The New York Boulders are an American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team playing in the

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

based in Pomona,

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

, New York. The team was founded as a member of the

Can-Am League The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional, independent baseball league with teams in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada, founded in 2005 as a reorganization ...

, beginning play in the 2011 season as the Rockland Boulders. The Boulders and the rest of the teams in the Can-Am League (except for the

Ottawa Champions The Ottawa Champions Baseball Club (french: link=no, Les Champions d'Ottawa) were a professional baseball team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The Champions made their debut as a member of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseb ...

, who were not invited) were absorbed into the Frontier League when the two leagues merged following the 2019 season. 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 The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

), which used Bear Mountain State Park for spring training during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. 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 Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

at Le Stade Municipal in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

, 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 The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

player Howard Johnson to a two-game contract to play alongside his son, Glen. Both games were played against the

Newark Bears The Newark Bears were an American minor league professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and, later, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. T ...

. 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. The New York 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 Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

, breaking the all-time Can-Am League record for career hits. His 700 career hits breaks the record previously held by former Major League

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

player

Chris Colabello Christopher Adrian Colabello (born October 24, 1983) is an Italian-American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He played parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays, ...

. On August 25, 2014, the Boulders beat the Trois-Riveres Aigles and clinched the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's history. On September 2, 2014, The best-of-7 Parkway Series between the Rockland Boulders (

Palisades Interstate Parkway The Palisades Interstate Parkway (PIP) is a limited-access highway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from Rockland and Orange counties in New York and Bergen County in New ...

) and the New Jersey Jackals (

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jerse ...

) began. The Boulders captured their first league championship beating New Jersey 4 games to 2.

Clover Stadium

The New York Boulders' stadium is

Clover Stadium Clover Stadium is a baseball park in Pomona, New York. It is the home field of the New York Boulders of the independent Frontier League. It has a seating capacity of 6,362 and it opened on June 16, 2011. The stadium is also home to the St. Thom ...

. It was originally known as Provident Bank Park then as Palisades Credit Union Park and contains 6,362 seats, 16 luxury and 11 loge boxes. The dimensions of the playing field are 323 feet down the left-field line, 313 feet down the right-field line, power alleys of 383 feet, and 403 feet at centerfield. 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, a children's playground, and community rooms. The park also contains an indoor batting cage used by players to warm up prior to games which is open to the public during the game. 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.

Season-by-season records

Broadcasting

For the 2022 season, Boulders games are broadcast on WRCR 1700 AM and FloBaseball. Select home games are also available on

Eleven Sports Eleven Sports is a multinational sports and entertainment media group. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, it is owned by Andrea Radrizzani's sports and media investment platform Aser Ventures. Eleven Sports' business model initially centred a ...

Current roster

Notable alumni

* Howard Johnson (2011) 2x MLB All-Star and 2x World Series champion *

Barry Wesson Barry Jarvis Wesson (born April 6, 1977) is an American former right-handed outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Houston Astros and Anaheim Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in ...

(2011) * Gustavo Chacín (2012) * Julio Santana (2012) *

Carlos Rivera Carlos Rivera Guerra, better known as Carlos Rivera (born March 15, 1986), is a Mexican singer. He rose to fame by winning the third generation of '' La Academia''. Rivera has released four studio albums and participated in six theatre product ...

(2013) * Bobby Jones (2013) * Andrew Taylor (2014) *

Stephen Cardullo Stephen Andrew Cardullo (born August 31, 1987) is an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman who is a free agent. After playing college baseball for the Florida State Seminoles, Cardullo played for the Colorado Rockies of Majo ...

(2013–2015) * Donnie Joseph (2016) * Markus Solbach (2016–2017) * Mayckol Guaipe (2017) * C. J. Riefenhauser (2017) *

Justin Topa Justin Robert Topa (born March 7, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2020 with the Milwaukee Brewers. Amateur career Topa was a four-year letter w ...

(2017–2018) * Ezequiel Carrera (2019) *

Zach Penprase Zachary William Penprase (born February 16, 1985) is an American-Israeli baseball player who plays shortstop, second base, and left field who is currently a free agent.Rockland Boulders
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Boulders Rockland County, New York Professional baseball teams in New York (state) Baseball teams established in 2011 Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball teams Baseball teams in the New York metropolitan area 2011 establishments in New York (state)