Inside the 'gritty' do-it-yourself league that kept Ben Rice on the Yankees' radar

Initially, Seidl said the NEGBL better resembled “backyard baseball.”

With just a handful of players, the group rented fields at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, Mass. There, they took live batting practice and did other baseball activities in the spring of 2020.

“It’d be freezing out in March and April and we’d go out and we’d run a full workout,” Rice said. “We’d have some pitchers who were able to throw some live BP that day. I’d hit fungos. We’d do infield-outfield. I’d throw BP. Other guys would throw BP. It was a bunch of Ivy League players and some independent ballplayers.”

By the fall, word of the NEGBL had spread. As more players joined the makeshift league, “we tried to make it as formal and as organized as possible,” Seidl said.

“I don’t know if we were keeping score or anything like that, but they were structured games,” Mrowka said. “It was pretty close to real baseball.”

The NEGBL kept spreadsheets so that hitters could track their at-bats and pitchers could monitor their workloads as scrimmages became possible. In addition to Ivy Leaguers, UMass players also participated. So did one-offs from other leagues and programs, including some affiliated and independent minor leaguers.

Eventually, scouts began showing up.

Seidl’s hitting coach, former major leaguer Chris Colabello, also lent a helping hand.

“Not only do we have players to hit and throw and get scrimmages together, not only did we have scouts to watch us, but we also had a former big leaguer who hit .321 talking through at-bats and stuff like that,” Seidl said. “Everything was just so high-level.”

Rice acted as a selling point, too. As a catcher, he attracted pitchers who were tired of throwing into nets. When it was his turn to hit, someone else would volunteer to catch in Rice’s borrowed gear.

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