The Pittsburgh Pirates are back …. on local radio.

Lightner Communications, the area’s only locally owned broadcasting company, announced Friday that the Pittsburgh Pirates will return to the radio airwaves in the Altoona and Johnstown markets.

Games, which were dropped without any notice last year by Seven Mountain Media, will air on HANK-FM 96.1 in the Altoona market and on KOOL 102.9-FM in the Johnstown market. A preseason game, set for Saturday, Feb. 24, with the Minnesota Twins, will air that day.

“The Altoona and Johnstown markets are very passionate about their sports and fans have been very vocal about wanting Pittsburgh Pirates baseball back on the radio airwaves,” Andy Kreiser, Lightner Communications General Manager, said. “It’s also an excellent opportunity for local business owners to build their brand by becoming a sponsor which will given them the opportunity to really connect with our loyal sports fans over the course of the entire season.”

Bob Taylor, Lightner’s Operations Manager, believes it’s a natural fit for the area.

“The Pirates broadcast team is one of the best in the business and their broadcasts are top-notch and highly-regarded in the sports entertainment industry,” he said. “The fact that we are continuing our strong partnership with the Altoona Curve (Pirates AA affiliate) made this an easy decision to deliver both broadcasts to an area that is very passionate about baseball.”

The broadcast team will continue to feature Greg Brown, Joe Block, Bob Walk and John Wehner with some games joined by Matt Capps, Neil Walker and Kevin Young on the radio.

Besides the games, “The Ben Cherington Show” will air an hour before game time on Sundays during the season. Cherington is the GM for the Pirates.

While there will be some programming conflicts with high school sports and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, among other local programming that may pre-empt some games, a large majority of the night and weekend games will be broadcast on the Lightner family of stations.

Lightner broadcasts high school sports involving Altoona, Bishop Guilfoyle, Central, Hollidaysburg and Tyrone.

No team emblem for Leyland

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Adrian Beltre will have a Texas Rangers’ logo on his baseball Hall of Fame plaque and Jim Leyland will not have any team emblem.

The hall made the announcement Friday, 10 days after Beltre was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Leyland was elected in December by the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires.

The decision on the logo was taken over by the hall ahead of the 2002 vote.

Leyland, 79, led the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 1997 and won 1,769 regular-season games over 22 seasons. He managed the Pirates for 11 seasons (1986-96), Florida for two (1997-98), Colorado for one (1999) and Detroit for eight (2006-13).

“I will always appreciate the teams that gave me the opportunity to be their major league manager,” Leyland said in a statement issued by the hall. “We had some great moments with every one of those ballclubs, and I’m proud that they all will be mentioned on my Hall of Fame plaque. I want to make sure I show each of those teams respect, and this does that.”