The Perfect Baseball

What makes the Cape Cod Baseball League special

The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) is a convergence of the past and future — a backward reflection into the pre-professionalized form of the game with a forward glimpse of the major league’s next stars.

Nearly every night from mid-June to early August, residents, families and vacationers alike grab their lawn chairs and picnic blankets to watch this idyllic version of America’s pastime. It’s a family-friendly, carefree, relaxed atmosphere without the hustle and bustle of over-expensive drinks, seating (which is free!), hecklers, train tickets, parking et cetera. Meanwhile, the players are collegiate-level athletes showcasing their talents not for profit, but for the love of the game and the hope to be recognized by Major League Baseball scouts. As the CCBL’s slogan states, baseball on the Cape is “Where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight!”

In a word, it’s romantic. A true embodiment of Walt Whitman’s observances that baseball is, indeed, America’s game and a “blessing to us.”

This past Fourth of July weekend, I watched several games — both between the Orleans Firebirds and Chatham Anglers. The weather was pitch perfect and the performances by the players themselves were nearly polished. At one point, after the Firebirds turned a 5-4-3 double-play, my uncle remarked how smooth the defensemen moved and how easy they made it look. These are skilled, young players honing their craft.

Since the early 1960s, the CCBL has become a rite of passage for amateur players working their way to the Show (the other being the Alaskan Baseball League). The league’s alumni who have appeared in the majors is well into the thousands with the likes of Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk (Orleans 1966), Frank Thomas (Orleans 1988), Craig Biggio (Yarmouth-Dennis 1986), Jeff Bagwell (Chatham, 1987-88), and countless other household name stars like Aaron Judge (Brewster 2012), Nomar Garciaparra (Orleans 1993), Buck Showalter (Hyannis 1976), and recent NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes (Orleans 2015). When last tallied in 2018, there were 303 alumni on MLB rosters.

But the origins of the league date further back to the American Civil War with the first organized team — the Nichols Club of Sandwich — forming in 1865. (If only sea captain Edward Nichols, who inspired the team name, was named Edward Hero…but perhaps there are already too many sandwich puns). According to Baseball on Cape Cod by Dan Crowley, the game quickly grew with towns throughout the peninsula forming their own clubs and rivalries. Crowley writes that by the 1880s, “baseball was a regular sight from Bourne to Provincetown.” By the early 1900s, the league already became grounds for major league prospects, most notably with Framingham native, and future Hall of Famer, Pie Traynor being recruited to play third base for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The evolution of the league from inter-town rivalries to MLB-prospect ground is fascinating, and worth exploring in Crowley’s book. One might think the increased awareness, particularly from scouts, would tarnish the atmosphere at a CCBL game. This author would beg to differ. Exorbitant salaries, politicization, black-out TV contracts, and over-specialization have, for lack of a better word, deteriorated the MLB’s popularity — all of which are absent from games on the Cape.

Those qualities of major league baseball crack the veneer of what made baseball beautiful: that somehow, if one were talented enough, they could be in the batter’s box or one of the nine on the field. In all honesty, that sensation swept over me during the games I watched over the Fourth of July weekend. You can visibly witness that alluring characteristic on the children who toss baseballs with their siblings, fathers and/or relatives, as well as with some of the CCBL players. I also overheard from not one, but several pre-teens about their aspirations to play on the Cape Cod fields one day. There is a tangibility to the CCBL that differs from MLB games, and rather difficult to translate into words — but, for any baseball fan, it should be experienced.

And there’s nothing like hearing the echo from the crack of the bat ripple through a seaside town summer evening. Perhaps I am too romantic, but after watching several games, the CCBL reasserts the truth Whitman more succinctly expressed about America’s pastime than this author ever could: “The game of ball is glorious.”

So if you’re ever in the Northeast, step back in time at the ballpark and watch the stars of tomorrow play underneath the evening sky.

If you’re looking for more baseball writings, I’ve researched, curated and wrote the web exhibit “K of C Baseball: An American Story” for the Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center. It explores how the Catholic fraternal organization and individual members — such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, John McGraw, Connie Mack and countless others — have had more of an impact on America’s pastime than previously realized. You can read Part One here.