ORLEANS — The coffee was cold.
That was the first indication Bob Zavorskas’s co-workers at Roy Svenningsen’s construction company had that the young shortstop from Connecticut had his mind on something other than their morning beverages.
Zavorskas tells the tale in the kitchen of his South Orleans home several days after attending Orleans Firebirds Alumni Week, where 20 former players swapped stories of baseball summers in the best college league in the country.
It was 1964, and Zavorskas was in the middle of a three-year run playing for the team then known as the Cardinals. As was the norm, he also had a full-time job. His first task each morning was to stop at Stan and Margaret’s Coffee Shop in Orleans to fill the coffee and donuts order.
Joyce Gardner, the young woman behind the counter, caught the shortstop’s eye, and the importance of promptly providing coffee to his fellow workers immediately took a back seat to capturing Joyce’s attention.
His colleagues told him he’d better “turn it around pretty quick,” he remembers with a grin. Instead, he turned up the charm, and those early-morning encounters between the summer ballplayer and the young waitress turned into a marriage that’s now in its 59th year. The couple raised two sons, John and James, who graduated from Nauset High School.
Jason Wheeler was another former player at Alumni Week whose life was changed by his Cape League experience. The 34-year-old native Californian played baseball for Loyola Marymount and pitched for the Orleans team in the summer of 2011. The Cardinals had become the Firebirds by then: the team changed its name in 2009 after discussions with Major League Baseball about trademark infringement.
Unlike some teammates, he did not sleep late, preferring to explore this strange new place with Maddie, Kyle, Sam, and Jeremy Walters, the children of the family that hosted him in Orleans.
“I would go out with Maddie and her brothers on their boat,” said Wheeler. “We would go fishing and to different lakes and to the beach.”
Wheeler’s summer excursions with Maddie Walters led to a marriage, too. The couple now have two young sons, Jacob and Cameron. The family lives in Canton but they’re in Orleans a lot, visiting Maddie’s parents, Kim and Davis.
Besides lots of storytelling, the inaugural Firebirds Alumni Week included first pitches, “challenge” rings, and a big buffet in a tent adjoining the field at Eldredge Park.
The celebration was Firebirds President Bob O’Donnell’s idea. He, Nancy Nickerson, and Steve Kaser spent months planning it. They say they’re already thinking about next year.
O’Donnell was pleased with the enthusiasm at this year’s event. He came away from it realizing that, for the players, “a season with the team was life-changing.”
That certainly held true for Wheeler and Zavorskas, who developed interests and skills that shaped their lives well after their baseball summers ended.
Wheeler learned to throw a change-up during his time in Orleans. It was the off-speed pitch he needed to spur his professional advancement.
Zavorskas went clamming for the first time, becoming proficient out of necessity. In the 1960s, there were no sponsored post-game suppers; meals were whatever you could rustle up. He recalls using a garden rake to fill a bushel basket with clams from a spot near the Orleans Yacht Club. He’s an avid clammer to this day.
Similarly, the time Wheeler spent with the Walters siblings led to an enduring love of the Cape — especially the outdoors. “We ride bikes and go to different ponds,” he said. “It is my favorite place to go cycling.”
When their time in Orleans came to an end, both men had professional opportunities to consider. Zavorskas was introduced to Orleans by local baseball legend Tom Yankus, who was also in town for Alumni Week. He passed up an offer by the Cincinnati Reds to play baseball in South Dakota.
Zavorskas went to work at U.S. Gypsum after graduating from Bucknell. He figures his construction experience in Orleans, cold coffee notwithstanding, helped him land the job. That was the start of a career in the building materials industry with stops in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Massachusetts. But Cape Cod was always on his mind, he says. He and Joyce moved back in 1983.
Zavorskas turned 80 this summer but retains the athletic appearance he had when he was the Cardinals’ shortstop. He has fond memories of playing Cotuit in the 1963 Cape League Championship and of his teammates, many of whom he still keeps in touch with. None of them went on to play in the major leagues but one, Cal Fisk, is the older brother of Carlton Fisk, the Hall of Famer, who played briefly for Orleans in 1966, the season after Zavorskas left the team.
Dave Prybyla, another former Cardinal at the reunion, played second base next to Zavorskas for two seasons and remains a close friend. “He was the consummate teammate; very much a team player,” said Prybyla. “He was fast, he could run like the wind, and he had a strong arm.”
Wheeler signed with Minnesota in 2011 after the Cape season ended and made it to the Major Leagues in 2017, appearing twice in relief for the Twins. He finished his career in 2018 with Hanwha of the Korean League.
After that, law school beckoned and, following one year at Arizona State, the Wheelers decided that Massachusetts was where they wanted to raise a family. Jason transferred to Boston College Law School and is now an attorney at Holland & Knight in Boston.
“He was a great kid and a hard worker — I am super proud of him,” said Kelly Nicholson, the Firebirds manager who, along with Coach Jason Brown, taught Wheeler to throw the changeup that propelled his baseball career.
Wheeler and Zavorskas are both glad they’ve had the chance to keep enjoying Orleans. Zavorskas liked living in other towns, “but they just didn’t offer what the Cape did.”
And he can now savor morning coffee with Joyce at his leisure.
