Visiting the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame

HYANNIS, Mass.

On Main St. in this town, between the post office and the library, John F. Kennedy still walks barefoot through the sand. A bronze statue of the 35th President, in khakis and a polo shirt with the logo of the Hyannisport Club, stands outside the entrance to the JFK Museum in the hamlet that might be more of a hometown to the Kennedy clan than Boston.

The modest museum features about four rooms dedicated to JFK and his family's group of summer homes a few miles away. Their story is told mostly in photographs, with a few videos playing on a loop in one room and a case of campaign ephemera marking the 1960 election -- which Kennedy monitored from his Hyannisport home before accepting the nomination at the Hyannis Armory. Two sections of the museum are dedicated to Ted Kennedy and JFK Jr., who, one display explains, would visit the museum unannounced and stroll through his family's history.

After our visit to Camelot, my wife and I stepped into the elevator and descended to the basement. The doors opened on a bright-green Astroturf carpet, white baselines stretching out in front of us and to the right. Down here, much like many sports fans' basements, is a collection of artifacts, memorabilia and stories marking the long history of baseball on Cape Cod. It's the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame, something that I didn't know existed until a few months ago. (And an idea that has only been around for the last decade.)

To me, it's the perfect layout. The Cape League is simple and classic. It's baseball played by college kids -- the best college kids each year -- using wood bats and living with host families in a summer paradise. I found it fitting that its Hall of Fame resides in a refurbished, well-lit basement, a basic location that was set up well. Each of the league's 10 current teams are represented, as are towns and clubs that used to play organized games on the Cape, whether or not they were part of what's now known as the Cape Cod Baseball League.

There's not much more to be said, so I'll just get to the photos.








These two early photos show teams from Orleans. The first features several different uniform styles; the second one appears to have just two -- but note the two guys in jackets with Red Sox logos on them. It seems Orleans wasn't always home to Cardinals. Both appear to be photos of Orleans Athletic Club teams, based on the "A.C." on several jersey sleeves. (If there's one complaint I had about the displays is that quite a lot of artifacts -- particularly photos like these -- were not dated, or even labeled. A simple marker saying "circa 1930s" or "date unknown" would've at least told us that the date has been lost to history and not left it up to us to guess.)






Here's a 1963 Cotuit team that went 39-5 in winning the league championship.






Once again, foiled by the lack of a year. My best guess is that this is a 1990s East All-Star team. They really should think about including a year with the banner.






This one is easy -- the 1992 East All-Star team. Note Billy Wagner's signature in the top right. He's No. 36, third from the right in the second row. He was named the East MVP after striking out the side in his one inning. The West won, 3-1.






As best I can tell, these are the 2005 East All-Stars -- so long as that's Daniel Bard's signature along the top. The interesting thing about the autograph's place on this photo is that Bard, playing for the Wareham Gatemen, would have been on the West All-Star squad.






A Harwich championship ring. I'm guessing it's from 2008 -- the Mariners have only won it in '08, 1997 and '83.














Some highlights of the Hyannis Mets display. I like the lack of black (naturally) in all but the one hybrid cap. I think the No. 28 jersey might be Jeromy Burnitz's, because his baseball card is set on top of it. And the photo of Varitek on the 2000 Hyannis program might be from his 1993 stint, because he signed my stat sheet in '91 with "#45" after his name (though that may have indicated his college jersey number).










Some old and unlabeled photos. Not sure which team the player in the first one represented. The second is obviously of a pair of Wareham guys hamming it up. And the third is a postcard -- and perhaps my favorite photo in the entire museum, the Kennedys included. I visited Highland Light for the first time back in January and love its history. It's perched on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic and had to be moved a few hundred yards from the edge in 1996 because erosion endangered it. Also, my dad used to run down the dunes near Highland Light with his brother when they were kids visiting their uncle.





I'm not sure if this old scorebook is the 1867 one mentioned in the press release, but it's still beautiful.














Time for old uniforms! The first is, obviously, an umpire's cap, jacket and brush. I love the inset C's on the cap. We then have an old Falmouth jersey. Next is a 1947 Cotuit Kettleers jersey worn by Joe Souza in Cotuit's first year in the CCBL, followed by spikes worn by "A. Brennan" in the '40s. Finally, my second favorite thing in the entire museum, a very old jersey from the town of Sandwich. Seriously, who wouldn't want a jersey with "SANDWICH" emblazoned across the front? (Also hilarious: The police cars in the town say, naturally, "Sandwich Police" on the doors. I like to think they give out tickets for too much mayo.)






This mural flanks the corner of a movie room featuring old seats from Fenway Park and many of the Hall of Fame classes. The case in the foreground features more modern CCBL pennants and memorabilia on the near side; the opposite side holds hundreds of baseball cards of Cape Cod baseball alumni.

And, finally, a few of the Hall of Famers' plaques that jumped out at me.





I liked Jeff Innis as a Met. He had that funky sidearm/submarine delivery, and he wanted to become an FBI agent after his playing days.






Mo Vaughn, still a favorite.






Ha! Look at this! New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello is a Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Famer! Who knew?






Another personal favorite. I always liked Robin Ventura, both before and after his days with the Mets. His induction in 2001 is the likely reason for his depiction with the Mets rather than the White Sox, with whom he spent most of his career.








And, lastly, the plaque for the only player in both the Cape Cod and National Baseball Halls of Fame, with a letter from Bud Selig acknowledging that distinction.

Cape Cod baseball memories

Starting 30 years ago, my family joined others -- those of my mom's four best college friends -- for a Memorial Day weekend getaway in Hyannisport, Mass., that quickly became an annual tradition. As a result, all through high school and college, I never knew what it was like to be home for Memorial Day weekend, had never seen a Memorial Day parade (still haven't, but that's because I'm usually either working or, in some recent years, on a different vacation), and always associated the final Monday in May with beating the traffic off Cape Cod and hoping that there would be no accidents on I-95. Daytime baseball on the radio during the holiday was always a great way to pass the time -- especially in traffic.

But because our trips were always at the end of May, I missed out on the joy of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Except for one year, 1991, when my parents added a summer week on the Cape to our usual journey up to Maine to visit family. We stayed in Chatham and went to games there and in Orleans. I enjoyed the small fields and close access, which allowed me to hunt for autographs and make my first attempts at close-to-the-action sports photography. I loved the small-town baseball, the proximity to the field and access to the players. Among the autographs I got were those of Hyannis Mets Jason Varitek and Rich Aurilia and Chatham Athletic Chris Michalak. I don't remember talking with Varitek, but by sheer chance, it turns out he was the only one to sign one of the stat sheets I received at the game between Hyannis and Chatham.

After the game, if I remember correctly, fans were allowed onto the field to meet the players, and that's where I told Aurilia we had the same birthday (Sept. 2) and mentioned to Michalak that my dad also went to Notre Dame. He asked me my dad's dorm, and I had no idea, so he shifted from writing out his uniform number to giving me the name of his dorm -- Flanner Hall -- and the inscription, "GO IRISH." Three years later, both would become very familiar to me when I learned that my freshman dorm, Grace Hall, was the twin to another 10-story housing unit for male students: Flanner Hall.

Amazingly, I kept the program and stat sheets with the autographs in pretty good condition all these years, allowing me to scan and post them. The one autograph that may be lost to history is the Cape Cod Times sports section that featured coverage of a no-hitter thrown by Hyannis' Richard King. I wasn't at the game, but I had him sign the paper when the Mets came to Chatham a night or two later.

At Chatham's field, I remember my sister and I setting up blankets on the bleachers behind home plate, then walking around before the game started and spending much -- if not all -- of the contest in that spot. A night or two later, when we saw the A's on the road against the Orleans Cardinals, I remember walking around the field during the game. The bleachers were smaller, but the entire first-base/right-field line runs along a tiered berm that is perfectly suited to laying out blankets or unfolding lawn chairs to take in the game. Beach by day and this setting for a ballgame at night? That is heaven.

Though Varitek, Aurilia, the Domer Michalak and Don Wengert, a pitcher for Hyannis that summer, all reached the Majors, the name I remembered most was that of Doug Newstrom. (However, often through the years, I confused Wengert with King, thinking that the guy who had been good enough to pitch a no-hitter on the Cape also reached the Majors with the A's and five other teams.) Newstrom was a two-way talent from Arizona State who, at the time I saw Chatham play, was 5-1 with a 2.33 ERA and batting .287 with a team-leading six homers and 30 RBIs. He was the starting pitcher the night we saw the A's at Orleans and might have served as his own DH. But after an eight-year minor league career that included two summers with New Haven of the Eastern League (thereby bringing him through Trenton) and finally reaching Triple-A with Tucson in the Diamondbacks' organization, his career ended in 2000.

Unfortunately, those remain the only Cape League games I've attended. Many is the summer I've thought of a return trip, but I've yet to make it happen.

LATER TODAY: Visiting the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame, something I didn't know existed until last week.