LYNN – New North Shore Navigators general manager Peter Delani certainly didn’t waste any time getting down to business.Delani, the former Masconomet baseball coach who is now the school’s assistant principal, is charged with the task of filling the spacious Fraser Field for the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s home schedule. And he feels he’s found a workable formula.The Navigators plan to designate each of their 21 home dates a “community night,” where individual cities and towns can walk away with 50 percent of the nightly proceeds to put back into their youth baseball programs.The Navigators would make representatives from the various communities responsible for selling the tickets in advance of their designated games.”I’m excited about getting the opportunity,” said Delani, who spent 13 years on the Masconomet bench.”I’m familiar with eastern Massachusetts baseball,” he said, “and look forward to the chance to help brand the Navigators in cities and towns around the North Shore.”Delani has some knowledge of Lynn baseball, even if he did grow up in Wakefield. He played for the Lynn Brickyards in his final days as a member of the North Shore Baseball League, and said, “I have a lot of connections to the city.”I’m anxious,” he said, “to help make the Navigators a vital component of the North Shore.”Delani hopes to parlay his relationship with the many varsity coaches and youth baseball organizations in the North Shore to help get his community nights off the ground.”We’ll still have the hot dog races, and things like that,” he said, “but I think we have to sell baseball as the attraction, too.”When I was a kid, I spent my summers on the Cape, watching Cape Cod League baseball,” he said. “And what you’re watching at that level are college kids who have a chance to play professionally.”The NECBL operates under the same concept as the Cape League, and Delani has come up with a slogan to describe them: “Tomorrow’s Stars Chasing their Dreams Today.””Ultimately,” he says, “that’s what the players in our league are doing ? chasing their dreams.”That’s the most exciting thing to me,” he said.The NECBL, like the Cape League, is comprised of college players from all over the country. The players are not paid, and are housed by local families.The Navigators debuted in Lynn last year, moving from Holyoke, and finished second in their division. They are owned by Phil Rosenfield, a Swampscott native.
