Cape League diamonds shine
Play to resume after last year’s lost season
Summers on Cape Cod wouldn’t be the same without ice cream, fried clams and baseball.
All the above will be back in play this year as the Cape Cod Baseball League is set to kick off its 136th season the second Saturday in June with all 10 teams from Wareham to Orleans filling rosters.
“We worked extremely hard to make this happen,” said John Garner, the voice of Cape Cod baseball. “From an economic standpoint, this is huge.”
In a good year, the league draws about 300,000 fans who help pump up the Cape’s economy. The 10 teams field about 400 to 600 players, with many rotating in early while other top college talent from around the country join once the NCAA playoffs end.
“Two years without baseball would have been terrible,” said Bill Bussiere, senior vice president of the league. “We’re all just looking for some kind of normal.”
The league is hoping the coronavirus cools enough in the area to allow for 50% attendance — above the 12% allowed at Fenway Park and the TD Garden today. The community is seeing a 10.2% COVID-19 positivity rate, the highest in the state.
Cape League officials say they expect vaccines and safety measures will kick in before the summer tourist season begins tamping down COVID concerns.
With rentals going wild, the baseball teams could reap the benefits with their affordable prices (about a $10 suggested donation for a small family) and talent. One in every six Major League Baseball players has passed through the league, Cape baseball brags. That includes Chris Sale of the Red Sox,
Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Houston Astro George Springer.
Former Sox favorite Jackie Bradley Jr., now with the Milwaukee Brewers, played in the Cape League and so did retired Sox catcher Jason Varitek, to name a few. The movie “Summer Catch,” starring Jessica Biel and Freddie Prinze Jr., was also based off the league.
The games are known for using wooden bats. No aluminum allowed. That detail has become a big draw for MLB scouts, who usually line up behind the fence near home plate to watch the action, with their radar guns clocking pitching speeds.
The fans can sit along both baselines — if they bring their own beach chair. It’s so close to the action you can hear the pop of a pitch into a catcher’s mitt. But you better keep your eye on any foul ball, these players come from the top baseball schools in the nation. The 50/50 raffles are also a hit, with the winners splitting the proceeds with the host teams.
The 10 Cape League teams include the Brewster Whitecaps, Bourne Braves, Chatham Anglers, Cotuit Kettleers, Falmouth Commodores, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Harbor Hawks, Orleans Firebirds, Wareham Gatemen and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
The league was once filled with players returning from World War I and World War II, so the Cape has a history of adapting to the times. If the coronavirus eases up, baseball will return to the open-air fields dotting the peninsula.
When asked if baseball is back on the Cape, league spokesman Ben Brink said: “Hell, ya!”