Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures

The Cape Cod League is the premier amateur baseball league in the United States, and this book presents stories of the people, places, and players who have made it great.

If someone told you an amateur baseball league had produced 18 future major leaguers, it might seem impressive. But over 1,800 alumni of the Cape Cod Baseball League have landed in the major leagues. The “Cape League,” as it is locally known, is far from the only collegiate summer baseball league—over 80 now operate in the US and Canada—but it is the only one to graduate so many players into the bigs. Perhaps just as impressive is how the league was born of, and remains nurtured by, a true community of volunteers rooted in Massachusetts and on Cape Cod.

Every night in the summer months, a small army of volunteers staff several games a night, which are free and open to the public. Volunteers run all ten teams, from the coaches and groundskeepers to the folks running concessions and selling raffle tickets. Many gameday workers are interns who themselves go on to futures in professional baseball scouting, broadcasting, and team operations. On the Cape, players typically stay with host families, sometimes working in family shops or other local businesses, making the Cape League experience truly community based for all.

This book takes a comprehensive look at the Cape Code Baseball League as only SABR can, encompassing both analytical articles on the importance of the league in MLB development and historical pieces documenting the past and present. Biographies of some important figures in Cape League history, such as longtime president Judy Walden Scarafile, and profiles of alumni such as Derek Falvey, recently president of the Minnesota Twins, sit alongside analysis and features on each team, from the Cotuit Kettleers to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks.

Some 25 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a number of invited guests offer here some of their experiences and perspectives. Former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Dan Evans called his work on the Cape as “the greatest scouting experience of my life.” Peter Gammons now lives on Cape Cod, but still enthuses about being “lucky enough to go to a Cape League game” and in his foreword to the book reminisces about seeing a player he’s never forgotten, embodying the league’s motto: “Where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight.”

About the Editor: Mike Richard has been the historian of the Cape Cod Baseball League since 2018. He spent 35 years in public education, both as an English teacher and later a guidance counselor before retiring from Gardner (Massachusetts) High School in 2013. A longtime columnist for the Gardner News, he also wrote sports columns for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the Barnstable Patriot, and the Cape Cod Times. He has authored two sports history books: Glory to Gardner: 100 Years of Football in the Chair City, and Super Saturdays: The Complete History of the Massachusetts High School Super Bowl, as well as contri- butions to many SABR publications. Also known for his exhaustive research of Massachusetts high-school sports history, he is historian of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and is responsible for all records and statistics for the annual state tournament programs. He and his wife, Peggy, live in Sandwich on Cape Cod and are the parents of two grown children, Casey and Lindsey, and two grandchildren, Theo and Grace.

Mike Richard has been the historian of the Cape Cod Baseball League since 2018. He spent 35 years in public education, both as an English teacher and later a guidance counselor before retiring from Gardner (Massachusetts) High School in 2013. A longtime columnist for the Gardner News, he also wrote sports columns for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the Barnstable Patriot, and the Cape Cod Times. He has authored two sports history books: Glory to Gardner: 100 Years of Football in the Chair City, and Super Saturdays: The Complete History of the Massachusetts High School Super Bowl, as well as contri- butions to many SABR publications. Also known for his exhaustive research of Massachusetts high-school sports history, he is historian of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and is responsible for all records and statistics for the annual state tournament programs. He and his wife, Peggy, live in Sandwich on Cape Cod and are the parents of two grown children, Casey and Lindsey, and two grandchildren, Theo and Grace.