Senator Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium (Norwich, CT)
A summer league stadium with a (relatively) long history - and TWO TEAMS
If you've been following this blog for at least the last month or so, you may recall this nugget from a post about the New Britain Bees:
"Also, for those wondering: I'm not likely to visit the last two summer league teams in CT, as they're both in the southeastern corner of the state (i.e. a three hour drive from home)...I have visited them in the past, and do intend on talking about them later this summer (partially as they shared a unique connection when I visited them)."
Well, that "later" is now, as post will get into both teams and the connection they had: when I was doing these rounds, they both played at the same stadium.
Dodd Stadium was opened in 1994, and was originally built for a Double-A team that debuted that same year (the Norwich Navigators, who became the Connecticut Defenders in the 2000s). However, after years of struggling with attendances, the team eventually moved to Richmond, VA (which had a AAA team until 2008), where they are now one of the highest draws in Double-A (and just got a new stadium - one of the reasons why the AAA team left). Another affiliated team moved in a few years after the original team left, but we’ll get to them in a little bit. As a former Minor League stadium, it’s probably a bit "average” for the Futures League (though personally I kinda prefer New Britain), but was easily the highest quality stadium in the NECBL during its time (which really isn’t saying a lot).
The stadium concourse here is at the top of the seating bowl, so there are views of the field from most of it save for right behind home plate where the press box is. Outside of that, it’s been too long since my last visit, so I can’t really recall much about the place - though in some ways, it felt kinda generic (as in VERY similar to stadiums like those of the Somerset Patriots, Wilmington Blue Rocks, and New York Boulders). The games I came to here didn’t really feature large crowds either, so the atmosphere was pretty muted (moreso for the NECBL team, who often drew under 100 fans at Dodd).
Outside of the baseball I saw, I heard that a sale of the stadium was considered by the city of Norwich a few years ago. It doesn’t help that it’s in a corporate park, so there’s little reason to go there outside of games (plus the fact that it’s not a premier concert venue due to the presence of Mohegan Sun a mere 15 minutes away). I have no clue what happened to those plans, but I found out after initially publishing this that a local soccer team is moving in for 2027 after being somewhat nomadic in 2026 (they were looking to build a stadium in Bridgeport, but it hasn't materialized).
One small note before continuing: in something that can only be described as "intensely frustrating for me and me only", BOTH teams have gotten new hats since I last saw them. However, neither team has an online store as of the day this is being published, so I have NO IDEA how to get either of them without visiting (and as a reminder, the summer seasons are over, so I can't do anything about this until next June at the earliest). With that out of the way, let’s talk about the two teams - in order of how I saw them in 2023 (as well as 2022):
Norwich Sea Unicorns (Futures League)
SUMMER OF BASEBALL 2023: STOP 6
The Norwich Sea Unicorns were founded in 2010 as an affiliated Minor League Baseball team in the New York-Penn League until it was eliminated in 2020, when they joined the Futures League (they were originally the Connecticut Tigers, but rebranded just in time for the pandemic to cancel what was supposed to be their last season as an affiliate). Since joining the Futures League, they’ve become a dynasty - having won the league title three times in a row from 2023-2025 (which represent three of the six years they’ve been in the league), but their in-state rival (aka the Bees) ended that run this year by beating them in the league semifinals.
I mentioned the potential sale of Dodd Stadium in the intro, and the reason I know about said sale was because the Futures League was worried that a sale of Dodd would almost certainly endanger the future of the Sea Unicorns (and potentially the league itself if I'm being honest), but I don’t remember if this situation got resolved (or how). I've also heard rumors of one of the independent baseball leagues taking interest in moving in, however, so there's also that to think about (though this may have just been a WILD rumor).
While I don't remember that much about the 2022 game outside of it being the night before a weeklong vacation in the Carolinas (the same one where I saw the Wilmington Sharks1 for the first time), the 2023 game was actually one of the fastest baseball games I’ve ever been to, as it hit the halfway point (mid-fifth) in exactly one hour, and then finished in just over two hours (no pitch clock BTW).
MERCH
The Sea Unicorns team store has one of those sliding doors you usually see at grocery stores and hotels as well as one of the best team store names I’ve ever seen: the Point of Sail (and I say this NOT because I used to work for a PoS company). In my visits there, I found a lot of old Connecticut Tigers/NYPL items, including game used jerseys (one of which I bought), a few hats (which I did NOT buy), and even NYPL and Minor League game balls - this despite EVERYTHING that happened between 2019 (the final NYPL season after which the team rebranded) and 2021 (the team's Futures League debut).
Sadly, it seems the team has decided to shut down online merchandise sales, as their old shop page (which was an MiLB shop page) now just redirects to the team website2.
Mystic Schooners (New England Collegiate Baseball League)
SUMMER OF BASEBALL 2023: STOP 10
The Mystic Schooners are the longest continuous operation in the NECBL. They trace their history all the way back to the league’s first season in 1994 - though they’ve moved around quite a bit: originally from Willimantic, CT (east of Hartford and just south of UConn), the team moved to Pittsfield in the 2000s and then spent a year in Bristol before landing in Mystic in 2011. They did win a championship in the NECBL’s first season, but have only won one other title since then (2016).
When they first moved to Mystic, the team was based out of a local high school, but in 2022, the team moved into Dodd Stadium. The reason for this move is unclear to me, but they never really felt “at home” here (bad game times, tiny crowds), so they ended up moving BACK to their old field in 2024 (which I have yet to visit BTW). From what I could glean, they don't charge admission for games here (this could be VERY wrong however).
MERCH
For the Schooners games I went to, merch was sold at a table on the concourse, and the Sea Unicorns team store was closed. While there wasn’t a TON of special things here, the Schooners actually have a “side hustle” where they brew root bear and other sodas, and I got a growler at the second game I came to (along with a t-shirt I liked - one of few t-shirts I got from the NECBL).
Also worth noting: the Sea Unicorns charged for parking both times I went (one of few teams in the New England summer leagues to do so), but I can't remember if the Schooners did.
Footnotes
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Speaking of the Sharks, I've had to update their post, as they won the Coastal Plain League this year. ↩
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Several MiLB teams that were cut completely (i.e. not in the Appalachian or Draft leagues) in the 2020 realignment kept their MiLB store pages after the cut, but as of August 2026, the MiLB store page only links to affiliated teams. Keep this in mind, however, as there is one other team in this series which is affected by this... ↩