Ingrained for life
The young men come and go every summer, but they always take a piece of the Cape Cod League experience with them.
By SCOTT PURKS
Published July 16, 2006
CAPE COD, Mass. -- Never has it been more true than on The Cape: The game - stripped down to roots, to volunteers, to wooden bats and boys running on the grass - is beautiful.
Every summer evening the scene plays out as 250 of the country's best college baseball players take to five fields tucked in the woods of the 65-mile arm of Massachusetts reaching into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cape Cod Wooden Bat League.
And, as they have for 122 years, thousands come to watch.
They come for the cool breeze, and old men yelling at umpires, and children laughing, and the crack of the bat.
They come with blankets to sit on or cuddle under as the orange ball drops and the sky turns purple.
They come as fathers and mothers with sons and daughters, who race through the grass after foul balls.
They come as host family members with whom every player lives.
They come as girlfriends to watch boyfriends, or as girls looking for boyfriends.
They come as scouts to rate prospects, 200 of whom from the Cape's past are currently major leaguers - Nomar Garciaparra (Orleans 1993), Jason Varitek (Hyannis '91-93) and Darin Erstad (Falmouth '93-94) to name a few.
They come because the games are free, or for as much money as they feel like dropping in the donation hat passed through the stands.
They come because the baseball is great and because, as much as anything, each town embraces its team as its own.
The players? The players come because a summer on the Cape can make or break signing for millions in the pros (see Evan Longoria jump from nowhere to the 2005 Cape League MVP and the Devil Rays' first-round pick).
Over the years, 43 for the current league, many from the Tampa Bay area have played a summer on The Cape. Four from the Tampa Bay area - Tampa's Corey Brown (Chatham Athletics) and Milan Dinga (Hyannis Mets), Clearwater's Cameron Betourne (Orleans Cardinals) and Largo's Marc Sawyer (Wareham Gateman) - started their summers in the league.
Many who have played there before say they may never really leave.
"Anybody who plays in that league takes it with them, holds it close to their hearts," said Hillsborough High coach Pat Russo, who played for Falmouth in 1989. "It's like playing baseball in a perfect dream, the place is so gorgeous.
"And you're there when you're young and you're using a wooden bat, which is interesting to you because you've been playing with a metal bat your whole life, and hitting with a wooden bat is just plain more difficult. And of course you're trying to make an impression to the scouts, and then when you're not doing all that you're having adventures in the town with teammates who might just become lifelong friends, and ..."
Sometimes, it runs deeper.
Chris Ciaccio of Tampa is in Cape Cod this week because he fell in love with his host family, Peter and Francie Polhemus and their sons, Matt and Aaron, in 1993 - the year he helped lead Orleans to the league championship.
Ciaccio has been back every summer since. And Matt and Aaron, who were 8 and 10 when Ciaccio arrived on their doorstep, have visited Ciaccio every year as well.
"In my family," Ciaccio said, "I'm the middle child, but in the Polhemus family, I'm the big brother. We're that close."
Ciaccio, a 34-year-old business developer, said he goes to the games now and is still overwhelmed with the "feeling" of the Cape Cod League - the way the people, the fans, care about the players and the game. And when he's there and sees the players' eyes, his memories heat up.
"I remember showing up and dropping my bags off at my host family and going straight to the field and getting the talk from the manager and then getting dressed in my new uniform for a practice," said Ciaccio, who played for the University of Georgia at the time. "And then I'm in there getting dressed with 25 strangers, and I'm saying,'Oh boy, look at these guys, these guys are the best in the country.'
"And I said to myself, 'I know I'm good, but how good am I compared to these guys?' I said, 'All right, here I go, I have to prove myself all over again.' What a feeling that was. An exciting feeling."
On his opening day, Tampa's Corey Brown rode in a groaning old yellow school bus with a bunch of players he met days before, traveling down winding country roads he had never seen, walking onto Red Wilson field at Yarmouth-Dennis.
Holding his first 33-ounce Louisville Slugger, he suddenly found himself with two strikes on him, facing a big ol' boy with Red Sox stretched across his chest and a couple of tree-trunk legs, the left of which he kicked into a windup.
Fastball.
Brown swung and ... missed.
As he walked to the dugout, dozens of fans wearing Chatham A's hats and jerseys - remember, this was an away game - called out, "It's okay, Corey Brown," and, "Hold your head up," and, "Many more chances this summer, buddy."
Grimacing, Brown looked over, then grinned a little. Later, he marveled, "They knew my name that very first day."
Weeks later, that feeling Ciaccio talked about had sunk in.
"I see the way Chatham fans see me," he said. "They've waited all year for the summer and Chatham A's baseball. This is their team. I'm one of their players.
"When I'm out in the town, people say hello, tell me to keep playing hard. After games, they want my autograph. The kids look up to me.
"They make you feel so good that you feel you've already made it. But you also know, underneath it all, that you haven't. So you focus and work hard and play hard. You always know that this is a place where you have to make things happen for yourself."
What will happen to Corey Brown? Will he rise to first-round pick status, which is a strong possibility? Will he make lifelong friends? Will he fall in love?
"Happens all the time," said Chatham A's manager John Schiffner, who for 25 years has played, coached and managed on The Cape. "I married two women from Chatham!"
"One thing," Russo said, "is for certain. When you're there, you never want it to be over."