FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            Contact: Chuck Paiva

January 17, 2020                                                                                   President & General Manager

TOP 20 COUNTDOWN: MOMENT #18 

Gulls Continue to Countdown Top 20 Moments in History

NEWPORT, RI- There have been many star players to have stepped onto the diamond at Historic Cardines Field. Beginning in the early 1900s, fabled names such as Phil Rizzuto, Bob Feller, and Yogi Berra played in the George Donnelly Sunset League while Satchel Paige once traveled to Newport with the Negro Leagues and even the Babe himself has been said to grace the field with his presence. More recently, Dustin Pedroia, Marcus Stroman, Stephen Strasburg, and many other Big Leaguers sat in the side-by-side dugouts when taking on the Gulls with Team USA during exhibition matches. 

Each summer the country’s best collegiate baseball players compete at Cardines field three nights a week. The Newport Gulls are members of the 13-Team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The NECBL is ranked as the nation’s second-best summer collegiate baseball league- just behind the famous Cape Cod League. NECBL alumni can be found on every MLB team and in 2019 alone, the NECBL had 15 former players make their Major League Debut and saw 100 alumni drafted including three first-round picks. NECBL teams play a 44 games season (22 home, 22 away) before beginning playoffs the first week of August. Just prior to teams making their push for the coveted Fay Vincent Sr. Cup, an All-Star Game is held. All-Star Games rotate hosts every summer and showcase the league’s finest talent in front of thousands of fans and 100+ MLB scouts and representatives. 

It is an honor to be selected as the host of the NECBL All-Star Game. The Newport Gulls have been chosen to hold this event three times thus far and will do so again in 2020. 2005, 2010, and 2016 were truly special occasions at Cardines Field. These All-Star Games and the significant contributions made by Gulls on their home turf have been grouped together for inclusion as a Top 20 Moment in Gulls History. 

Moment #18

Gulls Host Three All-Star Games in Newport

Although great talent can be viewed at each and every Newport Gulls game, the All-Star Game features the league’s most elite college players. In addition to playing in front of a sold-out stadium and countless scouts in the evening, the day of events includes a Home Run Derby and Skills Competition. All-Star Games allow these talented young men from throughout the country an opportunity to congregate in a welcoming yet competitive environment as they all continue to chase their dreams of becoming Major League Baseball players. Hosting the event is certainly a privilege but also includes tremendous planning and execution. Newport has been lucky enough to have the event at Cardines Field three times over the past 20 years. 

2005 was the first year Newport hosted. Just two years removed from capturing back-to-back titles their first two years in the league (2001 & 2002), Newport presented the All-Star Game on July 24, 2005. Three players represented the home squad. Gulls 2019 Hall of Fame Class RHP Paul Nardozzi( Pittsburgh), Gulls 2010 Hall of Fame Class OF Cyle Hankerd (Southern California), and C Shawn McGill (Boston College). McGill started at catcher for the Southern Division. Nardozzi and Hankerd were reserves. 

The day began with an impressive showing by Hankerd and fellow Gull Zach Clem (Washington) in the Home Run Derby. Hankerd launched seven homers to advance to the finals after beating Clem in a playoff during the Second Round. Unfortunately, Hankerd lost to Manchester Silkwork John Fitzpatrick (Manhattan College) in the finals but his would not be the last time the power of the future league MVP was displayed. 

Josh Fields (Georgia) was the 20th Overall Pick in the 2008 MLB Draft and played for the Keene Swamp Bats following his freshman year in 2005. Fields was the NECBL Relief Pitcher of the Year that summer and is currently a Los Angeles Dodger. He made his MLB debut in 2013 for the Houston Astros. Although the Southern Division All-Stars, who were the home team, led 5-2 after the top half of the ninth inning, all the scouts stuck around to see Fields. He had only allowed one run in 21 innings pitched that summer and featured a mid- 90’s fastball everyone in the park wanted to see. This meant Hankerd would get another at-bat in the bottom of the ninth. Hankerd took full advantage of this opportunity. With all eyes on him and Fields, Hankerd turned around a 2-0 94mph fastball deep over the fence for a home run. It was a defining moment for Hankerd’s season and ultimately his career, landing himself on every team’s radar on his way to helping the Gulls capture the 2005 NECBL Championship.

On July 18, 2010, the All-Star Game returned to Cardines Field. The Gulls didn’t wait two seasons to host after their most recent championship this time, taking home the Fay Vincent Sr. Cup 11 months prior to their fourth title. A league-leading eight Newport Gulls were given the All-Star nod this year, including three starters. - the most of any NECBL franchise. Among these All-Stars was long-time Gulls Director of Broadcast Operations Nick Lima who called the day’s festivities. It didn’t take long for all of the radar guns in the stands to take aim at the pitcher’s mound as Newport’s Mark Appel (Stanford) started for the East All-Stars. Appel, the league’s Top Prospect and future No. 1 Overall Pick in the MLB Draft, stood 6-foot-6 and delivered pitches in the upper 90s. He retired the side in order, a common theme for East Division pitchers that night. The East’s dominant pitching continued after Appel’s night was done, allowing zero runs and just one hit all game. When all was said and done, the final score was 10-0 in favor of the East. Gulls RHP Pat Light (Monmouth) also pitched in this game. Light is one of the 21 Gulls to have reached the Major Leagues. He made his MLB Debut on April 26, 2016 for the Boston Red Sox. 

The Gulls hosted their third All-Star Game in 2016 and saw six of their own named to the Southern Division Team. Newport’sGabe Snyder (Wright State) started the day off with a historic performance in the Home Run Derby. Snyder squared off against Vermont’s Mikael Mogues (Seton Hall) in the finals after the two combined for 16 long balls in the competition’s First Round; Mogues- 7 and Snyder- 9. Snyder’s power continued into the Final Round as he dazzled the crowd and launched another 11 homers, and was named the 2016 NECBL Home Run Derby Champion with a combined total of 20 home runs. Each player in the First Round had 10 outs to work with; the two finalists had just five outs in Round Two. There was certainly no lull in the action at Cardines Field as the All-Star Game immediately got off to a hot start. The North Division All-Stars scored at least one run in each of the first five innings including a two-run home run by the eventual co-MVP; Keene’s Jordan Howard (Lee) in the top of the third inning. Trailing 8-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the South surged and tallied two runs in the bottom half of the inning and another five in the bottom of the eighth to even the score at 8-8. Even after nine innings, both teams had used all 10 of their All-Star pitchers resulting in the game ended in a tie.

Newport will be the only team to have hosted the event for a fourth time. 2020’s All-Star Game is scheduled for July 19, 2020. These events have included many memories and moments not touched upon in this story but are without a doubt some of the most special nights in Newport Gulls history- resulting in the #18 spot on the Gulls Top 20 Moments in History. 

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The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation’s top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the community of Newport County via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations – totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are six-time champions of the NECBL – the winningest franchise in league history – and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012.

For more information about the Newport Gulls, visit facebook.com/newportgulls, follow the Gulls on Twitter @NewportGulls or visit www.newportgulls.com.

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