Wednesday’s home opener at the Winkin Complex at Husson University in Bangor for the first-year Bangor Babes of the Greater Northeast College Baseball League reminded the approximately 150 fans who attended that there’s nothing like a night at the ballpark.
It was a quality product and it is going to provide the area with an entertaining and affordable source of leisure throughout the summer. Tickets are $5.
It has been quite a while since a team beyond the American Legion level had played in the greater Bangor area.
The experience harkens back to the days of the Eastern Maine Amateur Baseball League that featured college-aged players as well as players who were beyond college age and just wanted to keep playing the game they loved. The games were all played at Mahaney Diamond on the University of Maine campus in Orono.
There were also the Bangor Blue Ox and Bangor Lumberjacks, who were independent minor league teams in the Northeast League. The Blue Ox played at Mahaney Diamond from 1994-97 and the Lumberjacks played at the Winkin Complex in 2003 and 2004.
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis ‘Oil Can’ Boyd pitched for one season for the Blue Ox as he tried to revive his career.
He was 10-0 with a 3.22 earned-run average in 1996.
Baseball in Maine is steeped in tradition.
There used to be a variety of town team leagues throughout the state involving players of high school age up to post-50-year-olds. You’d have several family members on a team like the Libbeys from Mattawamkeag.
College players would play in the various leagues.
The Portland Twilight League was a staple in southern Maine for a number of years.
The Senior League World Series at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor lasted from 2002-2016 and featured some of the best 13-16 year-olds from across the globe including future Major Leaguers like Xander Bogaerts, Kenley Jansen, Kolten Wong, Ruben Tejada and Domonic Brown.
The tournament moved to South Carolina in 2017 but Mansfield Stadium has hosted the Senior League Northeast Regional in recent years.
The state of Maine has produced a number of Major Leaguers like Carlton Willey, Danny Coombs, Mike Bordick, Billy Swift, Bert Roberge and Jim Beattie.
Roberge and Beattie once pitched for their respective Auburn and South Portland teams in the same State American Legion tournament when it was held at the Togus Veterans Administration field in Augusta.
The five-team Greater Northeast Collegiate Baseball League fills a major void: an opportunity for both in-state and out-of-state college players to improve while playing during the best time of the year.
All five teams are based in Maine.
The only other opportunity for college players from Maine to stay in the state and play at a high level was the Sanford Mainers, who play in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
Recent Brewer High and Hampden Academy graduates Grady Vanidestine and T.J. Llerena, respectively, are playing for Gorham in the GNCBL.
With rare exceptions, the players are no longer playing in freezing temperatures where their primary focus is just surviving the game rather than skill development.
The GNCBL is a little bit different because it takes on a minor league baseball mentality.
The players certainly want to win but, just as important, they are getting the at-bats or mound appearances they need against quality competition to improve themselves and their college teams.
That is the reason the league has an Extra Hitter rule meaning each team can send 10 players to the plate instead of nine.
It is also a league that will be scouted by both pro organizations and college programs.
The Babes, who have won their first five games, have a number of local players like former Old Town High School teammates Tanner Evans and Matt Young, Bangor’s Wyatt Stevens and Jonah Baude, Hampden’s Sam Economy, Belfast’s Jason Bartlett, Lincoln’s Isaac Hainer and Tenants Harbor’s Liam O’Neal.
There’s also a Texan contingent including Galveston College teammates Landon Williams and Marcus Delgado.
Williams has relatives in Maine and is living in a family member’s home in Parkman with Delgado.
The head coach is former Bangor High and UMaine standout pitcher Trevor DeLaite, who went on to become a finalist for the nation’s best collegiate pitcher in his one year at Liberty University in Virginia.
DeLaite, who was a volunteer assistant coach at Liberty before becoming the director of pitcher development, is getting the opportunity to run a team like a college program as he has been responsible for putting together a roster in addition to helping players develop their talent.
The league, which was established in the summer of 2017, has added franchises in Augusta and Old Orchard Beach in addition to Bangor this year. The other teams are Sebago and Gorham.
It converted to a wooden bat league this season.
The league’s expansion hasn’t been without minor hiccups.
It probably could have started later than June 1 to give coaches more time to stock their rosters. At least until the end of the high school season, which concluded on Saturday.
And the Gorham team apparently hadn’t been informed it was a wooden bat league and had to borrow bats from the Babes to use in their game on Wednesday.
And the website is still a work in progress.
But there are a bunch of good people in charge who are committed to not only the success of the league for this season, but for growing the league with future franchise expansion.
This has been long overdue and, hopefully, it will be around for a long time.
Here is the schedule for the Babes: Thursday, June 20: Gorham (2) 3 p.m.; Saturday, June 22: at Augusta, 5 p.m,; Sunday, June 23: Old Orchard Beach, 2 p.m.; Wednesday, June 26: at Sebago, 6 p.m.; Thursday, June 27: Sebago, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, July: 2: at Gorham (2), 3 p.m.; Saturday, July 6: Sebago (2), 1 p.m.; Sunday, July 7: Old Orchard Beach, 1 p,m,; Thursday, July 11: Augusta, 6 p.m.; Sunday, July 14: at Augusta (2), 2 p.m.; Friday, July 19: Augusta (2), Saturday, July 20: at Old Orchard Beach (2), 2 p.m.
