The Summer of Baseball 2023

Back in 2023, I had a goal: Visit every summer collegiate team I knew of in New England. This ended up taking MONTHS of planning, as I had to figure out how to squeeze the 31 visits into the weekends of June and July (though thankfully, I was also able to use a few weekdays as well). After each visit, I wrote down a few thoughts on the stadiums and what I thought about the experiences (aka the precursor to THIS site).

In the years that followed. I never looked back at what I wrote...until I started this blog. I felt that what I had back then was too widely varied: some were interesting, others a bit too simple, and I actually completely forgot to write about one of the venues! However, with me starting this blog combined with the fact that returns to many of these places being MASSIVE question marks for the future, I felt it was finally time to "finish" the posts and publish them here. A fair warning: don't be surprised if they're a bit more "vague" than normal - many of them are going to be based solely off of what I remember from THREE YEARS AGO.

These were mostly posted in the order I visited them that summer (i.e. 2023, as I visited MANY of the teams the year before in a different order) with a few exceptions, as there are - of course - several teams in this list that I've visited since starting this blog (namely Chatham, Nashua, Wareham, Bristol, Danbury, and New Britain). The Pittsfield Suns were also "out of order", as I chose to post them last due to them going dormant in 2024.

1. Brockton Rox (Futures League) *NOW IN FRONTIER LEAGUE*¹
2. Westfield Starfires (Futures League)
3. Nashua Silver Knights (Futures League)
4. Worcester Bravehearts (Futures League)
5. New Britain Bees (Futures League)
6. Norwich Sea Unicorns (Futures League)
7. Newport Gulls (New England League)
8. Ocean State Waves (New England League)
9. North Shore Navigators (New England League)
10. Mystic Schooners (New England League)²
11. Brewster Whitecaps (Cape League)
12. Harwich Mariners (Cape League)
13. Hyannis Harbor Hawks (Cape League)
14. Falmouth Commodores (Cape League)
15. Valley Blue Sox (New England League)
16. Pittsfield Suns (Futures League) *CURRENTLY INACTIVE*
17. Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (Cape League)
18. Orleans Firebirds (Cape League)
19. Bourne Braves (Cape League)
20. Wareham Gatemen (Cape League)
21. Cotuit Kettleers (Cape League)
22. Chatham Anglers (Cape League)
23. North Adams SteepleCats (New England League)
24. Keene Swamp Bats (New England League)
25. Vermont Lake Monsters (Futures League)
26. Vermont Mountaineers (New England League)
27. Upper Valley Nighthawks (New England League)
28. Danbury Westerners (New England League)
29. Bristol Blues (New England League)
30. Sanford Mainers (New England League)
31. Martha's Vineyard Sharks (New England League)

A few final notes:

1. The Futures League added a new team in 2026: a revival of the Lowell Spinners of New York-Penn League fame. I DID have thoughts about visiting during July 4th weekend, but traffic concerns (plus the fact that it was HOT) ended up scuttling the trip - though I did briefly visit their stadium back in 2025 (before it was announced they would be coming back) and wrote a few thoughts on the place.

2. This list does not include the Winnipesaukee Muskrats, who had folded before 2023.

3. I am aware of the existence of a fourth league (the Greater Northeast Collegiate Baseball League, which is a member of The Players League). However, as it's currently based out of a single stadium in Maine (and the league's relative "lack of status" seems to be leading to stability issues), I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to get to it. I did TRY to visit this stadium once as I drove past it one time, but an event was going on that I didn't want to deal with (it's in Old Orchard Beach, which is one of Maine's bigger tourist destinations).

4. I actually wrote about the Cape League stadiums as far back as 2021 after a family vacation on the Cape, but sadly that work appears to be lost to time...