The New England Collegiate Baseball League has had its fair share of umpiring issues. Last season, Upper Valley Nighthawks manager Nick Cenatiempo was notorious for his disagreements with on-field officials, a question of accountability and officiating quality that persisted with other managers throughout the league.
The NECBL made a move toward changing that on Monday, appointing the Collegiate Officials Group (COG) as the league’s Coordinator of Umpires with the responsibility of assigning umpire crews to every NECBL regular season game, the All-Star game and postseason games. The deal also implements three-man umpire crews, after years of staffing only two umpires — one behind the plate and one in the field — for regular season games, for the first time since the league’s inception in 1993.
“The speed of our game has increased over the years,” said NECBL commissioner Sean McGrath. “Umpires at the NCAA Division I level are mostly umpiring with three-man crews and are moving to four-man crews in some conferences for weekend games. We felt that moving to a three-man system would increase the quality of our umpiring and accuracy of their rulings.”
Nighthawks GM Noah Crane said he was glad the league took steps to fix what was clearly a broken officiating system.
“I’m incredibly pleased,” Crane said. “I felt the umpiring this summer was terrible and we needed a change. It was unfair to our staff and players to see the same umpires nearly every home game.”
The agreement, signed for one year with a second year option, replaces the NECBL’s longtime partnership with the Collegiate Baseball Umpires Assigning Association that ended at the end of this past summer with the expiration of their agreement. The NECBL board of directors solicited proposals from three different umpiring groups in September and finalized the deal at the NECBL general manager’s meetings in Springfield, Mass. last week.
“We are honored to be entrusted with this vital position in what is widely recognized throughout the country as a prestigious summer collegiate league for NCAA student-athletes,” said COG president Darrin Sealey in a press release. “With the exceptional talent reflected in the speed of the game on NECBL diamonds throughout the league, moving to three-man crews is a win-win for everyone, players, coaches, fans and our umpire program.”
For Cenatiempo, the move to three-man umpiring units is recognition at the league level that the game has changed.
“The COG is a great organization,” he said. “They are professional and hold their umpires to a high standard. This was a great move by the NECBL, not only because we will be going to three-man crews but because of the professionalism the COG demands from their umpires.
“The CBUAO umpires do work for the COG also, but the difference is that the COG conducts 18 training sessions throughout the year in which their umpires must attend,” he added. “The CBUAO only requires their umpires to do one training session. The COG holds their umpires accountable and conducts extensive evaluations on their umpires.”
COG supervises several NCAA D-I and D-III baseball conferences, including the America East Conference, the Big East Conference, the MAAC and the Ivy League, as well as the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
“I’m excited about the change for change to three-man crews and the professionalism that the COG brings,” Cenatiempo said.
Peter Plant and his son, Kevin, officially took over the Plymouth Pilgrims with an approval vote at last week’s NECBL GM meetings in Springfield, Mass., ending a two-month-long saga that brought the Pilgrims future into question.
Now, the organization has to play catch up in a big way, a task that includes convincing local sponsors and collegiate baseball coaches that the Pilgrims are back for another year after being told in August that the organization was likely to fold due to financial pressure.
“We’re 75 days behind everyone else,” Plant, the team’s new president, said last week. “We’ve been on the phone with college coaches from across the country. We’re finally underway but we’re behind. We’re absolutely playing catch-up.”
Kevin Plant, Plymouth’s new GM, played for the Pilgrims in 2015 during his time playing baseball at Eckerd (Fla.) College. Greg Zackrison will remain as the team’s head coach.
But questions remain about the Pilgrims’ viability moving forward, playing in an unfavorable location at Forges Field that drew the third-worst attendance in the NECBL last season. Now, with rosters already set for many NECBL and summer collegiate baseball teams, Plant has his work cut out for him but said he has no plans to either move the team nor search for a new location in the Plymouth region.
“We’re not entertaining any discussions about fields or baseball complexes,” Plant said. “Our field now, it has its minuses but it also has its pluses. We’re going to work within that.”
For now, Plant has his work cut out for him – a task that involves as much coordination with sponsors as it does convincing the population that the Pilgrims are still around after it was understood that the organization would fold in August.
“We’re trying to get the word out via Facebook and other ways,” Plant said. “Like, ‘the Pilgrims are back.’ We have people in town asking, ‘Is it really true?’ I have to tell them it is.
“I’ve been meeting with folks from the Chamber of Commerce. One woman was so disheartened that the team was leaving, though she didn’t go to one game last year. Now, she can’t wait for opening day. There are people here who care about this team. They’re passionate about it. We’re in it for all the right reasons.”
McGrath, the NECBL’s incumbent commissioner, was elected to another two-year term at last week’s GM meetings.
The former North Adams Steeple Cats’ general manager and executive vice president has presided as commissioner of the league since 2013 after nine seasons at North Adams. He also played three years in the New York Mets organization, was a three-year letter winner at the University of New Hampshire and a graduate of Drury (Mass.) High. He also works in development at Williams (Mass.) College.
McGrath has overseen a significant growth under his tenure as commissioner, presiding over the additions of the Ocean State Waves, Plymouth Pilgrims and the now-defunct Saratoga Brigade in 2013 as well as the Upper Valley Nighthawks in 2016. He also helped re-organize the league from East-West divisions to North-South in 2014.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.