Rockland Boulders
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Founded in 2011 Ramapo, New York | |||||
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| Owner(s)/ Operator(s): | Bottom 9 Baseball | ||||
| General Manager: | Shawn Reilly | ||||
| Manager: | Jamie Keefe | ||||
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The Rockland Boulders are an American independent professional baseball team based in Pomona, New York in County of Rockland.They are a member of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, also known as the Can-Am League. The team was one of three teams joining the league for the 2011 season, joining former Atlantic League champions the Newark Bears and New York State League team the New York Federals. The Boulders played their first game on May 26, 2011, against the Bears at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The team played their first home game at Provident Bank Park on June 16 defeating the Brockton Rox by a score of 3-1 in front of a sold-out crowd.
The "Boulders" name refers to Rockland County's plethora of boulders in its landscape. The team's primary color, blue, alludes to the former Brooklyn Dodgers, which held their spring training events at Bear Mountain State Park during the 1940s. The red honors the neighboring Rockland County Fire Training Center. Boulder Bird is the official team mascot.
Due to territory claims held by the Hudson Valley Renegades, New York Mets and Yankees, the Boulders were forbidden to be associated with a major league ball club. This is the reason they joined the Can-Am league, which is not affiliated with Minor League Baseball.
On May 26, 2011 the Boulders won their first official game by a score of 11-5 over the Newark Bears after coming back from a 4-1 deficit. On July 24, 2011, in the bottom of the ninth inning with two out, Joe Hage (23) hit a walk-off grand slam at Le Stade Municipal in Quebec City, Canada to give Rockland a 7-4 win over the Quebec Capitales. First grand-slam in Boulders history.
On September 4, 2011, the Boulders announced they had signed former New York Mets player Howard Johnson to a two-game contract to play alongside his son, Glen. Both games were played against the Newark Bears.[1]
Although the Boulders played their first twenty games away due to construction of the new stadium, they finished their inaugural season second in the league with an attendance of 123,518 tickets sold.
In the 2014 season, the Boulders will play in the Can-Am Division in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball and have shared standings, statistics and have a player from each team at the All-Star Game in Winnipeg, MB on July 29th. It is anticipated that this will lead to a full merger of the CanAm League and American Association in 2015.
Rockland Boulders Team
The Rockland Boulders signed their first three players Tommy Giles, Eric Flynn and Ryan Mollica, from Suffern in its history in March, 2011. Of these three, Mollica remained and played in 86 games. Adrian Martin was named 2011 Relief pitcher of the year and was invited to the 2011 Postseason Can-Am All-Star Team. He finished with a league leading 21 saves with a strikeout to walk ration of 39/4. Teammate John Velasquez, pitcher, finished one strikeout shy of tying for the league lead.
Because the boulders are not affiliated with Major League Baseball, most of the players on the Boulders are those who were undrafted, released by a minor league team, or are local prospects.
The level of play is similar to that in single-A Baseball.
Can_AM Hitter-of-the-Week ending on July 15, 2012 was Phil Cuadrado who helped the Boulders win seven out of eight games.
On August 22, 2013, Boulder's pitcher Charlie Law (34) pitched a complete game defeating the New Jersey Jackals with the franchise first no-hitter.
Provident Bank Park
The Rockland Boulder's new Provident Bank Park, voted on by the league's eight field managers and media representatives as the 2011 Can-Am League Playing Surface of the Year, contains 4,500 seats, 16 luxury and 11 loge boxes. The dimensions of the playing field are 323 foot left-field line, power alleys of 383 feet leading to the 403 foot center wall and 313 foot right-field line. The park also includes a 34 foot x 52 foot scoreboard, as well as a 75 foot ribbon sign board. Other features include special hearing-impaired seating with loudspeakers installed under each seat, Kids Zone playground, and community rooms beside food courts and kiosks. The park also contains an indoor batting cage used by players to warm up prior to games and is open to the public during the game. Baseball fans that visit Provident Bank Park may notice a similarity to Camden Yards, Fenway Park, and Citi Field as the park is partly designed after those stadiums.
On September 4th 2011, the Rockland Boulders played to the largest crowd in its inaugural season - 6,300 fans - to see former New York Met Howard Johnson become one of the few players to have the opportunity to play in a professional game with their son. In 2012 the Boulders led the league in attendance with 161,375 fans.
Season-by-season records
| Rockland Boulders (2011–2014) | ||||||
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Current roster
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Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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References
External links
- Rockland Boulders
- Roster
- Can-Am League
- American Association of Independent Professional Baseball official website
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