Welcome to the Rockingham County Baseball League for 2010! This historic summer baseball league has provided quality amateur baseball throughout Rockingham County for over 86 years. It is considered the second oldest, continuous running baseball league in the country - trailing only major league baseball itself. The Rockingham County Baseball League, or RCBL, was founded in 1924, and has included teams from across Rockingham County, Virginia and up and down the Shenandoah Valley. The league currently boasts seven teams. These are Bridgewater, Broadway, Clover Hill, Elkton, Montezuma, New Market, and Stuarts Draft.
 
What kind of interest does the RCBL generate? In 2009, how about a game 7, championship game between the top two teams in the league; where close to 1000 county residents attend. The scene would remind you of the closing moments from the movie, “Field of Dreams”; where all you see are sets of headlights, one by one, making their way to old “Buck Bowman Park". That, my friends, is an area that loves its baseball!
Historically, the RCBL has fielded many teams throughout the valley; from other small town communities such as Linville, Fishersville, Briery Branch, Grottoes, Twin County, Harrisonburg, Dayton, Weyers Cave, Spring Creek, Waynesboro, Keezletown, Mt. Crawford, and Harriston.

Our players range from high school future stars, current college players and released minor and major league ball players. Teams are managed independently, and each is a representative as a part of the RCBL’s board of directors. Together, they administer to the management of the league. We believe in “old school” baseball, and as such, have been a wood bat league since 1999.

In league history, the Bridgewater franchise owns the record for both pennants (20) and series titles (16 - earliest was 1927 and most recent was 1999). Clover Hill, with 13, has the second most series titles and ranks just two ahead of Linville (10) and two ahead of Grottoes (9). Linville, with 14, ranks second in pennants, while the Bucks are third with 12.

From 1984 to 1996, Bridgewater owned the RCBL. The Reds won the pennant each year, except in 1987 when Linville took the title in 7 games. After 1987, the Reds captured nine series wins - including eight straight from 1988-95. Grottoes snapped the Reds' series streak in 1996, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the finals.

After the Reds' remarkable run, the league saw a great deal of parity - with seven different teams winning pennants from 1997 through 2008 and eight separate teams claiming series titles over the same stretch.

In recent history, the Clover Hill Bucks have been the team on a tear, having won the last 5 out of 6 series championships, and 4 out of 6 pennants.

Sadly, the 2008 season saw the RCBL say farewell to its former commissioner, officer, and RCBL historian Karl Olschofka, who passed away, having been involved in all capacities of the RCBL for over 50 years. Karl captured the essence of the RCBL, and in his honor, we name our championship trophy the “Karl Olschofka Championship Trophy”. (Click here to read more about Karl). 

In 2009, the league saw its popularity grow with an increased web presence (rcblonline.com), which, in turn, improved our fan base. The culmination of the 2009 season saw the Clover Hill Bucks down the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks, 4 games to 3. After being down 3 games to 1, the bucks battled back to force a game 7, and win the title.

As we celebrate our 87th season, please take a few minutes to review our newly designed website. It will provide you games, statistics, history and more. Make the summer special for the kid in you and come out the ballpark.  Try a little piece of the “ROCK”, the RCBL.

Sincerely,



Mark Siciliano
Commisioner
RCBL