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baseball

    BASEBALL

    Junior Chase Beach Is the Ace in This Year’s Rotation

    His velocity tops out at just over 86 m.p.h.

    By

    EASTHAM — Nauset High junior Chase Beach eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball.

    “I’m thinking about baseball all the time,” says Beach. “When I wake up, I’m thinking about baseball, and when I go to bed, I’m thinking about the next day and what I must do to be better. It’s all I think about.”

    Beach, an Orleans resident, is the ace in the Warriors’ pitching rotation this season and a key cog in the field and at the plate.

    Nauset junior Chase Beach goes into the stretch as he warms up during the Warriors’ intrasquad scrimmage on March 25. (Photos by Allen Gunn)

    The Warriors under first-year Head Coach Doug Mason, who returns to the program having been the junior varsity coach in Beach’s freshman year, lost three starting pitchers to graduation last season. Max Dio, Cam Beer, and Dylan Duarte are gone. So, Nauset has had to reload in search of a third consecutive Cape and Islands Atlantic Division championship.

    Beach, a right-hander, is at the forefront of that pursuit.

    “He’s so committed,” says teammate and Nauset senior Jack Cronan. “He’s the leader of the team, and when you see him putting in the work like that, yeah, you can get behind that.”

    The 17-year-old is putting up some “disgusting” numbers in the weight room to get his body in the right condition for the season. In the off-season, Beach worked hard under instructor Dylan Morris at Lab Baseball in Hyannis, where he targeted new pitching grips and worked on his exit velocity at the plate. He’s currently moving 545 pounds on his trap bar deadlift, and his reverse lunge is at 350 pounds — the weight of a 42-gallon drum of oil.

    “I just love the game,” says Beach. “I love getting better and putting up some fun numbers in the gym and on the field.” On his social media feed you can watch him throw a baseball the full 100-yard length of the Nauset football field. “I hope to play in college, so the drive to get there is what keeps me going,” he says.

    Watching Beach throw, you can see every inch of movement on the ball. His curveball starts in the zone and by the time it reaches the batter a second later it’s fallen out. Strike!

    “He expects a lot,” says senior catcher Dan Deering, one of four catchers on the Nauset roster. “He’s a routine kind of guy — he does it every day. If he’s pitching, you know you have to get locked in and be at your best, because that’s the level he’s going to be at. The professionalism he brings to the team is awesome, especially with the younger guys.”

    Beach stares down the batter from the mound.

    Beach is throwing about 83 to 85 miles per hour. He’s topped out at just over 86 m.p.h. That gives the batter less than half a second to decide if he’s going to swing or not. Elite hitters have a chance to get a bat on the ball; for the rest, it’s too late.

    For a pitcher, it’s all about command. “I had a high walk rate last year, so I’ve been working on getting my pitches into the strike zone more consistently, because it’s not going to help if I’m throwing four balls,” Beach says.

    His aim is to be an all-around great player. He’s featured at first base for the Warriors and has shown he can take an opposing pitcher deep. Practice ends on his time. During a recent intersquad scrimmage, he wanted an extra at bat, so they played an extra half-inning. “I don’t want any pitcher being comfortable with me in the box,” he says.

    Beach, whose goal is to play in college, is in the perfect place for baseball. The Cape Cod Baseball League is one of the premier summer leagues for college players, and the Warriors play on the same field as the Orleans Firebirds at historic Eldredge Park. “They hold themselves to a different standard,” he says. “Seeing them, it makes you more driven; it makes you work harder.”

    Beach doesn’t have to look far for insight on what it takes to get to the next level. His brother, Chris, a Nauset graduate, is currently playing at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I.

    “My brother has been a great role model,” Chase says. “He was doing the same thing in high school that I’m doing — just getting after it. Seeing the difference from high school to college, it’s a lot, but I want that. The way they train, the way they eat, and how they rest and recover. It’s more than just being on the field — it’s what you do to prepare to be on it. You see the best players, and they all do it.”

    “He also wants to be a leader,” says Coach Mason. “That’s what stands out about him. Wherever he goes, that college coach is going to be happy that he has him on the roster.”

    Nauset is looking to improve on its Round of 32 exit in the MIAA Division 2 State Tournament last season. The team opened the season on April 4 against St. John Paul II at McKeon Field.

    “I’ll do whatever I need to help the team,” Beach says. “I’m not where I want to be yet, but we’re getting there.”

    SPRING TRAINING

    Baseball Is Back, Despite Its Major League Troubles

    The Cape League gets ready for a busy, full season

    By

    For a while, as Major League Baseball and its players association argued over a collective bargaining agreement, it looked as if the 2022 baseball season might not happen.

    The negotiations were complex, centered mainly on money. MLB imposed a lockout in December and canceled the first two series of the regular season on March 2. But on March 10, the league and players association agreed on a new contract.

    After the players approved the deal, the owners ratified it with a 30-0 vote, officially bringing the three-month lockout to a close, according to MLB.com. The 2022 season is slated to begin on April 7, about a week later than usual.

    “I know all pro sports are big business, but for billionaires and millionaires to be fighting it seems like there should be more at stake than their personal greed,” said Bill Higgins, former sports editor of the Cape Cod Times. Higgins followed baseball and golf, his two favorite sports, throughout his 30-plus-year career.

    “I don’t think the players are being greedy but there’s this ‘We have to win’ element to this,” said Higgins. “It can’t be win-win. There’s such a lack of trust between the players and the owners. I don’t know how you solve it.”

    The issues of the majors are not going to affect the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), the top amateur summer league in the country. The Cape League gets its players from college teams before they’ve entered the minor league system, and long before they reach “the Big Show.”

    Manager of the Orleans Firebirds Kelly Nicholson talks to some of his players prior to Opening Day of the Cape League season in 2021. (Photo by Edward Boches)

    The lockout “doesn’t affect us directly, thank goodness,” said CCBL Commissioner Eric Zmuda. “The college players are looking forward to the summer.”

    The Cape League does receive some funding from MLB; the rest of its funds come from sponsorships and donations, Zmuda said.

    “That doesn’t stop,” he said.

    A longer major league lockout might even have helped the Cape League. More people might have been inclined to travel to the Cape and attend summer games here if there were no professional baseball games.

    After Covid-19 caused the cancellation of its 2020 season, the Cape League resumed play last summer with a somewhat altered program. This summer, Zmuda said, the league will go back to a full schedule of 44 games per team. Eight of the 10 teams in the league will make the playoffs.

    The league’s Covid testing policy will be a bit less strict this year, but a mandatory vaccination policy is in place for players who don’t have an approved exemption.

    A Slow Game

    Baseball fans have complained in recent years that the pace of the game is too slow, and America’s Pastime may be losing out with the younger generation.

    There are more pitching changes these days, pitchers take longer to set up between pitches, and the analytics of the game have changed with the effect of increasing the prevalence of both strikeouts and home runs.

    “From a romantic point of view, I still love the game,” said Higgins. “But it’s very frustrating what’s happened, both off and on the field. As much as I love it, I can’t sit there for three and a half hours just to watch strikeouts and home runs.”

    According to the Baseball Almanac, in 2021 there were 5,929 home runs in the league, compared to 4,552 a decade earlier. The number of strikeouts grew to 42,025 in 2021 from 34,489 in 2011.

    That means having runners on base, a big part of baseball action, is less frequent. And younger people’s attention spans appear to be shorter, likely thanks to technology.

    Unlike the NBA or the NFL, Major League Baseball hasn’t successfully catapulted its stars into the social media age. Young people look for their favorite athletes on social media more than ever; some prefer watching highlights to a live game. But baseball’s stars don’t have as much appeal on social media platforms as basketball and football players.

    On the Cape, though, the summer league is a nostalgic experience that you won’t find anywhere else and one that young families consistently turn out to watch.

    “I think with any sport you see ebb and flow,” Zmuda said. He admitted that baseball has been on the front pages for the wrong reasons lately.

    “The college programs keep on rolling, and we’re happy to be a part of that,” he said. “If you’re a baseball fan, you really just want to see baseball. It’s always great to get out to the ballpark.”

    CAPE LEAGUE

    Four Firebirds Make All-Star Lineup

    Orleans defeats first-place Bourne, 10-5

    By

    ORLEANS — The Orleans Firebirds had four players named to the 2021 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Team. Outfielder Chase DeLauter (James Madison U.) and utility player Peyton Chatagnier (Ole Miss) were honored, while pitchers Hayden Thomas (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Nick Wallerstedt (Arizona State U.) also made the cut.

    The Firebirds (11-13-4) have plenty of star power in their bats this year, as the team leads the league in home runs with 31 and has scored 149 runs through 28 games, averaging 5.3 runs per game.

    Third baseman Tyler Locklear (Virginia Commonwealth U.) holds the individual league lead in home runs with nine, while DeLauter is in second place with eight.

    That great hitting hasn’t translated into enough wins to keep the team above .500, however. The Birds are currently in second-to-last place in the East Division, six games behind the first place Brewster Whitecaps.

    The pitching staff for the Birds has allowed 145 runs this season, which might be part of the problem. Compare that to the Bourne Braves (21-5-3), the league’s best team, which has allowed only 93 runs.

    But it was the Birds who outplayed the Braves at both the plate and on the mound on Monday night with a convincing 10-5 victory over the first-place squad.

    Orleans pitcher Nathan Florence (U. of Hartford) threw four shutout innings to start the game for the Birds, while Locklear added his ninth home run of the season and the team led 3-0.

    Orleans first baseman Trae Harmon hit a three-run shot over the left field fence to put the Firebirds up 6-0 in the sixth. Up until that point, no team had gone up six runs against the Braves this season.

    The Braves made an effort at a comeback, narrowing the lead to 6-4 in the top of the seventh. But some well-timed hitting allowed the Birds to score another four runs in the bottom of the inning.

    Orleans All-Star Nick Wallerstedt entered the game as a closer in the eighth inning and allowed one run before finishing off the ninth. Wallerstedt has pitched 14.2 innings for the Birds this summer, mainly as a closer, and allowed just two runs while totaling 18 strikeouts.

    The win against Bourne was a huge one for Orleans. At press time, the Firebirds had just eight games left in regular season play. The team will need to make up some ground in order to earn a spot in the playoffs.

    CAPE LEAGUE

    Firebirds Hit Seven Homers in One Game

    By

    ORLEANS — Something was in the air on the night of Friday, July 2 because the Orleans Firebirds managed to hit seven home runs in a 19-6 rout of the Brewster Whitecaps.

    Outfielder Chase DeLauter (James Madison U.), catcher Garret Guillemette (U. of Southern California), and third baseman Tyler Locklear (Virginia Commonwealth U.) hit two homers each, while shortstop Payton Chatagnier (U. of Mississippi) added a grand slam for the Firebirds. The victory margin was the largest of the year for the team.

    After a day off, the Firebirds had two home games in a row on July 4 and 5. On the 4th, the Birds picked up another win, 8-3, over the Chatham Anglers, this time with home runs from DeLauter and Chatagnier.

    The Whitecaps got revenge on the Birds on Monday the 5th with a 5-2 victory. At press time, the Firebirds were scheduled to play another home game against the Bourne Braves on Tuesday. The Braves had the best record in the league at 9-1-2.

    The Firebirds currently sit in the middle of the East Division with a 6-5-1 record, but the team’s batting tops the league. Outfielder Rhylan Thomas (U. of Southern California) leads the league with a .450 average, and DeLauter leads all players with five home runs.

    Locklear is tied for second in home runs with four, and is first in RBIs with 14. The team has combined to hit 15 home runs, best in the league.

    The Firebirds’ next home game after Tuesday will be on Saturday, July 10 at 7 p.m. against the Falmouth Commodores. —Ryan Fitzgerald

    ON THE DIAMOND

    Nauset Baseball Falls in Quarterfinals

    Orleans plays to scoreless tie against Yarmouth-Dennis

    By

    ORLEANS — The Nauset Regional High School baseball team was one out away from advancing to the Division 2 South Sectional semifinals.

    Nauset pitcher Cam Beer takes a long look at a North Attleboro runner on first base in the bottom of the seventh inning. (Photos Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Junior Cam Beer was on the mound at Eldredge Park in Orleans with a 9-7 lead and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning against the North Attleboro Red Rocketeers in the teams’ quarterfinal matchup on June 23.

    But North Attleboro’s Gavin Wells singled to center field and drove home two runners to tie the game at 9-9. Nauset was able to get out of the inning without giving up any more runs, and the game went to extra innings. In the top of the eighth Nauset got a runner on base but couldn’t do anything with it.

    Nauset Head Coach Kevin Curtin paces alongside the dugout late in Nauset’s loss to North Attleboro.

    Then, in the bottom of the eighth, the Warriors’ chances of extending their undefeated season began to fall apart. Beer walked four batters with the bases loaded, and North Attleboro went on to win the game 17-9.

    The final score doesn’t tell the whole story, though. The game was close for seven innings, and Nauset finished with an impressive 13-1 record on the season. The team is graduating seven seniors this year, with three of them going on to play college ball.

    Firebirds in Scoreless Tie

    In other local baseball news, the Orleans Firebirds played the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox to a nine-inning scoreless tie on Sunday night.

    There are no extra innings in this Cape Cod Baseball League season, so the teams had to settle for a tie. The two teams might have left all their bats on the field the night before. The Red Sox came away with an 8-7 victory over the Firebirds at Red Wilson Field in Yarmouth on Saturday night.

    The Firebirds stood at the bottom of the league’s East Division at 2-3-1 at press time. The team’s next home game will be Friday night against the neighboring Brewster Whitecaps at 7 p.m.

    Orleans outfielder Rhylan Thomas (U. of Southern California) is currently leading the league in hitting with a .444 batting average. Fellow outfielder Chase DeLauter (James Madison U.) has been swinging the bat well for the Birds, with one home run and five RBI through six games this season.

    See capecodbaseball.org for the league schedule and statistics.

    CAPE LEAGUE

    Summer Baseball Returns to the Cape

    Fans, folding chairs, and the Firebirds make a Father’s Day comeback

    By

    Chase DeLauter (OF/James Madison U.), Andy Blake (IF/Columbia U.), Garret Guillemette (Catcher/U. of Southern Calif.), and Tyler Locklear (IF/Virginia Commonwealth U.) demonstrate the fine art of leaning and bubble blowing in the Firebirds’ dugout.

     

    It was a long wait for opening day at Eldredge Park in Orleans, since it was canceled last year. The fans who turned out were ecstatic.

     

    Traditions were on display during the opening ceremonies. This year, a new tradition made its debut. Masks, worn by some players and fans, reminded everyone that the virus still lingers. Mike Chaves Jr. (Worcester State U.) and, masked, Kostas Vouriotis (Southeastern U.).

     

    If there are records to be set this year, it might be by the Ritchie family — they’ve been coming to Firebirds games for 45 years. Three generations were there at opening night. In front is Noah, 7, and his brother Owen, 10. Behind them is their grandfather Hank, their dad, Andy, and their uncle Rod and his son, Joe.

     

    Ryan Amerault, 13, of Orleans, who pitches and plays first base for the Dugout Dawgs, wears the colors of his favorite Cape League team.

    WARRIORS WATCH

    Nauset Baseball Finishes Undefeated

    Girls track team also has a perfect season

    By

    EASTHAM — Nauset Regional High School’s baseball team finished its regular season with a perfect 12-0 record after a 5-1 victory over the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins on Monday.

    The team captured the Cape & Islands League championship and will have home-field advantage heading into the Division 2 South Sectional tournament. Nauset is expected to play the first game of the tournament on either Friday or Saturday at Eldredge Park in Orleans.

    The Warriors are currently ranked fifth in the state, according to maxpreps.com.

    Senior Captains Kurt Thomas and Richie Corres said at the beginning of the season that the team’s goals were to win the league and win every game. Those goals were accomplished.

    Notably, two of the team’s 12 wins came against a solid Barnstable Red Hawks baseball team.

    “I’m really happy for the kids,” Head Coach Kevin Curtin said. “It’s a fantastic group of seniors, and I’m just really pleased with how they played.”

    Defense and pitching carried the Warriors through the season. The team allowed just 35 runs through 12 games, an average of just under three runs per game.

    “Our defense and pitching has been strong, and we’re going to rely on that in the tournament,” Curtin said.

    In other spring sports news, the girls track team also finished its regular season undefeated with a 7-0 record in meets, while the boys ran to a 5-2 meet record.

    The Nauset softball team finished its regular season at 9-3 and will look to be competitive in state tournament play.

    Boys lacrosse celebrated Senior Day on Tuesday with a match against Martha’s Vineyard. The team was 6-5 at press time.

    Follow @Nausetsports on Twitter for up-to-date postseason play information. —Ryan Fitzgerald

    DIAMONDS

    Practice and Patience Pay Off for Nauset Baseball

    The team sets its sights on winning the Cape and Islands crown

    By

    EASTHAM — The Nauset High baseball team’s first game this season was on May 12, nearly two years since it last took the field in June 2019.

    “The kids are thrilled because it’s a chance to play,” said Head Coach Kevin Curtin, “but they also know they’re pretty good.”

    Most imagined the team would need to shake off some rust early in the season. Baseball is, after all, a sport of repetition. Players need to practice their throwing and batting motions against real opponents to improve.

    The team spent the long wait preparing for this moment. Senior captains Ethan Keeney, Kurt Thomas, and Richie Corres organized team practices throughout the off season and kept in touch with everyone to make sure they’d be ready when baseball came back.

    So how did Nauset fare after all that time without organized games?

    “We came out of the gate flying,” Keeney said. Nauset is off to a 5-0 start (at press time; the next game was scheduled for Wednesday, May 26), having racked up 40 runs through those five games.

    Senior shortstop Ethan Keeney snags a liner as a runner for St. John Paul II slides back in to second base. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    “They’re all great leaders,” Curtin said of the seniors. “These are the kids that were organizing captains’ practices and Zoom calls. They saw the light at the end of the tunnel.”

    “The three of us combined were getting people back,” said Thomas. He is Nauset’s number-one pitcher on the mound. “Some kids were on the edge and not sure whether to play.”

    Those efforts to organize paid off.

    “We took every opportunity to get back on the field,” Keeney said.

    Nauset defeated Barnstable, a formidable opponent in the Cape and Islands League, 12-9 in the second game of the season.

    “We were riding high after that Barnstable game,” said Thomas. A little too high, maybe, as the Warriors found themselves losing 8-5 in the fourth inning of their next game, against St. John Paul II.

    But the team remained patient.

    “This is a resilient group of guys,” Keeney said. “We don’t give up.”

    A late rally helped Nauset get back on top, 10-9, in the seventh inning and close out the win. Corres and Keeney combined for five hits, with Keeney contributing a single, double, and triple.

    Thomas pitched a complete game in the team’s most recent win, 6-2, over Sandwich on May 21.

    Nauset baseball’s senior captains, left to right: Richie Corres, Kurt Thomas, and Ethan Keeney. “They saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Coach Kevin Curtin. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    The senior captains lead by example, and all three are committed to play college ball. Shortstop Keeney will be at Roger Williams University; Corres, a catcher, will play for Suffolk University; and Thomas will pitch for Central Connecticut State University.

    The seniors all come from Harwich but chose Nauset for middle school and high school.

    “Academics and baseball, honestly,” is how Corres explained his choice. Most of the team members played together at both schools. Corres said some even started together in Little League.

    “We’re all pretty close,” Keeney said. That type of chemistry doesn’t always happen at this level. It’s an important part of the team’s success and organization.

    Halfway through the season, the team has its sights set on winning the Cape and Islands League. The Mass. Interscholastic Athletic Association has approved a postseason tournament for spring sports, so Nauset baseball will have an opportunity to compete against teams from off Cape.

    “We want to do extremely well in that,” Curtin said. “When that ruling came through, I got tweeted at a lot by my seniors.”

    WARRIORS WATCH

    Nauset Baseball, Softball, Track Teams Are All Unbeaten

    A preview of this week’s Nauset High sports

    By

    Thursday, May 20

    Girls golf: The Warriors tee off against the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins at Blue Rock Golf Course in South Yarmouth at 3:30 p.m. The team is 3-1 so far this season.

    Boys lacrosse: The Vineyarders travel to Eastham to take on the Warriors at 4 p.m. at Nauset Regional High School. The Nauset boys were 2-1 at press time.

    Coed sailing: The Nauset sailing team competes against Sturgis East Charter School at the Orleans Yacht Club at 4 p.m. The team got off to a 3-0 start before losing to St. John Paul II last week.

    Friday, May 21

    Girls lacrosse: The Warriors travel to Martha’s Vineyard for a game beginning at 3 p.m. The team was 0-3 at press time.

    Boys baseball and girls softball: The undefeated Warriors baseball team plays the Sandwich Blue Knights at home at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, the softball team travels to Sandwich for a game at the same time. Softball has also had an impressive 3-0 start that included a 26-run game against the Nantucket Whalers on May 12.

    Girls tennis: The tennis team plays at Sandwich at 4 p.m. The Warriors are 2-1 so far this season.

    Saturday, May 22

    Girls and boys track: The teams travel to Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend meet beginning at 11:30 a.m. The two teams are both 2-0 on the season.

    Monday, May 24

    Boys tennis: The Warriors play an away match against the Monomoy Sharks at 4 p.m. The team was 1-2 at press time.

    Tuesday, May 25

    Boys and girls lacrosse: The boys team plays at home against Sandwich while the girls travel. Both games begin at 4 p.m.

    Coed sailing: The sailing team goes to Oakcrest Cove in Sandwich to compete against the Blue Knights at 4 p.m.

    Wednesday, May 26

    Girls golf: Captain’s Golf Course in Brewster hosts a round between the Warriors and Monomoy Sharks beginning at 3:30 p.m.

    Boys baseball and girls softball: The softball team travels to Dennis-Yarmouth while the baseball team hosts the same opponent. Games begin at 4 p.m.

    Boys and girls track: The Nauset teams travel to Sandwich for meets at 4 p.m.

    Boys and girls tennis: The boys team hosts a match at the Nauset High outdoor tennis courts against the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins while the girls team travels. Both matches are at 4 p.m. —Ryan Fitzgerald

    DIAMOND TIME

    Batter Up! Cape Cod Baseball Is Back

    The season starts June 20, but host families are still needed

    By

    The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) released a two-word statement on April 22 that had local sports fans excited. It read, “We’re back.”

    The league is returning to action this summer with all 10 teams playing the first games of the season on June 20.

    “All the volunteers, all the league officers, everyone is just thrilled to be able to come back and play a full season,” said CCBL President Chuck Sturtevant.

    When the league was forced to suspend its season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was the first summer without Cape League baseball since 1945. Founded in 1885, the league has become the premier collegiate summer baseball program in the country.

    Now a year of planning has yielded a set of Covid-19 protocols and a schedule that will run from June 20 through Aug. 4, with playoffs beginning on Aug. 6. There will be no All-Star game this season.

    An Orleans Firebirds game draws a crowd to Eldredge Park on a bygone summer evening. This season, the league is hoping to play for fans again, allowing just 50 percent capacity at each of its ballparks. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Included in the league’s health and safety protocols is that all players, coaches, interns, and other on-field personnel must be vaccinated before the beginning of the season.

    Sturtevant said the league’s medical team, made up of Orleans Firebirds athletic trainer Michele Pavlu, orthopedic surgeon and Falmouth Commodores team doctor Donald O’Malley, and Falmouth team trainer Laura Murphy, is working with all the teams.

    That work entails both “figuring out how to play,” Sturtevant said, and policies and procedures for players coming in. And, he noted, those will continue to evolve as federal and state mandates change.

    An essential part of the Cape League’s success comes from community support in the form of host families. Residents invite players to live in their homes throughout the summer season, and the tradition is popular with families and players alike.

    But this year, the league is still looking for host families to accommodate some players. At this end of the Cape, the Orleans Firebirds have five players on the roster who currently need a place to live. The Firebirds host the Harwich Mariners at 5:30 p.m. on opening night.

    “We still need a few beds,” said the Firebirds’ housing coordinator, Nancy Nickerson. “We knew it might be difficult,” she said, but it’s been a little slower going than the team imagined.

    Cindy Kuechle and her family, who are summer residents of Orleans, hosted Firebirds player David Stiehl in 2019.

    “We took in a player for the summer, and it was just terrific,” Kuechle said of their experience. “Our daughter was eleven and she and this player had the nicest big brother-little sister relationship.”

    Left to right, Cindy Kuechle; her husband, Peter Kuechle, and daughter, Eliza Kuechle, with the Firebirds player they hosted in 2019, David Stiehl. (Photo courtesy Cindy Kuechle)

    Kuechle’s son, Ben, was abroad in Australia during that summer, so the summer ballplayer stayed in Ben’s room. When he returned, he wanted his family to host again in 2020, but they didn’t have a bedroom to spare.

    The canceled season became a turning point for them. The Kuechles missed the games, but also the chance to host a player.

    “We looked into renovating our basement and realized we couldn’t do it because our septic wasn’t big enough,” Cindy said. “Then my husband and I thought, ‘Maybe it’s time to look for a bigger house.’ ”

    They now have a summer home with more space and two bunk beds, so they can host four Firebirds players this summer. Kuechle said baseball was not the only reason they decided to get a bigger house, but it was a factor.

    “A large portion of why we chose a second home on the Cape is because of the baseball,” she said. “It’s so fun to always have a game at night when you can hang out at the field with your friends or travel to a different field and see another part of the Cape.”

    In a normal year, there are hundreds of fans at each game. Just how big the crowds will be this year remains to be seen. A plan for fan attendance this season is still being developed as the state’s guidelines continue to change. The hope, Sturtevant said, is that by the beginning of the season each ballpark would be allowed to host up to 50 percent of its capacity, based on previous attendance records.

    One of this summer’s Firebirds will be Marquis Grissom Jr., a freshman pitcher at Georgia Tech. His father, Marquis Sr., played professional baseball for 17 seasons and won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves. Marquis Jr. was the number-four ranked high school pitcher in the state of Georgia.

    “I talked to my coach this year and he said, ‘We’re going to find you a summer team,’ ” Grissom said this week. “When he told me it was the Cape Cod League, I was very excited. I know it’s in a very nice environment and a lot of former MLB players and draft picks have played there.”

    Not having a season last year meant players missed a chance to show their talents in front of pro scouts.

    “I’m trying to make a statement for myself,” said Grissom. “I’ll be ready for the Cape.”

    For updates on the CCBL season, visit capecodbaseball.org.

    DIAMOND TIME

    Little League Takes the Field

    The Nauset league is planning a full season starting this month

    By

    BREWSTER — Little League baseball is back on the Lower and Outer Cape, as the Nauset Little League will be operating for the first time under its new name this season.

    “The fields and the mission and the board are all the same — it’s simply a name change,” said Todd Everson. Everson, a Brewster resident, serves on the Nauset Little League board of directors and as a coach of one of the teams. “We felt the new name better represented the community.”

    The former Brewster Regional Little League was founded in the early 2000s by area residents for children living in the towns from Provincetown through Brewster. The league has held a baseball season for local kids every spring since its foundation.

    But last spring the league had a shortened season with teams playing only six to nine games while holding limited practices, due to Covid-19. Participation numbers were down.

    “Last year, we thought, ‘Let’s give these kids something to do under the guidelines for what we could,’ ” Everson said. “It wasn’t great participation, but it was better than nothing.”

    This year, however, the league will run a full season as usual, beginning in late April. Families seem to be eager to participate after a long winter: Everson said the league has around 100 kids signed up to play.

    “I’m excited to get back,” Everson said. “It’s about teaching kids baseball and giving them an outlet.”

    Baseball diamond at Freeman’s Way Fields in Brewster, where many of the Little League games are played. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    Little League baseball has always been a cornerstone of youth sports in local communities. It’s a rite of passage for many young boys and girls. Some kids may participate in sports all year and others may not play sports at all, but everyone seems to try their hand at Little League baseball at least once in their life.

    “When I was growing up, you play baseball this time of year and nothing else,” Everson said. “We knew lacrosse existed, but it was a sport that kids only played in college.”

    Spring has always been a sign of baseball season, but over the years, the slow-pace sport has lost some of its popularity with young kids. Everson was afraid after last year’s shortened season that local kids might not be joining the league this year.

    “It’s challenging,” he said. “There’s a lot more opportunities for kids to do other things now.”

    But Everson is pleased to see the turnout at preliminary clinics and good attendance on sign-up sheets for the upcoming season.

    The Nauset Little League includes two different levels, called major league and minor league. Major league is for boys and girls ages 9 to 12; minor league is for boys and girls 8 to 11 years old.

    Each team has a local sponsor. In 2019, the team sponsored by Cape Associates took home the major league title, while the team sponsored by JT’s Seafood won the minor league title.

    At the Rec Departments

    Sign-up is now available for Eastham Recreation spring activities. The department is offering T-ball and soccer to children ages four to five and grades K to 1. Flag football, basketball, and softball is available for children in grades 2 to 6.

    Additional after-school programs are available for children in grades K to 5. They will begin on April 6.

    To register or coach, contact the Eastham Recreation Dept. at [email protected] or 508-240-5974.

    Wellfleet is offering T-ball to youngsters and softball to children in grades 2 to 6. Practices will begin on April 12.

    Spring programs at the Truro Recreation Dept. include T-ball and softball. Contact Recreation Director Damion Clements at [email protected] for more information.

    Provincetown Recreation’s annual spring celebration has been canceled due to health and safety precautions. The department does not have spring sports scheduled at this time.

    BASEBALL

    Dan Okrent Is the Father of Fantasy

    The inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball on its strange legacy

    By

    Major League Baseball (MLB) returned to play last week with no fans in the ballparks but plenty of people watching on TV from their living room couches. Some of those fans might have been simultaneously checking their fantasy baseball rosters.

    Fantasy sports are incredibly popular. The Washington Post reported in 2017 that an estimated 59.3 million people in the U.S. and Canada played fantasy football, basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, and more.

    Today, the games are played on websites like Yahoo or ESPN in virtual leagues, usually made up of 10 teams. Participants choose professional players in a sport about to begin its season to play on their “team.” Then, each week, the virtual teams match up against each other, comparing the statistics of their corresponding real-life players. It feels like you are managing an actual professional team.

    Before all of this, there was just fantasy baseball. It was called Rotisserie League Baseball, and it was invented in 1980 by historian, author, and editor Dan Okrent. He no longer plays the game, he admitted from his Wellfleet home, but he isn’t yet tired of telling the story of its origins.

    “It occurred to me in my early 30s,” Okrent said. “I was living in Western Mass., and I was missing baseball.”

    Okrent was an undergraduate in the 1960s at the University of Michigan, where a professor and some colleagues played a rudimentary version of fantasy baseball. Each player would pick five Major League batters and five pitchers and follow their statistics throughout the season to see who had the best roster.

    Daniel Okrent

    “There was no money involved, no trading,” Okrent said. “It was very simple.”

    In the late ’70s, Okrent remembered that game and decided to refine it. His version had 10 players, with each one “owning” one team. Before the MLB season began, the 10 would have an auction draft, where they would select the players they wanted.

    Each owner started with $260 to spend on 23 baseball players. They had to be smart with the money, not spending too much on one player but willing to dish out extra for the stars, Okrent said.

    The thing is — in 1980, the internet didn’t exist. When the season began, Rotisserie League owners had to track how their players were doing through — oh, mercy! — the newspaper.

    Recording player statistics and team standings “was done entirely on paper,” Okrent said.

    The players’ complete stats were published a week late in the Sporting News. Okrent would drive 30 minutes each way between his home in Worthington and Northampton to pick up the paper, then compute the standings by hand back at home.

    “The standings were sent by fax to everyone in the league,” he said.

    Each player put up $250 to play. At the end of the season, the first-place team took half the pot, second place took 25 percent, third place took 15 percent, and fourth place basically got their money back.

    “The reason why it caught on was that it got all of us who played involved in more than just our team,” Okrent said. The players on your roster could be playing for all different real-life teams. And you had to track players on other teams to figure out if you wanted to trade for them.

    “If you go deep into it, you know every player in the league,” Okrent said. “It’s total immersion into a baseball season.”

    The name Rotisserie came from the fact that the game was officially invented at La Rôtisserie Française restaurant in New York City.

    Okrent, who was the first public editor at the New York Times, said the game grew in popularity after a story about it appeared in the Times and he was invited on the “Today” show. But the inventor of the game that has turned into a multi-billion-dollar industry hasn’t been able to profit much from his idea.

    “We did trademark the word ‘Rotisserie,’ ” he said. “People who did use it would pay a royalty fee.”

    But it didn’t take too long for people to come up with another name. Hence the birth of “fantasy baseball” and fantasy sports in general.

    There are hints of its origins: the most common scoring format for fantasy baseball is still called Rotisserie scoring.

    “The real numbers came with the explosion of the internet,” Okrent said. “It’s brought joy to millions — and agony to millions of spouses and children.”

    In the late 1980s, when the program “SportsCenter” was premiering, Okrent spoke with John Walsh, ESPN’s executive director, about featuring Rotisserie League Baseball. “I said, ‘Why don’t you have a segment that gives key numbers for Rotisserie Baseball?’ ”

    Walsh told Okrent that market research showed fewer than 2 percent of people watching the program play Rotisserie League.

    Fast forward to 2020: there are shows on ESPN and other networks devoted to fantasy sports coverage and analysis. Analysts offer advice to the millions of people playing.

    Okrent could not have fathomed such an outcome 40 years ago. But he has no regrets.

    “I’ve had a nice life,” he said. “I got no complaints.”

    To learn more about the invention of Rotisserie League Baseball, check out the 2010 ESPN documentary Silly Little Game.

    ARTISTS

    William Ciccariello’s Paintings Play Ball With Lost Time

    Archival photos are reborn as heroic portraits

    By

    If you’re a baseball fan, William Ciccariello’s paintings of players will soar like a home run sailing over the Green Monster, up into the light and then gone, into the dark of night.

    Hank Simmons is a 11-by-8-inch oil on board by William Ciccariello. (Photo Warren Lenoir)

    This series of small portraits of great players from baseball’s golden era, part of a group show at Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown through Aug. 5, transcends the familiar historical art of baseball, because Ciccariello isn’t actually concerned about depicting the players themselves. In these paintings, as in his other work, with such subjects as shipwrecks, soldiers, and still lifes, what he’s interested in is time. Specifically, he’s concerned with what time does to our heroes: our athletes, majestic sailing vessels, warriors, and, by extension, us, when time overtakes us all.

    “I’ve always been concerned with time, how long things take and what the passage means,” Ciccariello says. “All of these subjects are dead and gone. I think everyone feels time has a precariousness to it, because it’s your life.”

    He was born in 1954 and raised in Port Washington, N.Y., on the North Shore of Long Island, what Ciccariello calls a “really nice, sleepy town.” His father repaired jewelry in New York City, and his mother worked from home for Publishers Clearing House, later getting her degree in library science and becoming the town’s librarian. With six brothers, it was a busy household. It also was one filled with paintings. Ciccariello’s grandmother, who died five years before he was born, was an artist who studied with Hans Hofmann in France, and whose work in the 1930s morphed into social realism.

    “She was a serious painter, but never had any recognition or notoriety,” Ciccariello says. “It made such a strong impression on me that someone you did not know could leave so much behind for people to look at.” It seems that, even as a child, Ciccariello was noticing time and history and art, and the dimensions they occupy.

    During the warmer months, painter William Ciccariello moves part of his studio to the front porch of his home in Jamaica Plain. (Photo John Greiner-Ferris)

    He was shy as a child, and art became his way to discover the world on his terms. The young artist displayed natural talent, and when it came time for serious study, he enrolled at a state university that offered a respectable art program. But it wasn’t enough of a challenge for him, so Ciccariello transferred to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he finished his training.

    He has worked as a fine arts painter his entire adult life, developing a mature body of work, never wanting or needing to dip a toe into the commercial world. “The ideas and feelings I address in my painting are ones of fragility, balance, precariousness, decay and ruin, permanence, and the transitory quality of time,” he says. “I like to impart some hard effort to make them worthy of memory and merit.”

    Ciccariello’s process begins with the imagery. “Many historical images are compositionally arresting and are of an era that’s long gone,” he says. “I like trying to portray that.”

    First, he traces a photograph on a piece of Mylar. He then coats the back of the Mylar with charcoal, in essence turning the Mylar into something like carbon paper. Placing the Mylar over the board, he retraces the image, transferring it in charcoal onto the board. “It’s an old-school method,” Ciccariello said. “There are other ways of projecting images, but I don’t think like that. I like the methodical process of doing it by hand.”

    This simple image (Ed Walsh) of a baseball gripped by the hand of a pitcher highlights the conceptualism of Ciccariello’s work. (Photo Warren Lenoir)

    What’s left behind is a clear piece of Mylar with a tracing on it that Ciccariello sometimes will then paint (some examples are at Rice Polak). “They have kind of a ghostly look about them, because they’re grayed out, and I find them really interesting.”

    Ciccariello reduces the found images he uses to a simple set of elements that he balances against backgrounds of two sets of complementary colors. This goes beyond representational art — the effect is a visual impression of light and space that belongs to Ciccariello alone.

    Lefty Grove is a 10-by-7-inch oil on board by Ciccariello, part of a show of his work at Rice Polak Gallery. (Photo Warren Lenoir)

    The painting Lefty Grove is a good example. The unexpected comparison of the blue or blue-violet at the top and the dark sepia at the bottom is how Ciccariello conveys his concept — his idea — of time: colors have shifted and faded, like they do on old photographic color film. The strong, fat diagonal of the fan-filled bleachers that presses down to the left is brought back up by the lever of Grove’s body, his hip the fulcrum, his gaze at the viewer the locus of the painting.

    By incorporating conceptual elements, such as archival photography, along with his meticulous brushwork, subdued palette, and tight compositions that ground the paintings into their own liminal spaces, Ciccariello presents heroes who we all recognize, and who are calling to us from another era.

    Diamonds Are Forever

    The event: Exhibit of artwork by William Ciccariello, part of a group show with Nick Patten, Sean Thomas, and Robin Winfield

    The time: Thursday, July 23, through Aug. 5; gallery hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and Friday-Saturday evenings

    The place: Rice Polak Gallery, 430 Commercial St., Provincetown

    The cost: Free

    It’s a Sad Summer With (Almost) No Baseball

    By

    Brewster Whitecaps youth clinic
    The experience of the author (at right) attending Brewster Whitecaps youth clinics in the early 2000s made him a baseball fan for life.

    In the first round of this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, 35 percent of the players selected were alumni of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). June 13 would have marked the start of the CCBL season.

    For a while it looked like there would be no MLB season, either. Commissioner Rob Manfred said early on he was confident the sport would return this summer. Then last week he switched his stance to “not confident.”

    The players initially voted against the MLB’s 60-game season proposal. Players wanted their full salaries, while the league and team owners wanted to pay prorated salaries based on the number of games played. The normal length of the season is 162 games.

    On June 24 the two sides suddenly came to an agreement. Players were scheduled to report for training on July 1, with the season starting on July 23 or 24.

    I was introduced to the game mainly through the Cape League. I went to Brewster Whitecaps games with my family and friends and attended the morning youth clinics when the team used to play at Cape Cod Tech in Harwich. I learned the game, chased foul balls, ate hot dogs, and had my yearbook, or a baseball if I was lucky, signed at the end of the game. I still have most of the autographs.

    One summer, after a game, one of the players grabbed a fresh bat and signed it. I still have it. Those experiences are what pull kids into the game. (I later interned for the Cape League in college).

    But baseball doesn’t seem to connect with young people as it once did. Football and basketball have taken the cake.

    “Football has taken hold — it took hold 20 years ago,” said Judy Scarafile, the first female president of the CCBL.

    Baseball is slow. Young people want action. They want on-demand viewing experiences. They want everything right now. Baseball doesn’t provide that.

    Baseball also doesn’t promote the sport or its stars well. College basketball and college football games get mainstream coverage throughout the year, while college baseball is barely shown on TV. NBA and NFL stars are in the forefront of pop culture, while baseball stars like Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, or Aaron Judge are unrecognizable to many.

    Everybody should experience a trip to the ballpark. Kids visiting the Cape this summer won’t have that experience, and it doesn’t look like people will be able to attend MLB games this year, either.

    Scarafile agreed with the decision to cancel the CCBL season, saying it would have been “impossible” to do. But she admitted that the cancellation, with no college baseball and a shortened MLB season, does not help.

    “It’s bad for baseball and we will definitely lose fans,” Scarafile said.

    Pro sports like hockey, basketball, football, and soccer have been working internally without many hiccups to come up with a plan to resume, while baseball took much longer.

    “When you see someone like Bob Kraft out there helping with the pandemic day in and day out, and you turn around and you see the arguing with Major League Baseball, it doesn’t make any sense to me,” Scarafile said last week. “It’s very sad what is happening.”

    Cape League fans won’t be the only ones missing out this season — players will also miss out on an experience of a lifetime.

    “Playing in the Cape had a huge impact on me,” said Bobby Dalbec, a third baseman in the Boston Red Sox organization. Dalbec played for the Orleans Firebirds in 2015.

    “Our hitting coach, Benny Craig, is still my main hitting mentor and someone who is family to me,” he said. “I think players will miss out on the whole experience — playing against top-tier competition and proving you can hit with a wood bat, to start.”

    “You’re playing against the best college players from all over the country, not just in your conference,” said Brian Johnson, a pitcher in the Red Sox organization, who played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2011.

    “This year, players will be missing out on the great weather and the atmosphere with the fans; every game is packed with local people and scouts,” he added.

    MLB attendance has been down in recent years. The sport has faced obstacles before, like the player strike in 1994-95 and the steroid era of the ’90s and early 2000s. But the game bounced back from that.

    Maybe this season will be another bump in the road. Maybe it will have a lasting impact. I hope America’s Pastime doesn’t become a thing of the past.

     

    SUMMER OF NO BALL

    Cape League Baseball Is Called Out

    General managers vote 6-4 to cancel the season

    By

    The boys of summer will not be coming to the Cape this year. The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) canceled its 2020 season on April 24. The news, though expected, was a dagger to the heart for many involved.

    “There’s so many things that everybody’s going to miss,” said Kelly Nicholson, coach of the Orleans Firebirds for the last 15 years. Nicholson, who lives in Southern California, said the league’s general managers voted 6-4 the day before the announcement in favor of cancellation.

    “It just seemed like there were way too many obstacles to overcome,” Nicholson said. “It was disappointing but wasn’t surprising. I agree 100 percent with what they did. The next day it started to sink in — I’m not sure what we’re going to do this summer.”

    The nonprofit Cape League, founded in 1885, has become the premier collegiate summer baseball program in the country. The last time the Cape went without a CCBL summer season was 1945.

    The old-timey feel of Cape League baseball at an Orleans Firebirds game. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    A lot of people will miss the season — coaches, players, broadcasters, volunteers, scouts, interns, fans, host families, bat kids, youth clinic attendees, and local businesses.

    “Everybody loses,” Nicholson said.

    Mike Vasil is a sophomore at the University of Virginia who was going to be pitching for the Firebirds this summer. He had a month-long stint with the team last summer but was planning on playing the entire season this year.

    “My initial reaction was, obviously, this is terrible,” Vasil said. “But this is just a situation in the world right now that goes beyond baseball.”

    Vasil, from Wellesley, was named the 2017 Mass. High School Player of the Year. Growing up, he traveled to the Cape to watch the games in the summer and was excited to transition from being a fan to becoming a player in the league.

    Vasil is unsure, like many other students, whether he’ll be able to return to his college campus in the fall. He said this amount of time off from pitching to batters regularly could have an effect on his game.

    “We’ve all been playing summer ball from six or seven years old,” he said.

    Players come to the CCBL from across the country and traditionally stay with local families from early June to early August. Players on the Firebirds’ 2020 roster came from California, Florida, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, and other states.

    Steve and Amy Kaser live in Orleans with their twin 12-year-olds, Wesley and Laura. The Kasers have been a host family for the Firebirds for the last few years.

    “You get these incredible guys,” Amy Kaser said. “They’re not here to party, they’re here to work hard on their careers.” She said hosting players has taught her son and daughter lessons in discipline and integrity — both children have participated in the Firebirds’ weekly baseball clinic.

    The Kasers agree with the Cape League’s decision but are disappointed. “It’s going to sink in at the end of June,” Steve Kaser said. “When you drive by in late June or July and there’s no lights on the field — it’s going to be weird.”

    One of every six Major League Baseball players played in the CCBL, according to capecodbaseballleague.org. Recent alumni include Boston Red Sox pitcher and World Series Champion Chris Sale and New York Yankees home run specialist Aaron Judge.

    The nostalgic, old-timey baseball feel that the Cape League has makes it unique. The parks are like backyard fields, the players use wooden bats, the games are free, and everyone is there to enjoy the game in its purest form.

    “There are very few pure things that are left right now,” Steve Kaser said. “The Cape League brings back that pure sense.”

    “The impact the Cape has on the draft is significant — those scouts weigh those 60 days heavily,” Nicholson said. “I’ve had some [former players] say that the summer they had on the Cape was the best summer they ever had playing baseball.”

    Some players may have the opportunity to play next year, while others will miss out. Either way, everyone will wait for 2021.

    “It can’t get here soon enough,” Nicholson said.

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