NECBL Realignment

This article originally appeared in the Times Argus on June 4th, 2013.

By Bradley Smart

CORRESPONDENT

In ten days time, the Recreation Field in Montpelier will come alive with the Mountaineers and their opponents, in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. The NECBL has been around since 1994, growing year by year, and this years adds more excitement to the league.

The NECBL is adding three new franchises this year - South Kingstown, RI; Plymouth, RI; and Saratoga Springs, NY. The Saratoga Brigade, scheduled to open up their season in less than ten days, marks the first team located outside of New England.

“I think its really good because it does give us a foothold in a new state, a new area, and that could possibly be an area to grow our name,” said Don Leypoldt, Media Relations Director at NECBL, on the introduction of a non-New England team, “and maybe even grow more teams if strong roots form.”

This expansion also marks realignment, the first since 2003, which will find the local Vermont Mountaineers facing a new rival in the Western division, as the Saratoga Brigade, located just three hours away, makes for a natural rivalry.

“Montpelier and Saratoga aren’t that far, so that’s kind of a natural rivalry,” Leypoldt said. ”It kind of worked out that way, by adding the teams, it kind of made us rethink how to align them, and there were some natural and geographic breaks that made up our divisions.”

Other key changes were adding the Ocean State Waves (South Kingstown, RI) and the Plymouth Pilgrims (Plymouth, RI) to the Eastern division, furthering the stark difference from coastal and mainland teams. The Newport Gulls, defending league champions, face competition from not one, but two new teams in the Eastern Division.

This influx of new teams is nothing new for the NECBL, though.

Since 2008, the North Shore Navigators, Old Orchard Raging TIde, and Bristol Collegiate have come and gone, and over the 20 years the NECBL has existed, there have been 36 teams that have played in the league.

North Shore dates back to 1994, originally the Middletown Giants, then becoming the Holyoke Giants. They won four NECBL titles, but in 2012 left for the Future Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL). Joining them in the departure was the Old Orchard Raging Tide, and familiar faces have been there for years.

The league they departed for, the FCBL, has been growing in popularity since it originated three years ago, in 2010. Now with nine teams, located mainly in Massachusetts, but also around New England, the FCBL has been growing not only in attendance but in familiarity. The Nashua Silver Knights, who have won the only two championships in the league’s history, average over 1,200 people in home attendance per game. The FCBL’s total attendance last year (175,943) topped the NECBL’s (173,228).

The Raging Tide and the Navigators join a growing list of defunct NECBL teams, including the Riverpoint Royals, the Central Mass Collegians and the Waterbury Barons. Other teams that don’t stop playing, simply change their name and location, and become a new team.

For example, the Mystic Schooners, one of the NECBL’s charter franchises, started out as the Eastern Tides, then transitioned under the ownership of Dan Duquette through five different team names, finally settling for the past few years on the Schooners.

However, over the past couple of years, with the exception of the Tides and Navigators leaving, and the addition of three new teams, the league has established a number of core teams that are not changing.

“We do think that this is going to be the look of the league for the next few years,” Leypoldt said. “No one likes the moving around. We certainly hope that we’ve got permanent ball clubs.”

Leypoldt continued, “I would say teams like Vermont, Newport are all pretty permanent.”

The Mountaineers, going into their 11th season in the NECBL, are amongst a group of teams in their teens, not going anywhere soon.

Vermont is part of that core group, with the Danbury Westerners (19th year), Keene Swamp Bats (16th year), Sanford Mainers and Newport Gulls (12th) and the North Adams Steeplecats (8th).

Looking forward, it appears that that a majority of the teams are here to stay, while 2013 will be a key year for teams like Plymouth, Ocean State and Saratoga who are just starting up.

Plymouth’s president Dave Dittman said, “Getting a good team is challenging, since there is over 40 leagues throughout the country. Plymouth is fired up, the town really wants this.”

That, according to Leypoldt, is exactly what the NECBL is looking for. “And, we’re never going to turn down a good opportunity,” Leypoldt said.