New North Shore baseball team has roots here
By George Derringer /
swampscott@cnc.com
Wed Mar 26, 2008, 09:58 AM EDT
Swampscott - There will be strong Swampscott and Marblehead
connections this summer when the North Shore Navigators take
over Fraser Field, the historic baseball park on Western Avenue
in Lynn.
Owner Philip Rosenfield leads the list. He’s a 1970 graduate of
Swampscott High School, after all, and he played JV basketball
for then-coach Frank DeFelice but never played varsity baseball
for the Big Blue.
As with millions of others in America — and Japan, for another
place — not playing baseball did nothing to diminish his love
for the game. He went on to marry Judith Imber, who grew up on
Auburndale Road in Marblehead, got involved in the family
business, JN Phillips Auto Glass, where he’s a part owner, but
he never lost the baseball bug.
“I grew up on Bradlee Avenue in Swampscott,” Rosenfield recalls.
“I played basketball and baseball — never football — but my best
friend, Bill Burke, lived on the other side of Palmer Pond. We’d
get bottles of water, grapefruit and oranges and go to the pond
and skate all day.”
Burke’s brother, Brian, grew up to be the general manager of the
Vancouver Canucks in the National Hockey League.
And while Rosenfield and his wife now live in Wayland, their
hearts and some of their family are still here on the North
Shore. Judith’s brother and family still live on Leo Road in
Marblehead.
Baseball bites
Rosenfield was one of the founders of the Worcester Tornadoes,
perhaps ironically one of the teams in the Can-Am League in
which the North Shore Spirit played. The Spirit played five
seasons at Fraser Field in that league, a professional
association composed of former and future professionals with
major league organizations. Owner Nick Lopardo decided last
September to disband the Spirit.
But the Tornadoes — Rosenfield sold his interest to his partners
— continued in that league.
Rosenfield then decided to pick up a team in the New England
Collegiate Baseball League, one of the country’s premier “wooden
bat” leagues for college players hoping to improve their skills
and/or be drafted by a major league organization in a year or
two.
He started the Holyoke Giants in the NECBL but he found that
trying to run a baseball team from a long distance, well, just
didn’t work.
“So when the Spirit went out (of Lynn), I jumped at the
opportunity,” Rosenfield says. “My task is to include everybody
and make them feel like they own the team.”
The Navigators will begin their first season at home on
Saturday, June 7, when they host the Vermont Mountaineers at
Fraser Field, but there’s plenty to do before then.
Rosenfield has hired a general manager, Scott Willard, whose
wife, Rachel McKee, also works for the team. And he hired Jason
Falcon, head baseball coach at Clark University in Worcester, as
the field manager.
All the players in the NECBL remain amateurs and can receive
nothing of value for playing baseball in the league, which
observers say is just one cut below the quality of the Cap Cod
League, a collegiate league considered the best in the country.
That means players sometimes move from the NECBL to the Cape Cod
League to a major league organization, Rosenfield explains.
Host families
If anyone is familiar with family organizations, it’s got to be
Rosenfield. His wife, Judy, is wearing another hat right now and
she needs some help.
“We need host families, and we hope some people in Swampscott
and Marblehead will step forward,” Rosenfield says. “Host
families get, well, good feelings in return for their effort.”
That’s a bit of an understatement, actually, from the owner.
Host families provide a room and bed for eight weeks (early June
to early August) and breakfasts for the players. In return, they
get all the baseball talk they could ever want, a lifetime pass
to regular season Navigators games, a pre-season reception,
on-field recognition at the end of the season and, most of all,
“a chance to have a future major leaguer live in your home,”
Rosenfield says.
“Just think of that. You could be watching the Red Sox a few
years from now and think back to when that guy lived at your
house,” says Rosenfield, who smiles easily as he talks about his
new team.
Generally, he says, the players bring their own cars or carpool
with another player on the team, so transportation is not an
issue for host families.
Who are the players?
Rosenfield says potential host families often wonder what kind
of fellow they might be inviting into their home if they sign
up.
“These are college athletes, good kids,” he says. “These guys
are like your own 20- and 21-year-olds.”
He says that when he’s recruiting players, he or Willard always
asks the player’s college coach, “Is this guy a good teammate?
Is he a good person?”
If they sense hesitation, Rosenfield says, that young man will
not play for the North Shore Navigators. Nor did he play last
year for the Holyoke Giants, Rosenfield says, “but we won the
league championship that way.”
The roster is already filled with 25 players people can find at
www.nsnavs.com, but some local men are also likely to be
Navigators, Rosenfield says.
“For example, and this is just one, Doug Shribman from
Marblehead is a freshman playing baseball at Bucknell
University. He’s a Marblehead native and a Belmont Hill School
graduate. Typically, by opening day, four or five players will
either be injured or be drafted by a major league club, so there
will be some openings, and we have invited Shribman and some
others to a pre-season tryout. We have a list of local folks who
might be Navigators by summer.”
The league
The New England Collegiate Baseball League has teams in:
Danbury, Manchester and Torrington, Conn.; Holyoke, Lowell,
Lynn, North Adams and Pittsfield, Mass.; Keene, N.H.; Sanford,
Maine; Newport, R.I.; and Montpelier, Vt. A guide is located at
www.necbl.com.
“It’s mostly a volunteer effort,” Rosenfield says. “The goal is
fun, family entertainment and I enjoy it a lot.”
The ticket price reflects that. There are 21 home games for each
team, and all seats cost $5, only $3 for kids under 12 and folks
over 65. The Navigators will also play two exhibition games,
including one June 14 against Team USA.
“Yes, we are looking for volunteers, people who want to do
marketing for example,” he says. “Our payroll is very different
from what it was for the North Shore Spirit because the players
aren’t paid, and most of the organization is composed of
volunteers.
“We’re something like Ernie Boch Jr. — we can sell for less
because our costs are less,” he says with a grin. “The economic
model is very different. Yes, we still need corporate
sponsorship and some very generous community-minded people have
come forward.”
And there will be promotions. The team is already working with
Lynn schools on a reading program that will involve about 3,200
kids.
On Opening Day, June 7, a “Throw Across Lynn” promotion is
planned with kids tossing one baseball 60 to 90 feet along a
long chain until that ball becomes the first pitch at Fraser
Field. And a “Dominican Day” game is planned July 10 when
Rosenfield hopes to have some major league players from the
Dominican Republic on hand.
“This is great fun,” he says, “but we have to get the word out.
You can sell more standing on a street corner and yelling than
you can sell yelling down a well. We think if we can people to
the ballpark and they have a good experience, they’ll be back.”
