people in person is great to do.”

The promotional schedule is littered with theme nights such as “High Fashion Night,” “Bark in the Park Night” and an Altoona staple, “Awful Night.”

There’s also two Cy Young-themed bobblehead nights featuring the two Curve alumni to have won the award in Paul Skenes and Gerrit Cole.

Elmo will be coming to the ballpark for an appearance as will former Curve and Pittsburgh Pirate Cole Tucker on opening day. Former Steelers center Dermontti Dawson will be making an appearance in August with many more appearances yet to be announced.

Many of the theme nights feature quirkiness reserved only for Minor League Baseball such as the aforementioned “Awful Night,” plus others like “Hillbilly Night” and even “Salute to the Penny Night.”

Fans will see the Peces Dorados jersey return once again for the 2026 season as well as rebrands for the “America 250 Continentals” and the “Altoona Mud Turtles.” There will also be jersey themes featuring the Peanuts for the Christmas in July game plus a Harry Potter-themed jersey and a soccer style jersey.

For Bowen, it is yet another reminder of the unique opportunities Minor League Baseball gives organizations to get different fans to games.

“I really like the America 250 Pennsylvania Continentals jersey that we have rebrand-wise, but the Mud Turtles one has grown on me recently as we’ve gotten the jerseys and other things in,” Bowen said. “Those rebrands are always a lot of fun, and then just the weird things that we’re able to come up with. We didn’t really talk about it during the presentation, but the Salute to the Penny Night that we have in April, just different off the wall, things that we can do or that are unique to our market and just make each day different at the stadium is what Minor League Baseball is all about.”

For those looking to get back to the ballpark earlier, “Curve Fest” is this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the ballpark.

The team will take the field for opening night on April 2 against Harrisburg at 6 p.m.