January 24, 2012
Around the Region: Futures League expands to eight
by NEBJ Staff/
The future looks bright for the second season of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
The FCBL, which played its inaugural season in 2011 with just four teams, plans to double in size for the 2012 season, adding four new teams, including three failed franchises from other leagues.
The Futures League already has announced the addition of teams in Leominster, Mass., and Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and expects to add teams in Brockton, Mass., and Pittsfield, Mass.
The Wachusett Dirt Dogs, who joined the league in the fall, will play at Doyle Field in Leominster. Old Orchard Beach — whose franchise left the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the FCBL in late December — is owned and operated by a local group and will play at The Ballpark.
Brockton and Pittsfield, meanwhile, both left the independent professional Can-Am League and are expected to join the FCBL after finalizing their stadium lease deals.
“We’re going in the right direction,” Chris Hall, commissioner of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, told New England Baseball Journal. “We work real hard to try to give the New England kids an opportunity to play baseball. We feel strongly about that. Our teams think local and stay local. And we’re doing what we can to provide great entertainment in our communities.”
The Brockton Rox, who played 10 seasons in the Can-Am League, failed to meet their lease payment obligation in December, and the professional league announced that the Rox will sit out the 2012 season.
Rox owner Chris Carminucci, who already owns the FCBL’s Torrington Titans and Martha’s Vineyard Sharks, is hoping to turn the Rox’ operation into another FCBL franchise. The team is working out its lease agreement to continue playing at Campanelli Stadium.
The new Pittsfield franchise — which replaces the Pittsfield Colonials of the Can-Am League — will play at historic Wachonah Park and is owned by the Goldklang Group, which owns several other minor-league baseball teams.
“We’re (the league) where everyone wants to be,” Pittsfield president Jeff Goldklang told the Berkshire Eagle “We’re well-positioned to be one of the leaders in the Northeast.”
Hall is excited about the new additions and the future of his league.
“With the ownership groups we’ve added and the stadiums we’ve added,” he said, “it’s really a testament to the mission of our league and the founding fathers of our league.”
Although independent professional baseball lost two of its three New England franchises for the upcoming season, summer collegiate baseball is expanding. In addition to the legendary Cape Cod Baseball League, the NECBL will enter its 19th season with 11 franchises after losing the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide.
Because of the financial differences between independent pro ball and the summer collegiate leagues, Hall says New England can continue to support three collegiate leagues.
“I strongly believe that it can,” he said.
►The Nashua Silver Knights named B.J. Neverett as their manager. Neverett, an assistant coach with the Silver Knights last season, replaces Mike Chambers.
►The Seacoast Mavericks of the FCBL named Tim Bonehill as their new head coach. Bonehill played collegiately at Northeastern.
Can-Am can-do
The Can-Am League, which lost Brockton and Pittsfield for the 2012 season, will continue with five franchises, including the Worcester Tornadoes, the lone New England representative.
The Tornadoes will be joined by the Newark Bears, New Jersey Jackals, Quebec Capitales and Rockland Boulders, and the Can-Am League will play interleague games with the Midwest-based American Association
Cape notes
Russ Ford, who served as the president of the Cape Cod Baseball League from 1978-83 and helped foster the growth and popularity of the league, died Nov. 27. He was 89. Ford was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2002. …
Arnold Mycock, “Mr. Cape League” who has been involved with the Cotuit Kettleers and the CCBL since 1950, will be honored with the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Meritorious Service Award in early January in Anaheim, Calif.
In memory
Irving H. Franklin, who founded the legendary Franklin Sports company of Stoughton, Mass., died Nov. 10 of complications from a stroke. He was 93.
Franklin, who was born in Brockton, Mass., in 1918, founded a small leather-goods company with his brother, Sydney, in 1946 and turned it into a major sporting goods supplier.
Franklin’s breakthrough success was an endorsement deal with New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath in the late 1960s, but Franklin became best known for its baseball batting gloves. Thanks to Hall of Fame slugger Mike Schmidt, Franklin’s batting gloves became a huge hit in major-league clubhouses.
Schmidt, who signed an agreement with Franklin in 1982, suggested that Franklin put its logo on the back of the batting glove, raising the company’s brand awareness.
Franklin’s son, Larry Franklin (Chestnut Hill, Mass.), has served as president of the company since 1986.
Buckner to Boise
Bill Buckner — the former Red Sox first baseman who managed the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League last season — was expected to be hired as the hitting coach of the Boise Hawks, the Chicago Cubs’ short-season Class A affiliate.
This article originally appeared in the January-February 2012 issue of New England Baseball Journal.
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