This past week, I had the chance to catch up with George Donnelly Sunset League Commissioner Chris La Rose via email. Chris has always been a fantastic resource to the Rhode Island Baseball Experience pages contributing historical photos, Sunset League updates, and tons of cool Rhode Island baseball stuff. This week we chatted about this year’s schedule so far and the upcoming Al Alvarez All Star Game vs FDNY. “The Al Alvarez all star game is named after the former manager of Town Dock/North Kingstown team,” wrote Chris. “He was a well decorated member of the military and one of the best managers in Sunset League history. So we decided to name our ASG after him.  We will be playing the FDNY  baseball team up here on Sunday August 21st @1pm.  We have played them a couple times in the past and it is a good game for them prior to playing the NYPD baseball team the week after.” Schedule permitting, I am hoping to attend that game in August.

The GDSL is always high on my list of potential baseball games to go to on weekends and with dinner plans already set for Saturday night, I circled the 12:30 game featuring Town Dock vs. Westcott for my game to attend. Chris had mentioned to me that it should be a good game because it featured the top two teams in the league so far. So, I made my way over to Cardines Field just before noon time, somehow forgetting that it was summer, the Hall of Fame Tennis Tournament was going on, and that traffic might be an issue. And my reward was a lovely view of Newport Harbor from atop the Newport Pell Bridge, stopped right there at the very top of the bridge for a good 5 to 10 minutes. Lots of sailboats, great view of Goat Island, and a long, long way down – so let’s get moving people!!!

After navigating through downtown Newport and finding my go-to parking spot (which I will not reveal), I made the short walk up to and into Cardines Field. Many of the historic field’s gates are open on game days/nights for the GDSL, so I took advantage of the open gate just passed the picnic tables in the right field area/concessions stand area. And much to my delight, the game had not yet started so I was happy to arrive for First Pitch.

Having been to Cardines probably 100 times or more in my lifetime, I love searching for the best view of the field as a fan. On Saturday, I walked past the two dugouts, through the press box area where Chris was manning the scoreboard and game information, and into the bleachers to the left of the backstop. Before First Pitch, I hopped down the bleachers to snap a photo of my favorite sign at Cardines. The one that states “Baseball Game Today.”

Okay, back in my spot in the bleachers about 10 rows up and ready for First Pitch. Westcott’s Ryan Seaver took the mound and tossed out the first pitch of the game at 12:44. Skies were a bit cloudy and the temps were rising at around 75°. Great day for baseball and Seaver got to work right away throwing strike after strike. In fact, in the 3 innings I saw Seaver pitch, he did not give up a hit!

For Town Dock, Mike Castellani took the mound to start the game. The tall lefthanded Pitcher was equal to Seaver for the time I was at the game. Castellani worked in and out of trouble and even recorded a nice putout on a comebacker to the mound. Looking at the GDSL box scores this morning, it looks like Westcott got to Castellani in the bottom of the 6th inning for 4 runs. Despite the 4 runs allowed, Castellani’s pitching reminded me that LHP’s are really tough to hit.

As I tend to do every time I visit Cardines, I stretch out over the landscape of the park to take photos and see the field from different vantage points. The left field corner of the bleachers has a tremendous view of the field and the traffic heading into the busy tourist areas of Downtown Newport. I highly recommend this spot if you love baseball, people watching, and views of what Newport is really like on a Summer Saturday.

Before I move on to the other spots, I wanted to mention that Chris had some rockin’ tunes pumping through the Cardines sound system in between innings. I found myself singing along, tapping my toes, air-guitaring, air-drumming to Rush’s Subdivisions, and really digging the great tunes. Well done DJ Chris, one of the many, many hats La Rose wears in his role as Commissioner of the famous GDSL.

Okay, after a nod to Chris, I made my way through the press box and up to the corner of the right field bleachers. I remember one afternoon during the Covid and attending the one time only Newport Collegiate Baseball League season, players were sitting in those right field stands with their gear. On Saturday, I had a nice view of the field and snapped a few photos from the right field corner bleachers. These seats give you a direct view of the hockey style dugouts with the two teams sitting side by side on the first base side of the field.

I exited as I entered and took a walk around the block to the outfield sections of Cardines. Only from walking the perimeter of the field as many times as I have would I have found these cool vantage points of Cardines. You can’t park where these views are but you can walk up and see the park from the outfield fences. Here are a few photos I took on Saturday from way, way out in the outfield.

It was another spectacular Rhode Island Baseball Experience at Cardines Field for GDSL baseball featuring Town Dock and Westcott. Final score was Westcott 4 – Town Dock 3. I ended up staying about 5 innings and left after what I saw was a pretty evenly matched game and a nice pitcher’s duel. I highly recommend attending a GDSL game and taking in not only a great baseball game, but all the joys and history of Newport’s Cardines Field.

And here is a snapshot of the box score featuring the Town Dock and Westcott lineups on Saturday, courtesy of the official website of the George Donnelly Sunset League – www.gdsunsetleague.com.