New England Collegiate Baseball League

Current season or competition: 2013 NECBL season
Sport	Baseball
Founded	1993
Motto	Keep your eye on the dream
No. of teams	13
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Newport Gulls (5)
Most titles	Newport Gulls (5)
Official website	www.necbl.com

The New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is a 13-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the NCAA and Major League Baseball. Each NECBL team plays an eight-week, 42-game schedule during June and July, with a playoff in early August. Like the Cape Cod Baseball League and other amateur leagues, the NECBL is a showcase for top college-level players, giving professional baseball scouts a chance to see prospective pros playing against each other. Along with the Cape Cod Baseball League, Northwoods League, and Coastal Plain League, it is considered one of the top summer leagues in the country.^[1][2][3]

Founded in 1993, the NECBL began its direction under George Foster, former Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets All-Star and Major League Baseball home run leader, and Emmy Award-winning television producer/director Joseph Consentino. Play started in 1994 and today the NECBL has become a strong ten-team league that plays in all six New England states.^[4] It recruits players attending U.S. colleges from New England, the other 44 states, and foreign countries, provided that they come from NCAA-sanctioned colleges or universities, are in good academic standing, have completed at least one year of athletic eligibility, and have at least one year of eligibility remaining.^[5]

Current Franchises [edit]

Mountaineers

Brigade

Mainers

Muskrats

Swamp Bats

SteepleCats

Blue Sox

Bay Sox

Pilgrims

Waves

Gulls

Schooners

Westerners

(see individual team websites below)

• An asterisk (*) denotes a charter franchise of the league

Former Teams [edit]

Relocated or Renamed Teams [edit]

Defunct Teams [edit]

Season Structure [edit]

For the current season, the league is divided into two five-team divisions, the East Division and the West Division. During the regular season, teams play in-division opponents a total of eight times, four games at home and four away. Teams play out-of-division opponents twice, one game at home and one away. These games make up the 42 game regular season schedule. When doubleheaders are scheduled due to inclement weather, NECBL rules dictate that they are two seven-inning games. NECBL regular season games have 2 umpires, while All-Star and playoff games have 3 or 4 umpires. The top four teams from each division qualify for the playoffs. In the division semifinal round the first seeds play the fourth seeds and the second seeds play the third seeds, respectively, in best-of-three series. The winners of the division semifinals advance to the division finals, where they play a best-of-three series against their fellow division finalist. The division champions advance to the NECBL championship series, where they face each other in a best-of-three series to decide the NECBL champion.

Past Champions [edit]

In the NECBL's history, the most successful team is the Newport Gulls, with five league championships and nine championship series appearances. The defunct North Shore Navigators franchise had four league titles. The Keene Swamp Bats have three. Three franchises have won two championships, the Sanford Mainers, the Vermont Mountaineers, and the defunct Central Mass Collegians. The Mystic Schooners have won one championship, when the team was known as the Eastern Tides in the league's inaugural 1994 season.^[7]

Notable alumni [edit]

The following former NECBL players have gone on to play in Major League Baseball.^[8] Former NECBL players have reached the major league rosters of 29 of 30 MLB teams, with the Philadelphia Phillies being the only team for which a league alumnus has yet to appear.

Media [edit]

All NECBL games are broadcast online through the NECBL Broadcast Network, with Teamline providing both audio, for all games, and video, for select games.^[9]

On May 14, 2010, the league signed an agreement with Pointstreak. Pointstreak provides "real-time scoring, official statistics, and administration services" to the NECBL. A highlight of Pointstreak's services is Game Live, a real-time statistics feature providing play-by-play for every NECBL game.^[10]

See also [edit]

• List of New England Collegiate Baseball League ballparks
• List of NECBL seasons
• List of Collegiate Summer Baseball Leagues

Notes [edit]

External links [edit]

• New England Collegiate Baseball League
• Eye on the Dream Documentary Series

Team Websites [edit]

• Danbury Westerners
• Holyoke Blue Sox
• Keene Swampbats
• Laconia Muskrats
• Mystic Schooners
• New Bedford Bay Sox
• Newport Gulls
• North Adams SteepleCats
• Sanford Mainers
• Vermont Mountaineers