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THE WEIRS TIMES GUIDE TO THE 2012 SEASON OF THE LACONIA MUSKRATS
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NECBL Now In Its 18th Conceived by Emmy Award winning tele-
vision producer/director Joseph Consen- tino, the New England Collegiate Baseball League is now in its 18th season and its teams draws thousands of fans to ballparks all over New England. Consentino, a former St. John’s Univer-
sity and Boston Red Sox minor league out- fielder, wanted to form a collegiate league to bridge the gap between the New York based Atlantic Collegiate League and the Cape Cod League. The goal also was to give student athletes who lived and/or went to school in New England a better chance to have their talents recognized by major league scouts. Play started in 1994 and today the NECBL
has become a strong twelve team league that plays in all six New England states and recruits players attending U.S colleges from New England, the other forty-four states and foreign countries. The league starts its summer season in
early June and plays an eight week 42 game per team schedule. The league championship is determined by a playoff in early August.
Season
Each year its top players are scouted and selected in the MLB draft. It has received strong support from the
likes of its first commissioner, former Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets All- Star and home run and RBI leader George Foster, and Fay Vincent, Jr., former Major League Baseball Commissioner, who in 1997 became league president and chair- man of the board. Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, famous
for his 12th inning homer in the sixth game of 1975 World Series that gave the Boston Red Sox an unforgettable victory, is also a strong supporter of the league. Joe Nathan, from Stony Brook College,
who played shortstop for the Fairfield Stallions in the 1994 season, was the first NECBL alum to make the majors and is presently the closer for the Minnesota Twins. Other big leaguers who got their start in
the NECBL are Los Angeles Dodgers right- fielder Andre Ethier, Colorado Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta and former Devil Rays and Red Sox reliever Mark Malaska.
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