������������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������ ���������������� �������������������� ��������������� ���������������� �������������������� ����������������� ����������������������� ����������������������������������������������������� 2 SUMMER STARS June 15, 2006 From The Cheap Seats Fans In For A Treat As Season Begins Days before the first pitch is thrown they litter their practice fields in mismatched T-shirts that span the colors of the rainbow. Each shirt represents (fill in the blank) col- lege or university, but atop their heads rest the team caps they will sport for the next two months. The fields aren’t bad, but compared to the ACC or Big 12 or SEC or whatever other conferences they’ve been playing in, they aren’t that special, either. But there’s something about this place by the beach that not only makes them want to be here, but need to be here. It’s the Cape Cod Baseball League. With all apologies to the other summer wood bat base- ball leagues, the Cape Cod Baseball League is the best league around for these young college kids who want to show off their skills. Just take a look behind home plate sometime, when you’re at a ballgame. You’re likely to see more radar guns than hot dogs and more notebooks than soda pops. That’s right, the Cape League is where they come to be seen by Major League Baseball. Sure they’re here to have fun, but in the big picture of things, it’s where they show just how good they are to the people who will one day be signing their paychecks. How big that stub is can be determined by seven or eight weeks on Cape Cod. That’s the reality of it all, that the baseball players from Former CCBL Bat all over the United States come here to help their cause of making it to the big time, to impress the talent evalua- Boy Takes Trip Down tors that matter. Memory Lane But there’s still plenty of romanticism surrounding this Page Seven little league, too. Books have been written, movies have been produced, and countless stories have been told about coming of age on Cape Cod both as a ballplayer and a person. While the fans are watching double plays get turned and line drives find the gaps, there is a bigger Meet Bob Mancini – story unfolding for each and every player. Falmouth’s Own Each has his own stories. Some are homesick. Some just want to get out of a slump and prove their worth. ‘Rudy’ Page Ten Others are finding a new pitch, or learning how to hit with wood. There’s so much more happening than just balls and strikes. But the fans are going to the ballpark because of the balls and strikes, the K’s and homers. And if that’s what Continuing A you’re looking for, then you are indeed in for a treat at the Cape Cod ballparks. From the hill at Orleans’ Eldredge Park to the Meet The President Baseball Tradition bleachers in Wareham and all of the vantage points in be- tween, the Cape League is the best family entertainment Page Eleven that this vacation hot spot has to offer. 3 Cape Cod Baseball League baseball is as good as it gets at this age level. Most of the players are between 19 and 21 years old and they’re all here to make some sort of Full Cape Cod League Game Schedule statement. When you’ve got a talented group with a mis- sion, the end result is some fine playing to behold. Page 5 Make no mistake; it’s a pitchers’ league first and fore- most. Most of the names that fans know from this league Photo Highlights US Military All-Stars Game were hitters: Nomar, The Big Hurt, Vaughn, Munson, Pages 8-9 Knoblauch, Tino, and the list goes on and on and on. But, nowadays, here on the Cape, it’s all about the pitchers. If you happen to be a hard-throwing lefty with hopes of League Preview East Division & West Division winning an ERA title, you better not give up more than seven Pages 12-14 or eight runs—for the season. That’s how good the hurlers are in the CCBL. Pitching to some of the best hitters in the country, the best pitchers make it look like they’re throw- Look for this issue online @ www.capenews.net ing to Little Leaguers. The velocity is off the charts, and the breaking stuff should be illegal, and with the hitters not only trying to catch up to that stuff, but doing so without the se- curity blankets they’re accustomed to known as aluminum On The Cover: Cardinals right hander Andy Graham returns to bats, it sometimes doesn’t seem fair, especially early in the Orleans in hopes of another championship season. season. Eventually, though, most of the hitters do catch up, Bill Vaughan photo courtesy of SportsPix and then the game’s really on. As you can see, there’s a whole lot going on between the middle of June and early August in the 10 Cape League publisher project manager design services manager communities. This is actually just scratching the surface. William Hough Chuck Borge Christine Stutzman Here at Summer Stars, we plan on bringing you closer sports editor to the action than you’ve ever been. This publication will sales manager design services highlight some of the best players, introduce you to the Rich Maclone Linda Stewart Cape League’s personalities and take you on a tour of a Steve Krammes photo editor Jill Spencer league that we all love. Just like you, we’re baseball fans Julia Balducci first and foremost, and our mission statement is to bring sales Daniel W. Webb you closer to the action than you’ve ever been and tell Danielle Guay design & layout press supervisor you stories that you’ll want to read. From the first pitch Tricia Keough Elisabet K. Rodrigues David Pittman to the final out, we’ll be there and want you right along Dawn Mitchell beside us. Trisha Herlihy 50 Depot Avenue Play ball. Barbara Warner nterp e E ri Falmouth, MA 02540 Rich Maclone is the Sports Editor for Summer Stars Nancy Medeiros h s and covers the Falmouth Commodores for Enterprise e 508-548-4700 • 1-800-286-7744 Esther Buchanan T Publishing Falmouth • Mashpee • Bourne • Sandwich Fax: 508-540-8407 June 15, 2006 SUMMER STARS 3 From The Press Box To The Presidency By MATTHEW M. BURKE 1970s. He also worked for the The path traveled by Judy UMass baseball team. “We Walden Scarafile through the were actually arch-rivals,” Cape Cod Baseball League she said of Mr. Bresciani, who has been unique and excit- has been with the Boston ing. She has risen through Red Sox now for 35 years the ranks from being a sports and now serves as the team’s writing student at the Univer- vice president of publications sity of Connecticut, to scor- and archives. ing games for the Cape Cod He asked her if she was Baseball League in the early interested in spending the 1970s, to the presidency of summer on Cape Cod scor- one of baseball’s premier ing the games, instead of at amateur summer leagues. her home in Demarest, New Ms. Scarafile has seen liter- Jersey. As a child, she had ally hundreds of Cape Leagu- vacationed in Orleans and ers become stars on Major Provincetown with her family, League Baseball rosters and and she accepted Mr. Bres- has maintained the essence ciani’s offer without telling her and tradition of one of Cape mother. It was to be her first Cod’s truly classical ele- summer away from home; it ments, even as the league’s was the summer of 1970. budget has approached near The baseball-loving Scara- astronomical proportions. file borrowed a car from her For Ms. Scarafile, now 57, economics professor that it hasn’t always been smooth had no reverse and migrated sailing; being a woman in a to the collegiate wood bat man’s game and the job have mecca. She lived with several held many challenges. In the girls in downtown Sandwich early 1990s, it was feared the and made $15 per game at league might have to fold due night. During the day, she to lack of sponsors, and the worked as a lunchtime wait- cause was not helped by the ress at the long-since defunct Major League ballplayers’ Yankee Clipper Restaurant at strike, but Ms. Scarafile, and the intersection of Main and the Cape League, somehow 6A. Most of her assignments found a way. involved covering the teams She said that there have on the non-Cape side of the always been naysayers, an bridge. Thus her ascension old Cape Cod element who had begun. questioned whether a woman She said that she was could be president of the impressed with the quality league. But after a 15-year of the league right away and term in which she has over- that she marveled at qual- seen the league’s 10 teams, ity start after quality start by and stewarded the likes of the pitching staffs of each Jason Varitek, Nomar Gar- team. However, they were ciaparra, Kevin Youkilis, Billy trying times for her as well as Wagner, and Frank Thomas the players back in the early through the ranks to seek 1970s. Some of the Gatemen superstardom on the highest players at the time worked level, not too many people in a Wareham nail factory. question her leadership any- They would work all day and more. In fact, she has never play the games at night, vis- been challenged for her seat ibly exhausted.