Baseball Player Magazine

In years past when people spoke about summer league baseball almost everyone’s first reaction was, “We’re going to the Cape.” Fortunately for us New Yorkers, we don’t have to take the three hour trek up 95N to see baseball talent. We can drive east, with our blankets, lawn chairs and coolers, to see college players from different parts of the country playing baseball. We can thank Rusty Leaver for making a vision of baseball in the Hamptons a reality. In the summer of 2007, he laid the building blocks for what is known today as HCB, or Hamptons Collegiate Baseball.

In 2008, the debut year, the organization fielded just one team, the Hampton Whalers. The Whalers were placed in the Kaiser Division in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League. In 2009, HCB expanded to five teams; North Fork Ospreys, Riverhead Tomcats, Sag Harbor Whalers, Southampton Breakers and Westhampton Aviators. Last year the Westhampton Aviators came out on top and earned the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League Championship title. Quite the accomplishment for a team in its first year. Currently, the five teams make up the Hamptons division in the ACBL.

Leaver’s idea was to have the league model  itself after the Cape Cod League, a prestigious and well known collegiate summer league in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The baseball players reside with a host family, work in the local area and play baseball as the sun sets. With the HCB just two seasons in the books, the future is promising.

Another added bonus for HCB is the addition of former big league pitcher Tommy John, Senior Vice President of Development. John is most known for his near 300 win career as a starting pitcher. He was the first to have, what is now known as “Tommy John Surgery,” a surgical procedure in which a ligament in the pitching elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. The four-time All-Star and former Yankee, will work with the teams to help recruit and develop players, as well as evaluate the work of front office personnel and coaches.

Each year, HCB reaches out to Division I schools across the country. This summer season has players traveling from Stanford, Long Beach State, Duke, Indiana, Minnesota, UCONN, St. John’s, Villanova, Southern Miss, and Vanderbilt. Continuing relationships with these well known programs only adds to the constant networking that the organization has done as a whole in such a short time.

Last season, the league held its first annual Major League Baseball Scout Day, in which its players were given the opportunity to perform with professional scouts in attendance. For six hours at Stony Brook Southampton, players from all five teams were able to showcase their talents in front of some of the games most experienced talent evaluators.

The Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League was an idea a short time ago, and now a five team division with quality ballplayers. The HCB is very proud of their first ever draft pick, 2008 Whaler infielder Steve McQuail, taken by the Toronto Blue Jays in of the 30th round of the 2010 MLB Amateur Baseball Draft. All in all, it is evident that Hamptons Collegiate Baseball is a league on the rise.