Day 2 coverage of the Saratoga Invitational Rowing Regatta

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Andrew J. Bernstein, the city reporter for The Saratogian since 2007, has been promoted to the position of sports editor.

“Bernstein brings to the sports section a clear understanding of this newspaper’s commitment to local coverage,” Managing Editor Barbara Lombardo said in announcing the promotion.

During his time as city reporter, Bernstein, 25, earned national and statewide journalism awards for beat reporting, breaking news, and his blog, “Saratoga City Desk.” He is a 2007 graduate of Skidmore College, where he was editor-in-chief of its weekly newspaper. He is a freelance contributor to Velo News, a national journal of competitive cycling, and is a competitive semi-professional bicyclist.

Bernstein will lead a sports section that remains dedicated to high school coverage while expanding the range of local athletes and sports that will be consistently represented, Lombardo said.

“We are in a highly competitive media market with a very demanding readership — which we’re so glad to have,” Lombardo said. “The Saratogian sports section has been ranked among the best in the nation by the Associated Press Sports Editors Association. Bernstein and the rest of the sports staff will bring Saratogian readers a sports section that not only wins awards, but is comprehensive and intensely local.”

In addition to The Saratogian, Bernstein is responsible for the sports content of three weekly newspapers: WG Life, which serves the Wilton and Gansevoort areas; Ballston Spa Life, serving Ballston Spa and Milton; and the Community News, covering southern Saratoga County.

-- Barbara Lombardo, Managing Editor

How can you not miss this???

A pancake breakfast at Applebees in Saratoga Springs for $5 to benefit the Saratoga Springs High School ice hockey team...and it's Stan Hudy's birthday!

From 8 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21 stop by Applebee's at 3 Lowes Drive in Saratoga Springs to take part in the event. Be seated, served and have the Blue Streak ice hockey team clean up for you afterwards.

I think it's all you can eat, The menu is 3 pancakes, choice of 2 pieces of sausage and bacon and a choice of juice or coffee, so be ready with the batter boys!!!

After an early push by Ballston Spa during the first two days of voting on our newspaper's web-site, Saratoga Springs battled back and took it to the house for the victory.

Now it wasn't a runaway, but the final numbers are as follows for our poll question
The final numbers do represent a little wider margin than the results published in Friday's Saratogian because I didn't close out voting until 11 p.m., but the project was put on the page at 5 p.m.

My managing editor did bring up a good point that the population of Saratoga Springs may have been a deciding factor in the voting, just by sheer numbers.

While the poll is totally unscientific, it was fun and I didn't have to delete too many votes, only a few overzealous fans voted more than five times, so I capped the vote at five per individual ip addresses.

We'll let the players decide it on the field 7 p.m. tonight at Colonie.

Thanks for voting.

Saratogian sports editor Brien Bouyea won 2nd place for best sports feature on "From Troy to Cooperstown" in the Suburban Newspapers contest.

The rest of the sports staff was pathetically shut out.

This is the brain child (insert joke here) of Saratogian sports editor Brien Bouyea as one of his many goals for 2009.

The entire Saratogian staff, Brien, Brendan, Nate, Sam and Stan will be contributing to this blog throughout the weeks and months ahead, adding their thoughts on the games they have covered, the sports news in Saratoga County and of course, their opinions on what is in our daily newspaper.

We hope that Extra Points will be bookmarked by our readers and sports fans adding another source of news and opinions throughout their day.

- Stan Hudy