CAPE LEAGUE
Summer Baseball Returns to the Cape
Fans, folding chairs, and the Firebirds make a Father’s Day comeback
Cape Cod Baseball League
DIAMOND TIME
Batter Up! Cape Cod Baseball Is Back
The season starts June 20, but host families are still needed
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.
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.”
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.
GIMME A ‘W’
Season Updates
Warriors Watch
Thursday, April 15
Boys and girls indoor track: Both teams will travel to compete in a meet against Barnstable at 4 p.m.
Cheerleading: The Warriors cheerleading squad will host its first showcase of the year beginning at 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 19
Football: The Warriors will look to capture their first win of the season at home against the Falmouth Clippers at 12 p.m.
Host a Cape League Player
The Cape Cod Baseball League is planning to resume play in the summer of 2021. The league had to cancel its season last year for the first time since 1945 due to Covid-19.
The league needs Cape Cod residents to volunteer as host families for college ballplayers this summer. Anyone wanting to learn more about the host family experience should email CCBL Commissioner Eric Zmuda at [email protected] to ask questions or sign up for an information session. —Ryan Fitzgerald
It’s a Sad Summer With (Almost) No Baseball
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
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.
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.
