A Night at the Cape League

The sound of a wood bat is as pure as it gets. And the sound is even better on Cape Cod.

Every year, I venture down to the Cape for a night or two. Sometimes it’s to Chatham or Hyannis, but there are the lesser-known spots of Orleans, Brewster, and Cotuit that make my list, too. These are the towns of the Cape Cod Baseball League, the home of the best amateur baseball talent in the country.

Growing up, I dreamed of playing for Chatham. My parents took me down there to watch games more often than they did Fenway. Why? The food is cheap and the games are free. Everything is local. In all the towns of the Cape League, the same faces run the souvenir stands and snack stands every year. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

These boys of summer become part of the communities, working at the local shops, staying with local families, and playing for these local teams. Each player is required to hold down a job and work a certain number of hours to be eligible. It’s how the league manages to stay in business.

This league is nothing like how the movie Summer Catch made it sound. Scouts flock to the games, sitting behind the backstop with radar guns and clipboards. It’s the first time many of these players will have used wood bats, which provides a measuring stick that college baseball can’t. It feels like an All-Star Game every night.

So that’s where we went over the weekend, down to the Yarmouth area to check out a game. We grabbed a seat down the line and settled in for what would end up being a really good game. Yarmouth-Dennis usually draws well, but this year they seem to be doing even better.

Want to see one of the heroes of the College World Series? They were all slated to play here. Gordon Beckham, Jason Castro, Buster Posey, and Josh Fields all had contracts with Yarmouth-Dennis. They were among the 14 Cape League players taken in the first round of the draft.

Instead, we got to watch other talent, including Josh Rutledge ('Bama), Jared Mitchell (LSU), and Ryan Ortiz (Oregon St.). Not quite the same, but they still led the team over Falmouth, 5-4.

Over 200 Cape League players were taken in the 2008 draft. And the past is even more telling of the quality in the league. You can go through various team websites and see star-studded lists of former players—Mark Teixeira, Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra, and Brian Roberts to name a few.

A new crop of players enters the league each year. The fans come by the hundreds, trying to see if any of these players will match the magic of those that have come before them. And the players know.

Being down on the Cape during the summer is an experience in itself. But sitting at a ballfield and watching some of the best players in the country, it doesn’t get any better. Every field has a breeze from the water, and all the towns claim to have the most devoted fan base.

Do yourself a favor, whether you’re local or not. Make the drive down to the Cape, grab yourself a brown bag filled with fried clams, and check out some ball. After all, the next time you see some of these players, the tickets won’t be as cheap, and the views won’t be anywhere near as good.