Newport based baseball team broadcasts go national with ESPN-Plus feed
NEWPORT — Two men sit behind a nondescript green door next to the ticket office at Cardines Field.
This is the broadcast hub in a downtown ballpark that was built in the early 20th century. The daytime heat and humidity on this summer Friday seem trapped in this cramped space. A pair of desk fans spins alongside an array of monitors, keyboards and electronic wiring, feebly attempting to provide some comfort.
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Operations staff and college interns scramble throughout the covered wooden grandstand above, checking camera angles and microphones. An extended desktop stretches across an upper row of bleachers behind the plate, the setting for the on-air talent to describe the action below. It’s two hours until the first pitch between the Newport Gulls and Sanford Mainers, and everything seems to be coming together.
This isn’t what ESPN Plus viewers would see during the online stream later that night, but it’s how and why the latest New England Collegiate Baseball League showcase made it to your laptop screen or cell phone. The Gulls have operated this makeshift multimedia operation for the better part of two decades, and it’s now being showcased on a wider stage.
“It’s living history,” said Tom Lima, the director of in-house production. “We provide a very unique product for folks who might not watch a lot of baseball on TV.”
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Newport was the first home team to produce a game for ESPN’s digital arm, airing its July 3 matchup with Martha's Vineyard. It was the culmination of offseason conversations with the network and NECBL commissioner Sean McGrath. ESPN was searching for some summer content to fill the void left without the NBA, the NHL, college football and college basketball.
“It’s a full team effort,” said Newport play-by-play voice Quintin Pelzel, who also works as a graduate assistant in the Providence College athletic department. “I go out of my way every night to thank everybody for their hard work. It’s brutal being out there in the conditions.”
Prospects on the field are hoping to further their professional futures — future big leaguers like St. Raphael alum Chris Iannetta, Cleveland Guardians right-hander James Karinchak, Boston Red Sox right-hander Pat Light and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith have all worn Gulls uniforms. It’s the same story behind the scenes for someone like Pelzel, who is completing his master’s degree in business administration with the Friars.
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“Just the learning side of things is really awesome,” media operations intern Graham Butziger said. “Getting hands-on experience I wouldn’t get anywhere else in an internship over the last few summers has been really good.”
Lima’s older brother, Nick, established a broadcast foothold with Newport in the early 2000s. He parlayed a production background at Tiverton High into taped Gulls home games and the first live video offering of the NECBL in 2006. The six-time champions have steadily added elements to their presentation — six cameras mounted on dugouts and in the grandstands, replays, graphics, highlights and velocities for both batted balls and pitches thrown.
“This is probably one of the only in-house productions that was already capable of full HD, multiple cameras, replays, graphics,” Tom Lima said. “We’ve been ready to go for TV for quite a while now.”
Lima works alongside Mike Basile, who was brought in by Newport this season to serve as broadcast and video director. The NECBL streams all of its games via audio and video channels online through a subscription-based format. They’ve joined the Northwoods League on ESPN this summer, another wood-bat collection of college talent spread throughout the upper Midwest.
“It’s a great opportunity for the NECBL to get national exposure in the middle of the country and on the West Coast,” Pelzel said. “Someone might not have an NECBL subscription, but they have an ESPN Plus subscription because they watch college baseball all year. They turn it on and it’s some of the best players in the country.”
Seamus Barrett was the star for the Mainers on this night, as the Loyola Marymount right-hander fired seven strong innings and struck out 10 in a 5-3 victory. A crowd of 2,890 jammed the venue for a little more than two hours and scattered onto America’s Cup Avenue just after the 9 p.m. conclusion. It’s a scene that has played out here since the Gulls relocated from Cranston to Newport for the 2001 season — a scene that’s now visible on a national stage.
“I know there are a lot of teams in the NECBL that aren’t capable of having a stream,” Pelzel said. “We’re just really grateful and we’re really blessed.”
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Newport Gulls operated a multimedia operation for decades now they're on ESPN+
