Location New Haven, CT Founded 1864 Head coach John Stuper University Yale University | Nickname Bulldogs Arena/Stadium Yale Field Conference Ivy League Colors Yale Blue, White | |
Home stadium Yale Field
(Capacity: 6,200) | ||
The Yale Bulldogs baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The team is a member of the Ivy League, which is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. Yale's first baseball team was fielded in 1864. The team plays its home games at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut. The Bulldogs are coached by John Stuper.
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History
The Yale Bulldogs Baseball program was founded in 1868 as a team to compete with Harvard baseball. Yale played its first baseball game against Wesleyan College in September 1865. On July 23, 1868, Yale played its first championship game as an invitational against Harvard University, in which it lost 25-17. On June 5, 1869, Harvard visited Brooklyn and defeated Yale 41-24. Harvard would continue to dominate Yale in the Ivy League baseball conference, but Yale won two games in 1874.
In 1928, Yale Field was built to house the Yale baseball program. Yale's first game in their new stadium was played in 1928 against the Eastern League New Haven Professionals. The first pitch was thrown by Mayor Tower of New Haven. The result of the game was a 12-0 shutout by the road team.
Major leaguers pitcher Craig Breslow (Oakland A's and Boston Red Sox) and catcher Ryan Lavarnway (Boston Red Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers), among others, played baseball for the Bulldogs. Breslow led the Ivy League with a 2.56 ERA in 2002. Lavarnway led the NCAA in batting average (.467) and slugging percentage (.873) in 2007, set the Ivy League hitting-streak record (25), and through 2010 held the Ivy League record in career home runs (33). In August 2012, Breslow and Lavarnway, playing for the Red Sox, became the first Yale grads to be Major League teammates since 1949, and the first All-Yale battery in the major leagues since 1883. In September 2016 the two were again battery-mates, this time playing for Team Israel in the qualifiers for the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Major League Baseball
Yale has had 35 Major League Baseball Draft selections since the draft began in 1965.