Futures Collegiate Baseball League

Futures Collegiate Baseball League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2017 FCBL season
Sport Baseball
Founded 2010
CEO Chris Hall
Motto Who will be the first?
No. of teams 9
Country  United States
Most recent
champion(s)		 Nashua Silver Knights
Official website thefuturesleague.com

The Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) is a 9-team collegiate summer baseball league. It has six franchises in Massachusetts, two in New Hampshire, and one in Connecticut.

Format

The Futures League is a wood-bat league.[1] Its regular season schedule calls for 56 games per team (28 home and 28 away games).

FCBL ballplayers are unpaid collegiate athletes who join the league to gain experience and exposure to Major League Baseball scouts. The FCBL mission is to prepare young men for the rigors of playing professional baseball.

Roster rules

The league accepts players who were on college baseball rosters during the preceding spring season. League rules require that at least 15 of the 30 players on a roster have a local connection, either having attended high school in New England or currently attending college in New England.

Extra innings rule

For the 2017 regular season, games that are tied after 10 innings will be decided by a home-run hitting contest that may take three rounds. Games may end as ties, if the Home Run Derby does not produce a winner. Playoff seedings use a point system like that of the National Hockey League, with 2 points for wins and 1 point for ties and "overtime" losses (games lost via the home-run contest).[2]

History

The Futures League was co-developed by:

The Carminucci Sports Group sought to place an NECBL franchise on the island of Martha's Vineyard, and the Spinners hoped to do the same in Nashua, New Hampshire. The NECBL declined to expand, so the organizations formed a separate league.[3] The FCBL aimed to use professional baseball operators with proven histories. Most FCBL venues are former professional ballparks (marked with an asterisk in the table below), but some teams play in high-school ballparks.

The league started play in the 2011 season. Martha's Vineyard, Nashua, Seacoast, and Torrington were the charter franchises. The championship paired the top two franchises in a best-of-three series. Nashua (27-16) won the regular season and defeated Torrington (25-17) for the championship.[4]

Expansion in 2012

For the 2012 season, the FCBL expanded from four to nine teams. The league expanded into the Leominster/Fitchburg, Massachusetts area with the addition of the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs. In addition, the FCBL induced the North Shore and Old Orchard Beach franchises to jump from the NECBL, as well as the Pittsfield and Brockton franchises of the professional, independent Can-Am League to convert to the collegiate format.

The Pittsfield franchise was operated by majority owner Marvin Goldklang and the Goldklang Group, which owns and operates four other minor-league baseball teams. The move by the Brockton franchise was described as a one-year "hiatus" from professional baseball, but it continued in 2013.

An all-star game was played, pitting selected players from the four charter teams against the five new teams.

The post-season was also revamped to involve four of the nine teams. The winners of two best-of-three division series (#4 plays #1, #3 plays #2) competed in a best-of-three championship series.[5] Nashua repeated as FCBL Champion.

2013 season

The 2013 season was played with the same nine franchises as in 2012. The playoffs were expanded to include the top six teams of the nine. The teams finishing first and second got a first-round bye, with the remaining playoff teams to play a new initial round consisting of a single game.[6]

Earlier, there had been boilerplate text on a league press release[7] that "The FCBL is planning and negotiating with other locations for further expansion in the 2013 season." Speculation had centered on Worcester, Massachusetts, where the Worcester Tornadoes had lost its affiliation with the Can-Am League. A Tornadoes creditor, John Creedon Jr., was in discussions with the College of the Holy Cross to secure a lease for Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field.[8]

The all-star game was structured as Massachusetts versus "New England" (the four non-Massachusetts teams).

The regular season was extended by two days (to August 9 and 10) in view of the season's many rain-outs. The games scheduled for these days sometimes were not against opponents that were due to complete a rained-out game. The one-game play-in games occurred on the afternoon of August 11 — not at the site of the higher-seeded team, but at the site of the winner's opponent in the next round, which began the same evening. This next round, a best-of-three series, was slated for alternating sites, though in neither case was the third game necessary. The final round reverted to the prior year's rule, in which the higher-seeded team (in this case, Martha's Vineyard) had the option of hosting the first game or any remaining games. Martha's Vineyard elected to open the series in Nashua, on August 14, and won the series at home the next day.

2014 season

On September 20, 2013, John Creedon Jr., who prior to the 2013 season had discussed bringing baseball back to the city of Worcester, announced that he would indeed operate the league's tenth franchise at Fitton Field starting in 2014,[9] and unveiled the Bravehearts on December 2, 2013.

The league split into an East and West division of five teams each. The All-Star Game assembled teams comprising the best players of each division; on July 24, the West beat the East, 4-1. The regular season expanded to 56 games, with each team playing 28 home games and 28 road games. No team actually played 56 games, as rain-outs occurring late in the season were not made up. The 2014 FCBL playoffs were conducted as in 2013, except that the rules gave the winner of each division the bye in round one, and guaranteed that, of the next four teams with the best overall records, the higher-seeded team would host the one-game play-in.[10][11]

The two division winners, Worcester (West) and Martha's Vineyard (East), won their semifinal series and met in the best-of-three final series. Worcester swept the series to become the 2014 champions.[12]

2015 season

For 2015, the Old Orchard Beach franchise was replaced by the Bristol Blues.[13] The Nashua franchise was moved from the West Division to the East Division to maintain both divisions at five teams. The playoffs were further expanded to include eight of the ten teams in post-season play.[14] The first two playoff rounds consisted of a single elimination game, in two days reducing the playoff field from eight teams to two. The East was the stronger division; the new Bristol team (33-23), which won the West Division, had a worse record than three of the teams in the East. Bristol faced the Worcester Bravehearts (26-30) in the final series; last year's champion had flirted with elimination for much of the season, but came on strong in the final weeks of the regular season to finish second in the West. The higher-seeded Bristol elected that the series begin in Worcester, where Worcester won. In the games played at Bristol, Bristol won Game 2, but Worcester won the deciding game, on August 16, to repeat as FCBL champions.[15]

2016 season

In November 2015, the league announced that the playoff format would revert to that of 2014, with six of ten teams making the post-season.[16] The Seacoast Mavericks had the first winning season in its six-year history, but lost the semifinal series to Nashua in three games. Worcester returned to the finals, but Nashua won that series, defeating Worcester first at home and then in Worcester.

2017 season: Introduction of the Home Run Derby

On December 20, 2016, the Futures League published a 2017 schedule for a nine-team league[17] not including the Titans.

On January 27, 2017, the league announced that games that are tied after 10 innings will be decided by a home-run hitting contest, and announced the NHL-style point system, envisioning tie games, that will decide playoff seedings. The league stated that the purpose of this rule was to protect pitchers' arms and encourage college coaches to recommend the league to their pitchers.[2][18]

The first use of the Home Run Derby was June 7, when the visiting Martha's Vineyard Sharks tied the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs 13-13 after 10 innings. In the first (three-minute) round of the Home Run Derby, the Sharks hit a total of 5 home runs out of Doyle Field, using both their time-outs to substitute batters at each one-minute interval. The Dirt Dawgs used Zack Tower, who had not played in the regulation game. He hit 5 home runs in 70 seconds, at which point the Dirt Dawgs used their first time-out. Tower remained at bat and hit the deciding home run shortly after.[19]

In 7-inning games of doubleheaders, the Home Run Derby was used if the teams were tied after 8 innings. Near the end of the regular season, the league clarified that the basis for seeding teams in the playoffs would actually be "point percentage": the ratio of points to potential points (2 times the number of games played).[20] The clarification was necessary because the clubs had had different numbers of games cancelled by bad weather.

In the 238 games played in the 2017 regular season, a total of 10 used the Home Run Derby. There were no tie games. Two teams (Pittsfield and Nashua) finished the season with identical point percentages (.491). Pittsfield won the right to host the one-game play-in game against Nashua on August 8 through the tie-breaker, a superior record against the other playoff teams.

2018 season

At the end of the 2017 regular season, the Seacoast Mavericks announced that it would not remain at Leary Field in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 2018, and might pay its 2018 dues but not field a team at all, as it awaited completion of a Sports Complex in Dover, N.H.[21]

League officers

Chris Hall, the former general manager of the independent Nashua Pride and American Defenders of New Hampshire (which became the Pittsfield Colonials of the Can-Am League), is the FCBL's first commissioner. Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Bob Stanley is on the League's Board of Directors and is the President of the Seacoast Mavericks. Cecil Fielder and Pete Incaviglia are advisory board members for the Torrington Titans.

Current franchises

Futures Collegiate Baseball League
Division Team Founded City Stadium
West Bristol Blues 2015 Bristol, Connecticut Muzzy Field*
Pittsfield Suns 2012 Pittsfield, Massachusetts Wahconah Park*
Wachusett Dirt Dawgs 2012 Leominster, Massachusetts Doyle Field
Worcester Bravehearts 2014 Worcester, Massachusetts Fitton Field*
East Brockton Rox 2012 Brockton, Massachusetts Campanelli Stadium*
Martha's Vineyard Sharks 2011 Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts Vineyard Baseball Park
Nashua Silver Knights 2011 Nashua, New Hampshire Holman Stadium*
North Shore Navigators 2012 Lynn, Massachusetts Fraser Field*
Seacoast Mavericks 2011 Portsmouth, New Hampshire Leary Field
Inactive Torrington Titans 2011 Torrington, Connecticut Fuessenich Park
* Former professional baseball venue

League champions

References

  1. ↑ "Collegiate Baseball League includes Nashua team". Lowell Sun. 2010-12-19.
  2. 1 2 "Extra Innings Homerun Derby Format". Futures League. 2017-01-27.
  3. ↑ Summer collegiate baseball team coming to Seacoast
  4. ↑ Tom King (2011-12-31). "Baseball's return to Holman tops local stories of 2011". Nashua Telegraph.
  5. ↑ "Futures League Announces 2012 Schedule". FCBL. 2012-02-29.
  6. ↑ FCBL contact page (See Playoff Format.)
  7. ↑ "David Adam selected as Manager of the Seacoast Mavericks Collegiate Baseball Team". FCBL. 2012-01-07.
  8. ↑ "What's 'future' of summer baseball in Worcester?". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 2012-11-01.
  9. ↑ Walter Bird Jr. (2013-09-30). "Summer baseball will be played in Worcester in 2014". Worcester Magazine.
  10. ↑ "Dirt Dawgs will open season on June 4 at Doyle". Sentinel and Enterprise. 2013-12-01. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  11. ↑ "2014 Playoffs Rules". FCBL. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  12. ↑ Keenan, Corey (August 15, 2014). "Worcester Bravehearts win FCBL title". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  13. ↑ "FCBL to Call Muzzy Field Home". FCBL. 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  14. ↑ "Futures League Releases 2015 Regular Season Schedule". FCBL. 2014-12-12. Retrieved 2014-12-20.
  15. ↑ Suhoski, Shaun (August 16, 2015). "Worcester Bravehearts repeat as FCBL champs". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Massachusetts. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  16. ↑ "2016 Playoff Format". FCBL. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  17. ↑ "2017 Futures League Schedule Announced". Futures League. 2016-12-20.
  18. ↑ Associated Press (from league release) (2017-01-27). "Futures league will use home run derby to break ties". USA Today.
  19. ↑ "Dirt Dawgs Claw Back to Win 14-13 over Martha's Vineyard". Our Sports Central. 2017-06-08.
  20. ↑ "Standings Explanation". Futures League.
  21. ↑ "Seacoast Mavs done at Leary Field in 2018". Foster's. 2017-08-05.
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