18 hour bus rides are not for the faint of heart. You really have to love baseball to drive from Salt Lake City to Medicine Hat, Canada only to get off the bus and play a double header.
This was life in the minor leagues in the late 1980s.
Long Island-native Tommy Boyce did it for 3 seasons after his recording-setting career at NY Tech. Prior to that, he helped lead Comsewogue to their first and only New York State Championship in 1982.
Along his journey there were many highs and lows, but first let’s turn the clock back.
The Early Days
Tommy was born in Brooklyn but raised in Port Jeff Station. His father was an air traffic controller and his mother owned a hair salon. He had one younger brother, who was the Long Island record holder for most goals scored in a boy’s lacrosse game (13).
During his youth, Tommy played baseball, basketball and soccer. He continued to play basketball through 11th grade. He was even better at soccer, where he was named All-County and All-State and was very close to attending Ithaca College to play both soccer and baseball.
It was on the diamond where his true passion was.
He played on the talented Sachem A’s, who won the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, NM the year before he got on the team. During his seasons of 1980 and 1981 they peaked with a second place finish.
That team was led by Marty Hasenfuss.
“That was the only man I was ever afraid of,” joked Boyce. That team was comprised of many of the top players from Suffolk County including future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio and Neal Heaton‘s younger brother, Scott Heaton.
“Biggio would bat sixth sometimes – that’s how good our offense was. Difference with him was he had the gift of speed and he kept getting better,” said Boyce. The team also featured some of his Comsewogue teammates who would later be on his championship winning team.
Boyce played JV as a 9th grader before getting called up to varsity as a sophomore. He was the only sophomore on the team and played right field.
It was a magical season for the Warriors, who would go on to defeat the reigning Suffolk Champs, East Islip, in the County Finals before advancing to defeat South Side to win the Long Island Championship under head coach Tom Hespos.
They marched onto the NY State tournament in Little Falls, NY and won both of their games, including the finals against Notre Dame HS, to finish with a record of 27-4.
“We all played little league together from 6-years-old and the travel team brought most of the kids together,” Boyce said.
The Warriors were led by two All-State pitchers in Billy Findlay and Bill Stiles, who both would go onto pitch in pro ball – Findlay with the Texas Rangers and Stiles with the New York Mets. They also had Tony Bonura, who played pro ball with the Angels.
In those days, the playoffs were all single-elimination games and he recalled beating some very tough pitchers along the way including Chris Bayer of West Islip, who won the Yaz Award and would go on to get drafted and pitched 4 seasons in pro ball.
In terms of his college recruiting process, there was a couple twists and turns.
Through his connection with Scott Heaton, he planned on going to the University of Miami – which is where Neal Heaton attended and was drafted by the Cleveland Indians. That fell through when he broke two toes playing soccer which impacted his senior season of baseball. He also was considering attending Ithaca College to play both soccer and baseball. He decided he just wanted to play baseball.
There was also the chance of getting selected in the MLB Draft. There was interest from the Los Angeles Dodgers who had called him, but that did not come to fruition.
At a crossroads, he called Marty Hasenfuss who was friendly with New York Tech coach Bob Hirschfield. He sent him a personal letter to take a look at Boyce. Hirschfield invited him to campus and he offered him a scholarship on the spot. That eventually became a full scholarship. Boyce chose to stay close to home and attend NY Tech.
There is no question that the recruiting process is much different now than it was back then. Boyce stated that this all came together sometime between the end of his baseball season and graduation – which is much later than it would in this era, especially for a Division-I athlete that was nearly drafted out of high school.
NY Tech
During that era, NY Tech was among the best Division-I programs in the northeast – along with St. John’s, Fordham and Seton Hall.
“We beat a lot of good teams in those days,” said Boyce, who finished his four-year career with a program-record 52 home runs – a record that still stands to this day.
The switch-hitter also remains tied for first in RBIs (183), second in slugging percentage (.679), first in walks (166), third in doubles (46) and 10th in runs scored (152).
During Boyce’s freshman season, the Bears hit an incredible .352 as a team and scored 426 runs over 50 games (8.5 runs per game). They compiled a record of 32-15-2 that season. They had several defining moments; defeating No. 10 New Orleans and No. 24 Southwest Louisiana, they scored 26 runs in their season opener, later compiled a 13-game winning streak in April, swept the University of Maryland and scored a program-record 28 runs against Lafayette.
They were also very competitive during his junior season of 1987 in which they went 34-18-2. The highlight of his season occurred on April 2 when NY Tech swept Hartford by the scores of 18-0 and 4-0. Boyce hit 2 homers and drove in 5 runs in the first game, and also hit a homer in the 9th inning of the second game. They would go onto reach the championship round of the ECAC playoffs before losing.
In those days, each region sent a representative to the College World Series. Maine was the last team from the northeast to make it until Stony Brook accomplished the feat in 2012.
“It should’ve been us,” he said.
He noted that he was fortunate to play alongside other great players such as Fred Leone and Ray Giannelli, who were two of the best hitters he ever played with. Leone was second team All-American in 1985 and Giannelli was the ECAC Player of the Year in 1987 and drafted by Toronto in 1988.
During the summers of 1986 and 1987, Boyce had the honor of playing in the prestigious Cape Cod League. He played for the Chatham A’s in 1986 and the Harwich Mariners in ’87.
His team featured future stars such as Albert Belle and Chuck Nagy and also fellow Long Island-native Ron Whitmeyer.
“I should’ve won the playoff MVP, I batted over .500 and hit a few homers but they gave it to Nagy who won two games in the playoffs after not pitching in the regular season.”
He credits Mike Lopez for getting him into the Cape Cod League. He called Mike “the greatest player I’ve ever seen.” Lopez was an 8th round draft pick out of Eckerd College in 1983.
Boyce could have been drafted after his junior season. Two teams (White Sox, Expos) called him and asked how much money he was looking for and they weren’t willing to meet his request.
He was not drafted after his junior season so he went back to NY Tech. He was determined to break some of the program records – which he did. He had a monster season, hitting 19 homers with a batting average north of .350.
Boyce had a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Huntington along with a few other players from the area – which was organized by Larry Izzo.
His most vivd memory was a moment that NY Tech alum refer to as “the homer in the dark.” It came against Fairfield and the sun was completely gone.
“Hirschfield told me swing at the first pitch because they are going to call it a tie after the pitch. I swung and hit it out. The guys still talk about it,” he said.
Pro Ball
He wound up signing with the Salt Lake City Trappers (Pioneer League) who are famous for holding the professional baseball record with 29 consecutive wins in 1987.
“It was the best baseball experience I ever had,” said Boyce. “We played in front of 20,000 people each night.” He noted that the travel was grueling as the shortest bus ride they had was 6 hours, and they typically were more than that. They took the longest bus ride in professional baseball which was into Canada and was 18 hours. Once you arrived, you played a double header. The season consists of 70 games in 71 days. Boyce performed admirably, as he batted .282 with 41 runs scored, 41 RBIs and very strong .448 OBP over 64 games.
In 1989, he would play for the Miami Miracle and the Kenosha Twins – who are an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. With the Miami Miracle, he was coached by future big league manager Fredi Gonzalez.
During his final season of 1990, he suffered a knee injury which impact his career. That season, he was limited to 54 games and his numbers suffered due to it.
The Next Chapter
Boyce’s next career move was to become a cop in Florida, which he did from 1992-1995. He came back home to take care of his mother.
Back in New York, he got a job working at Verizon as a field technician which he did until he suffered an aneurysm in 2018.
Boyce chose to get back into baseball as a coach. He was an assistant at Suffolk Community College from 2018-2023 under Jason Galbraith. He also worked for Galbraith at the East End Baseball Academy giving lessons and coaching the Aviators for several seasons. He still does their winter workouts and gives private lessons. Additionally, he has been a softball umpire for the past 15 years and plays on multiple teams. In 2023, he was named MVP of the Vegas Worlds tournament.
Boyce has two kids; Juliana, 26, and TJ, 22. They attended Eastport-South Manor and have both since graduated college. He has been married to his wife, Karen, since 1999.
He remains in touch with his NY Tech alum and attended his Comsewogue reunion with the team, as they were inducted into the Comsewogue Hall of Fame.
The years go on but the records remain in the history books. Boyce’s impact at both his alma maters have stood the test of time.