Rockland Boulders

Rockland Boulders
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball
Location	Pomona, New York
Ballpark	Palisades Credit Union Park
Year founded	2011
League championships	1: 2014
Division championships	3: 2014, 2015, 2017
Colors	Blue, red, black, gray, white
Mascot	Boulder Bird
Playoff berths	5 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Ownership	Bottom 9 Baseball
Manager	Jamie Keefe
General Manager	Shawn Reilly
Media	The Journal News
Website	rocklandboulders.com

The Rockland Boulders are an American independent professional baseball team based in Pomona, New York in Rockland County. They are a member of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, also known as the Can-Am League. The team was one of three teams joining the league for the 2011 season, joining former Atlantic League champions the Newark Bears and New York State League team the New York Federals. The Boulders played their first game on May 26, 2011, against the Bears at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The team played their first home game at Palisades Credit Union Park on June 16 defeating the Brockton Rox, 3-1 in front of a sold-out crowd.

The "Boulders" name refers to Rockland County's plethora of boulders in its landscape. The team's primary color, blue, alludes to the former Brooklyn Dodgers (now Los Angeles Dodgers), which used Bear Mountain State Park for spring training during World War II. The red honors the neighboring Rockland County Fire Training Center. Boulder Bird is the official team mascot and "Disco" Seth Cantor is the team's play-by-play announcer.

History

On May 26, 2011 the Boulders won their first official game by a score of 11-5 over the Newark Bears after coming back from a 4-1 deficit. On July 24, 2011, in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, Joe Hage (23) hit a walk-off grand slam at Le Stade Municipal in Quebec City, Canada to give Rockland a 7-4 win over the Quebec Capitales. It was the first grand-slam in Boulders history.

On September 4, 2011, the Boulders announced they had signed former New York Mets player Howard Johnson to a two-game contract to play alongside his son, Glen. Both games were played against the Newark Bears.^[1]

Although the Boulders played their first 20 games away due to construction of the new stadium, they finished their inaugural season second in the league with an attendance of 123,518 tickets sold.

Rockland Boulders Team Store at Palisades Credit Union Park

The Rockland Boulders signed their first three players Tommy Giles, Eric Flynn and Ryan Mollica, from Suffern in its history in March, 2011. Of these three, Mollica remained and played in 86 games. On August 22, 2013, Boulder's pitcher Charlie Law pitched a complete game no-hitter defeating the New Jersey Jackals with the first no-hitter in franchise history.

On July 7, 2014, Outfielder Jerod Edmondson singled off Ryan Bollinger of the Trois-Rivieres Aigles in the top of the fourth inning at Trois-Rivières, breaking the all-time Can-Am League record for career hits. His 700 career hits breaks the record previously held by current Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Chris Colabello.^[2] On August 25, 2014, the Boulders beat the Trois-Riveres Aigles and clinched the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's history. The Boulders will play the New Jersey Jackals the first round.^[3]

On September 2, 2014 The best-of-7 Parkway Series between the Rockland Boulders (Palisades Interstate Parkway) and the New Jersey Jackals (Garden State Parkway) began. The Boulders captured their first league championship beating New Jersey 4 games to 2.^[4]

Palisades Credit Union Park

Palisades Credit Union Park

The Rockland Boulder's new Palisades Credit Union Park, originally known as Provident Bank Park (name change was announced on Monday, April 25, 2016) voted on by the league's eight field managers and media representatives as the 2011 Can-Am League Playing Surface of the Year, contains 4,500 seats, 16 luxury and 11 loge boxes. The dimensions of the playing field are 323 foot left-field line, power alleys of 383 feet leading to the 403 foot center wall and 313 foot right-field line. The park also includes a 34-foot x 52 foot scoreboard, as well as a 75-foot ribbon sign board. Other features include special hearing-impaired seating with loudspeakers installed under each seat, Kids Zone playground, and community rooms beside food courts and kiosks. The park also contains an indoor batting cage used by players to warm up prior to games and is open to the public during the game. Baseball fans that visit Palisades Credit Union Park may notice a similarity to Camden Yards, Fenway Park, and Citi Field as the park is partly designed after those stadiums.

On September 4, 2011, the Rockland Boulders played to the largest crowd in its inaugural season - 6,300 fans - to see former New York Met Howard Johnson become one of the few players to have the opportunity to play in a professional game with their son. In 2012 the Boulders led the league in attendance with 161,375 fans.

On August 17, 2014, the team drew 6,239 fans.

Season-by-season records

Broadcasting

The Boulders have three radio stations that provide broadcasts of their games. The stations are WNBR 1260 AM, WLNA 1420 AM, and WRCR 1600 AM.^[5] The Boulders games are also available to watch online on the Can-Am league TV website and some games on Optimum channel 78 in Rockland County or FIOS channel 1. Many of their home games are also available on Eleven Sports.

Current roster

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rockland Boulders.

• Rockland Boulders
• Rockland Boulders Roster
• Can-Am League
• American Association of Independent Professional Baseball official website
• Rockland Boulder's News
• Listen Live
• Watch Rockland Boulders Game