Rhode Island Day at Fenway: Ocean Staters on the current sports scene

The Boston Red Sox will conduct their fourth annual celebration of Rhode Island Day at Fenway Park during tonight’s game against the Baltimore Orioles. In concomitance with the occasion, here is a look at eight Rhode Island-born athletes still active in professional sports and still representing the notion that state size doesn’t matter.

Will Blackmon

The Providence-born cornerback was drafted by Green Bay out of Boston College, where he logged 139 tackles in three years on defense before playing wide receiver as a senior. He capped his Eagles’ career by partaking in the 2005 Senior Bowl.

Over his first four NFL seasons, Blackmon saw action in 32 games with the Packers―including the full 2008 schedule―and was twice named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Week.

Since departing Green Bay last summer, Blackmon has played five games with the New York Giants, though he will be seeking employment from another franchise once the NFL lockout lets up.

Brian Boucher

As a backstop for Mount St. Charles in his native Woonsocket, Boucher helped to prolong the prep school’s otherworldly string of 26 consecutive championships. From there, he left school early to join the Junior A and major junior ranks and was ultimately chosen by Philadelphia as the No. 22 overall pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft.

In a mixed first 14 years as a pro, Boucher has accepted several dips back into the AHL and seven franchise changes, the latest being a free agent signing with Carolina last week.

That said, he has logged a not-so-shabby 314 games in The Show and still owns the record for longest shutout streak (332:01) that he set over five-plus games with the Phoenix Coyotes in 2003-04.

Jill Craybas

With the International Tennis Hall of Fame tucked into downtown Newport, you know there has to be at least one Ocean Stater reaping racquet rewards.

Craybas, who hails from Providence, entered the professional ranks in 1996 on the heels of an NCAA singles championship as a senior at the University of Florida.

As a pro, Craybas currently holds a career singles record of 387-385, coupled with a doubles transcript of 130-206. Her trophy case contains a Tokyo Japan Open championship, four ITF singles titles, four WTA doubles championships, one ITF doubles title and a cumulative $2,317,501 worth of prize money.

Chris Iannetta

The Colorado Rockies catcher was once named the top student-athlete at Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, a short commute from his native Providence.

While studying and slugging at the University of North Carolina, Iannetta returned home for the summer months and played for the Newport Gulls in 2003, one year before he was drafted by Colorado.

Now in his sixth Major League campaign, Iannetta has seen action in 412 games for the Rockies and represented Team USA at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Paul Konerko

The White Sox captain, four-time All-Star and 2005 World Series MVP spent the better part of his formative years in Connecticut and Arizona. But that was not before he was born in Providence.

Of all active athletes with Rhode Island roots, Konerko is arguably the most accomplished. He became a full-time Major Leaguer with Chicago in 1999 and has cracked triple digits in the hit column every season since then.

As of Friday, his career line consists of 1,935 games played, 1,011 runs scored, 1,961 hits, 387 home runs and 1,220 runs batted in.

Kyle Rowley

The Warwick native graduated from Brown University in 2001 and has since penned a fairly ornate diary in indoor football.

Rowley has been a mainstay for the Spokane Shock since the team’s inception in 2006. Spoken started as lower-level arenafootball2 team and won the league title in its inaugural season. Three years, later he set a single-season league record with 4,693 passing yards.

More recently, when the top-tier Arena Football League was exhumed last summer, the Shock elevated a level and repeated its feat by winning the Arena Bowl in its first AFL campaign. None other than Rowley garnered MVP accolades as Spokane vanquished the Tampa Bay Storm, 69-57, in the 2010 title game.

Bobby Sewall

The wide receiver was a quarterback through high school, when he represented his hometown as a four-sport star with the Portsmouth Patriots, who named him football Team MVP as a senior in 2005-06.

Sewell stayed close to home at Brown, where he was twice named to the All-Ivy League team and ranked among the nation’s best in terms of receptions and receiving yards per game.

Upon graduation in 2010, Sewall signed with the Tennessee Titans as a free agent, though he didn’t make the cut at his inaugural NFL training camp. He has more recently tried his luck with the UFL’s Virginia Destroyers.

Dan Wheeler

Born and raised in Warwick, Wheeler graduated from Pilgrim High School in 1995 and was chosen by the yet-to-operate Tampa Bay Devil Rays a year later in Round 34 of the MLB’s amateur draft.

After three full seasons in the minors, Wheeler was summoned for his Major League debut as a September call-up in 1999 and made an impression in his second start on September 12, when he fanned a dozen Oakland Athletics in six innings-pitched at Tropicana Field.

Wheeler has since assumed a reliever’s role and made stops in four other Major League cities. He has partaken in two trips to the World Series with Houston in 2005 and Tampa in 2008, though he has yet to pick up a ring.

This season, with a one-year contract in Boston, he will vie to fill that item on his checklist with his favorite childhood team.