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

Rice’s left-handed swing was also the primary reason scouts traveled to Northborough.

“I don’t think any of the scouts would have come if it wasn’t for Ben Rice,” Seidl said. “It’s no accident that he’s playing at Yankee Stadium right now. He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever played with, and so just having him there would draw guys.

“He had the Yankees on his tail the whole time.”

Indeed, the Yankees watched Rice in the Futures Collegiate League in the summer of 2020. While earning the league’s MVP, he formed a bond with the Bombers’ northeast area scout, Matt Hyde, and vice president of domestic amateur scouting, Damon Oppenheimer.

The Yankees would go on to scout Rice in a men’s league, the Cape Cod League and, of course, the unofficial NEGBL.

“It was a lot of fun scouting him because it wasn’t the conventional means,” Hyde told The News while attending Rice’s major league debut on June 18. “Anybody was invited to come out and see [the NEGBL]. We were there more than anybody, though.”

Hyde added that Oppenheimer saw Rice “more than any other scouting director.” That was partly because Oppenheimer’s son played junior hockey in the area, but Rice confirmed that the Yankees “were always there.”

“It was just perfect timing,” the rookie said.

With the Ivy League season canceled in 2021, the NEGBL continued until that May. Because UMass had an official season, numbers started to dwindle. But a lot of players still needed at-bats before playing in summer leagues or delayed professional leagues, so games continued when possible.

Rice spent that summer playing in the Cape Cod League before the Yankees used a 12th-round pick on him. He didn’t do much over 13 games for the Cotuit Kettleers, but the Yankees had already seen enough.

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