The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 former players who have gone on to play in the major leagues.
History
Pre-modern era
Origins As early as the 1860s, baseball teams representing various Cape Cod towns and villages were competing against one another. The earliest newspaper account is of an 1867 game in Sandwich between the hometown "Nichols Club" and the visiting Cummaquid team. Though not formalized as a league, the games provided entertainment for residents and summer visitors.
In 1885, a Fourth of July baseball game was held matching teams from Barnstable and Sandwich. According to contemporary accounts, the 1885 contest may have been at least the twelfth such annual game. By the late 19th century, an annual championship baseball tournament was being held each fall at the Barnstable County Fair, an event that continued well into the 20th century, with teams representing towns from Cape Cod and the larger region.
In 1921, the Barnstable County Agricultural Society determined to limit the fair's annual baseball championship to teams from Cape Cod. Falmouth won the championship in 1921, and Osterville in 1922. Interest in baseball was growing, as was a movement to create a formal league of Cape Cod teams.
The early Cape League era (1923–1939) The "Cape Cod Baseball League" was formed in 1923, consisting of four teams: Falmouth, Osterville, Hyannis, and Chatham. Teams were made up of players from local colleges and prep schools, along with some semi-pro players and other locals. One notable player during this period was North Truro native Danny "Deacon" MacFayden, who went on to play for seventeen years in the major leagues.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the composition of the league varied from season to season. Towns did not opt to field teams in every season, and teams from other towns such as Bourne, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, and Wareham joined the league. Teams were not limited to league play, and often played teams from towns and cities in the larger region, as in 1929 when Falmouth played an exhibition game against the major league Boston Braves.
The league enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the 1930s, and even engendered competition in the form of the Barnstable County Twilight League and the Lower Cape Twilight League. However, as the cumulative effects of the Great Depression made it increasingly more difficult to secure funding for teams, the Cape League disbanded in 1940.
The Upper and Lower Cape League era (1946–1962) With young men returning home after World War II, the Cape League was revived in 1946. The league now excluded paid professional or semi-pro players, and for a while attempted to limit players to those who were Cape Cod residents. The league was split into Upper Cape and Lower Cape divisions, and in addition to many of the town teams from the "old" Cape League, new teams now joined such as those representing the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Otis Air Force Base, and the Cape Verdean Club of Harwich among others.
Modern era (1963–present) In 1963, the Cape Cod Baseball League was reorganized and became officially sanctioned by the NCAA. The league would no longer be limited to Cape Cod residents, but would recruit college players and coaches from an increasingly wide radius.
In 1985, the league moved away from the use of aluminum bats, and became the only collegiate summer league in the nation at that time to use wooden bats. This transition began a period of significant growth in the league's popularity and prestige among MLB scouts, as well as among college players and coaches. This popularity has translated into over one thousand former players who have gone on to major league playing careers, including multiple members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Structure and season
The CCBL regular season runs from mid-June through mid-August. Teams are geographically divided into the East Division and West Division. Each division consists of five teams which each play 40 regular season games, 5 games against each team from within their division, and 4 games against each team from the other division.
During the latter half of the regular season, an all-star game is contested between the all stars from the East and West divisions, and features a pre-game home run hitting contest. The CCBL All-Star Game was played at Fenway Park from 2009 to 2011, but is normally played at one of the CCBL home fields.
Following the regular season, the top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs, which is an elimination tournament consisting of three rounds of best of three series to determine the league champion and winner of the Arnold Mycock trophy.
Teams
Current teams
DivisionTeamTown/VillageFirst yearHome FieldCapacity WestBourne BravesBourne1988Doran Park (Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School)3,000Cotuit KettleersCotuit1947Lowell Park2,500Falmouth CommodoresFalmouth1923;1946Arnie Allen Diamond at Guv Fuller Field8,000Hyannis Harbor HawksHyannis1976Judy Walden Scarafile Field at McKeon Park (Pope John Paul II High School)3,000Wareham GatemenWareham1952Clem Spillane Field (Wareham High School)3,000EastBrewster WhitecapsBrewster1988Stony Brook Field (Stony Brook Elementary School)4,000Chatham AnglersChatham1946Veterans Field8,000Harwich MarinersHarwich1946Whitehouse Field (Monomoy Regional High School)4,000Orleans FirebirdsOrleans1947Eldredge Park (Nauset Regional Middle School)6,000Yarmouth-Dennis Red SoxSouth Yarmouth1946Red Wilson Field (Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School)5,500
Origin of team nicknames Prior to 2009, six of the ten teams in the CCBL shared their team nickname with a team in Major League Baseball (MLB). However, in late 2008 MLB announced that it would enforce its trademarks, and required those CCBL teams to either change their nicknames or buy their uniforms and merchandise only through MLB-licensed vendors.
Three of the teams eventually changed their nicknames. In 2009, the Chatham Athletics became the Anglers, and the Orleans Cardinals became the Firebirds. The following season, the Hyannis Mets became the Harbor Hawks. 2010 Article
The Bourne Braves and Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox, teams who share nicknames with Boston's two historic professional baseball franchises, chose to keep their nicknames and use MLB licensees for their merchandise.
MLB could not enforce the "Mariners" trademark against the Harwich Mariners because the use of the nickname by Harwich predated the entry of the Seattle Mariners into MLB as an expansion team in 1977.
The four teams whose nicknames were not in conflict with MLB have locally themed names such as the nautical monikers of the Falmouth Commodores and Brewster Whitecaps. The Cotuit Kettleers nickname recalls a legendary local Native American land transaction whose terms of sale involved the exchange of a brass kettle. The Wareham Gatemen are the only team that does not play its home games over the bridge, as the town of Wareham sits on the edge of the mainland, at the "gateway" to Cape Cod. Wareham was considered Cape Cod prior to the construction of the Cape Cod Canal.
Franchise timelines
Origins
Below is a partial list of Cape Cod baseball teams from the 1860s until the formation of the Cape League in 1923.
Barnstable Cummaquids Barnstable Osceolas Barnstable Village Chatham Falmouth Cottage Club Harwich Hyannis Orleans Pants Factory Osterville Sandwich Athletics Sandwich Nichols Club West Barnstable Mastetuketts West Falmouth Yarmouth Mattakeesetts
Early Cape League era (1923–1939)
TeamSeasonsBarnstable 1931–1937; 1939Bourne 1933*–1939Chatham 1923–1926; 1930–1931Chatham-Harwich 1927–1929Falmouth 1923–1939Harwich 1930–1939Hyannis 1923–1930Orleans 1928–1934; 1937–1938Osterville 1923–1930Provincetown 1933*Wareham 1927–1928; 1930–1932* In 1933, Provincetown withdrew and wasreplaced by Bourne mid-season.
Upper and Lower Cape League era (1946–1962)
DivisionTeamSeasons UpperCapeBarnstable Townies / Barons / Red Sox 1946*–1952†1955–19561959–1962Bourne Canalmen 1946–19501961–1962Cotuit Kettleers 1947–1962Falmouth All-Stars 1946–1962Falmouth Falcons 1951–1953Mashpee Warriors / Indians 1946–19511953–1955Massachusetts Maritime Academy 1946–1947‡1949–1961Osterville 1948–1950Otis Air Force Base Jets / Minutemen 1949–195019551957–1961Sagamore Clouters 1946–1962Sandwich 1946–1949Wareham Gatemen 1952†–1962 DivisionTeamSeasonsLowerCapeBrewster 1948–19511956–1960Chatham 1946–1962Dennis Clippers 1946–1961Eastham 1949–1955Harwich 1946–1962Harwich Cape Verdean Club 1949–1950North Truro Air Force Station Blue Sox 1952–1957Orleans Red Sox 1947–1962Wellfleet 1956Yarmouth Indians 1946–1962* Barnstable played in the Lower Cape division in 1946 only.† In 1952, Barnstable withdrew and was replaced by Wareham mid-season.‡ Mass. Maritime Academy played in the Lower Cape division in 1946–1947.
Beginnings of the modern era (1963–1987)
From 1963 to 1969, the newly reorganized league maintained the Upper Cape/Lower Cape divisional structure, with the championship series played by the winners of each division. Beginning in 1970, the divisional structure gave way to a single combined league, with the top four teams in the league advancing to the playoffs. This combined league structure continued through 1987.
TeamSeasonsBourne Canalmen 1963–1964*; 1967–1969; 1971–1972Cotuit Kettleers 1963–1987Falmouth All-Stars / Commodores 1963–1987Hyannis Mets 1976–1987Sagamore Clouters / Canalmen 1963–1966*Wareham Gatemen 1963–1987* In 1965, the Bourne Canalmen and Sagamore Clouters merged. The newteam was called the "Sagamore Canalmen" during the 1965 and 1966seasons, and the "Bourne Canalmen" thereafter. TeamSeasonsChatham Red Sox / Athletics 1963–1987Harwich Mariners 1963–1987Orleans Cardinals 1963–1987Otis Air Force Base Minutemen 1963–1964Yarmouth Indians / Red Sox / Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 1963–1987
Present Day
In 1988, the Bourne Braves and the Brewster Whitecaps joined the CCBL as expansion teams and the resulting ten-team league was split into East and West divisions. Since 1988, there have been no changes to the league's franchise composition or divisional alignments.
League championships
+Championships by season, 1923–1939 Year WinningTeam Manager Games LosingTeam* Manager Ref 1923 Falmouth Byron H. ParkerFrank Silva 1924 Osterville Arthur "Dutch" Ayer 1925 Osterville Joe Murphy 1926 Hyannis /Osterville(co-champs) Freddie Moncewicz(Hyannis)John "Dot" Whelan(Osterville) 1927 Hyannis Freddie Moncewicz 1928 Osterville Eddie McGrath 1929 Falmouth Lynn Wells 1930 Wareham Harry Noznesky 1931 Falmouth Jack Walsh 1932 Falmouth Jack Walsh 1933 Harwich Joe Harraghy 3–0 Falmouth Jack Walsh 1934 Barnstable Pete Herman 1935 Falmouth Jack Walsh 3–2 Barnstable Pete Herman 1936 Bourne Larry Donovan 1937 Barnstable Pete Herman 1938 Falmouth Bill Boehner 1939 Falmouth Buzz Harvey +Championships by Team, 1923–1939 TeamWon ChampionshipSeasonsFalmouth 7 1923, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1935,1938, 1939Osterville 4 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928Hyannis 2 1926, 1927Barnstable 2 1934, 1937Wareham 1 1930Harwich 1 1933Bourne 1 1936 * During the 1923–1939 era, postseason playoffs were a rarity. In most years, the regular season pennant winner was simply crowned as the league champion.However, there were four years in which the league split its regular season and crowned separate champions for the first and second halves. In two of thoseseasons (1936 and 1939), a single team won both halves and was declared overall champion. In the other two split seasons (1933 and 1935), a postseasonplayoff series was contested between the two half-season champions to determine the overall champion.