Diamond in the Rough
Nantucket's new adult baseball league
Written by Brian Bushard
Photography by Brian Sager and Shane Riley
When Shane Riley stands on the pitcher’s mound, he has a clear view of the ocean and the setting sun behind the third base line. The outfield backs up to the vast expanse of scrub oak in Madequecham. But the field has deteriorated significantly since its heyday, with overgrown and deep-rooted weeds taking over first base, and the infield dirt crusting over into a thick layer that plays more like uneven cement. Up until last fall, the field was not seeing much use.
Riley, a former high school ace pitcher, moved to Nantucket in 2021 and made the field one of his first stops as he toured around the island. He was devastated when he saw it but couldn’t stop thinking about the potential this place had. Last fall, he posted on Facebook asking if anyone would want to meet at the field to play catch. He was overwhelmed by the responses. After a quick outing, he teamed up with Bret Samboy and launched the idea of an adult fast-pitch league, something Nantucket has a long history of, but like the field, it had fallen by the wayside. After hundreds of hours of work by the town and the new league, the Tom Nevers baseball field is back in playing condition. It's a brand new ballgame.
It’s humbling,” Riley said. “I was out there the other night sitting on the pitcher’s mound looking out over the water and got emotional. We’re doing this. It’s cool. The people cutting your grass or painting your walls, they’re playing in this league,” he said. “The league is being played by people in the community.”
Samboy also grew up playing baseball. After high school, he played first base at SUNY Albany. When he moved to Nantucket, he continued playing in adult fast-pitch baseball leagues off-island, commuting to Boston to play for the East Boston Knights in the Yawkey League and the Expos in the Intercity League. But the commute became a hassle, so he stepped away. “I miss playing baseball,” he said. “I had always wished we had a league on the island. It would make my life easier.”
But the impetus for the league was not just to make his own life more convenient. Samboy also thought it would be welcomed by the community—and he was right. Out of left field, the Nantucket Island Men’s Senior Baseball League now has over 75 members. Starting this April, they’ve been meeting on Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday double headers, for fast-pitch baseball. “It’s a loved sport across ethnicities and generations,” Samboy said. “It’s America’s pastime. Everyone loves baseball. Everyone also knows how expensive Nantucket is and how expensive it is to do anything out here. This is something the community can get behind and easily do at a low cost. It’s nice to be able to do something affordable and fun."
Baseball has a long history on Nantucket. The first printed reference came in 1870, when The Inquirer and Mirror reported a game was held “between a picked nine of the Nantucket boys and a nine from Boston.” The Nantucket squad won that game by a lopsided score of 52-27—a score that would even be considered high in football—including a 24-run fifth inning. Over the next few decades, several teams were formed on the island that played regularly on Sunset Hill and the Fairgrounds—teams like the off-island Strangers and the local Natives, or the east end Siasconsets, who often fell victim to the Nantucket team.
“The base ball match was like nothing in the heavens, or on the earth, or in the waters beneath the earth,” The Inquirer and Mirror reported in a game recap in 1879. “Neither side alarmed anybody by its skill; but if the Siasconsets shall succeed in playing as badly for the rest of the season they will establish a claim to be the champion muffers of the continent. They probably do not covet that honor.”
As the years went by, leagues formed and fell. One adult league played as recently as 20 years ago. A Dominican Softball League has played for over a decade on summer Sundays in Tom Nevers, featuring nearly 50 men from the Dominican Republic who moved to the island for work but always made time for the game they grew up playing. Samuel Taveras, a carpenter and former high school baseball player who moved to the island from the town of Cabrera in the Dominican Republic, has been part of Nantucket’s Dominican Softball League for several years. Playing baseball in the Dominican Republic is akin to a rite of passage for young men. Taveras said it’s in his blood. Today, baseball remains not only a form of entertainment for him but a way to keep part of the Dominican identity alive.
Of the 75-plus members who signed up for tryouts with the new league, roughly two-thirds are from the Dominican Republic. “Not only do we love baseball, we also need something where we can enjoy ourselves here on the island, and what better way than baseball?” Taveras said. “It is a bridge [between cultures]. I’m from the Dominican Republic and I can meet good people from everywhere [playing baseball].”
Samboy has been a spectator at some of those softball games where several players caught his eye. “I’ve watched some of them play and you can tell they are really good baseball players,” he said. “I’ve always wondered what if there was a wood bat league, would they come over and play? Sure enough, they started coming out to the practices."
Earlier this spring, Samboy and Riley took batting practice late one afternoon. The sun started to set over the horizon, making it harder and harder for the batter to make out the ball coming in, and making it harder for the pitcher to see the outline of home plate. But despite the setting sun, they kept playing. Baseball—which has a reputation as the slowest organized sport in the country and the only one constrained by innings and not time limits—has a way of slowing down time. The late New Yorker writer Roger Angell once wrote, “All you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young.”
Samboy’s goal is to field three to four teams for the league’s first year this summer. While on paper, it’s a wood bat men’s league affiliated with the Men’s Senior Baseball League, it is open to women, and so far, one woman has signed up to play. Once the league starts up, their plan is to schedule a home run derby and all-star game. The idea is to make these games into events that anyone can come watch. Peanuts, Cracker Jacks and the like.
“I hope it’s well received. I hope it’s something that can carry on for years,” Samboy said. “Kids on the island who play Little League and Babe Ruth [League] know they have some place to play after high school or college if they’re still on the island.” Riley had the same thought. “The community is saying they can’t wait to bring picnics out and watch ball,” he added. “I’m a lonely guy out here, so to be able to do something for the community is pretty solid. How long it lasts, I can’t predict. But I hope it’s here after I’m gone."
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