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This article was published 17 year(s) and 8 month(s) ago

Lynn may be host to new baseball team

Steve Krause

November 9, 2007 by Steve Krause

LYNN – Fans who feel the void left by the departure of the North Shore Spirit may soon have a new team to follow.The New England Collegiate Baseball League – which consists of players culled from various college teams around the country – is on the verge of agreeing to move its Holyoke franchise to Lynn in time for next season, Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. said Thursday.The new team could be officially approved Tuesday, if the Lynn Stadium Commission votes in favor of the proposed lease, Clancy said.The New England league, Clancy says, is analogous to the Cape Cod League, which is a wood-bat league consisting of the most promising college players in the country. The Cape Cod League was the subject of the movie “Summer Catch” a few years ago.Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan is a graduate of the New England Collegiate League.Clancy said the lease compares with the one the city gave the Spirit: $1 from June 1 through Sept. 30.”We’re not in this to make a dime,” he said. “We want to have the facility used, and kept in pristine condition, and be available for a people to go out and have nice, affordable family entertainment.”That was the Spirit’s objective too. And Clancy said that the city’s experience with the Spirit and its owner, Nick Lopardo, is one of the reasons that the NECBL and Holyoke owner Phil Rosenfield, a Swampscott native, were so anxious to enter the Lynn market.”The Spirit’s presence, and what Nick did, and what the city did in partnership, speaks volumes about the marketability of Fraser Field,” Clancy said. “Fraser Field has been deemed a safe, family-friendly location for sporting events for people and families all summer long.”Rosenfield said he thought of Lynn immediately after the Spirit left.”First,” he said, “I’m from here. I know Fraser Field and what kind of a place it is. And I go way back. Lynn always was a great baseball town.”Second,” he said, “it’s a lot closer to where I work in Woburn (as the owner of J.M. Phillips Glass). And third, that is an absolutely gorgeous field.”Moreover, he said, Lynn is the type of community that might attract college-age kids.”It’s on the waterfront, and I think there are a lot of attractions for the players we have.”The NECBL operates a lot like the Cape League. Families house players and the teams attempt to get them jobs in the community.”That’s actually the hardest part of the operation,” Rosenfield said. “Getting the kid situated is very challenging.”But, he says, it also makes them more of a part of the community, “and that’s one way to get the whole community involved.”Games for the NECBL begin in early June and end around Aug. 1, Rosenfield said, with playoffs to follow. The league plays a 42-game schedule, split evenly home and away.Like the Spirit, the NECBL team will have first rights to scheduling, which Rosenfield feels is necessary “because we’re in an organized league, and we have to have a schedule in place, as we have teams from (all over New England) coming in.””It won’t be quite as intense, though,” Clancy said, noting that the new team will play only half as many games as the Spirit did, and end a month sooner. “So if there’s a chance we can get some other games in there, we might be able to.”We’re very pleased that someone is going to come forward and fill the void that the Spirit left,” Clancy said. “And we’ll all go forward, hopefully.”

  • Steve Krause
    Steve Krause

    Steve Krause is the Item’s writer-at-large. He joined paper in 1979 as a copy editor and later created a music column, called Midnight Ramblings, which ran through 1985. After leaving the paper for a year, he returned in 1988 as a reporter and editor in sports. He became sports editor in 1998; and was named writer-at-large in 2018. Krause won awards for writing in 1985 from United Press International; in 2001 from the Associated Press; and again in 2020 from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. He is a member of the Harry Agganis Foundation Hall of Fame, a past winner of the Moynihan Lumber Scholar-Athlete Community Service Award, and was the 2012 recipient of the Jack Grinold Media Award for MasterSports, an organization that conducts high school and college coaches’ clinics. He lives in Lynn, is active on Facebook, and can be found on Twitter @itemkrause.

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