Greater Brockton Big League baseball players stick together for the 'love of the game'
BROCKTON – Dre Burgess, Richie Stappen, Patrick Healy and Tim Murphy were considered underclassmen, of sorts, when their Tigers team won three Greater Brockton Big League baseball championships a few years ago.
Not only do they live different lives now, but the roster turned over and the once-enforced 18-plus age limit was relaxed. The foursome is still united, but as 16-year-old starting pitcher Anthony Gonclaves took command of the mound on this day, they looked around the Hutchinson Field diamond in Brockton as grizzled league veterans.
“I just love the sport," said Burgess, 24, now in his eighth season playing in the league, and first as team captain. "I’d play for free every day, even if it was MLB. That’s how much I love it.”
Burgess graduated from Brockton High in 2016, and although he played one season at Fisher College as a pitcher/first baseman hybrid, he did not play high school baseball. He walked into a tryout at Fisher as a 17-year-old freshman and made the team. "It was like a dream come true," he said. "Getting picked for that was an eye-opener."
Burgess began playing in the GBBL in 2016, shortly after graduating high school. Now, he and his father, Marty, a youth baseball coach for over 15 years, run the team together.
“I love it," Marty Burgess said. "I see a lot of kids that I’ve had since they were 8 years old up here now. I know they’re not out on the streets doing stuff I don't want them to do. They’re playing here on the weekends. ... They’re all just here because they love the game. I think that’s special.”
“That’s all it is,” said Murphy, a Cardinal Spellman alum who recruited his younger brother, Brady, a catcher, to the team.
Stappen, a 22-year-old former Brockton High student in his sixth GBBL season, pitched the final stretch of the Tigers' game last Saturday. He is just weeks away from joining the Navy.
Healy, 27, is a 2014 Brockton High graduate. He played baseball for the Boxers under former coach Bill Maloney and is now in his 12th GBBL season at shortstop for the Tigers.
“It’s a family," Murphy said. "You become close. You’re friends with everybody and you know how each other play.”
What is the GBBL?
The Greater Brockton Big League, according to its Facebook page, was founded in 2005.
It shrank from five teams to four this summer – Burgess' Tigers, the SeaDogs (last year's champ), the Wizards and the Spinners – due to roster sizes and turnout.
The teams play on the weekends at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Hutchinson Park, a field located off Rodney Street in Brockton, and occasionally at Edgar's Field off Dover Street.
Join the fun
Marty and Dre Burgess agree that expansion is high on the league's list of ideas going forward. Maybe, just maybe, they could entice other men's league teams from neighboring communities to enter the fold. More teams, more competition, more opportunity.
“We just want to be seen," Dre Burgess said. "That’s our main goal, to expand and travel to other cities. Maybe play at Campanelli Stadium, where the Rox play. I’d love to play there. I’ve never gotten to play there.”
"It would bring more competition. It brings players that want to play more because you're going to different places," Marty Burgess said. "Every time you change up and go to another field, it's fun. You're out there having fun."
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: GBBL baseball players stay together for the love of the game
