Chronicle Sports - Aug. 27, 2009

CHRONICLE SPORTS

Once Again, Cape League Season Gave Us Something To Savor

Commentary by Eric Adler

COTUIT — It doesn’t matter if you win or lose in summer ball.

It’s just a platform for college players to sharpen their skills, put up gaudy stats and show off in front of major league scouts before the school year and real season starts. It’s all about individual accolades over team accomplishment; it’s all about me, not we.

Just don’t tell that to Pierre LaPage.

Moments after the Bourne Braves clinched their first Cape League title with a 5-1 victory and 2-0 series sweep over Cotuit at Lowell Park last Wednesday, the sparkplug second baseman refreshingly cleared up a common refrain.

Bourne captured their first-ever Cape League title by defeating Cotuit last week and celebrated by dumping a bucket of ice water of coach Harvey Shapiro. ERIC ADLER PHOTO.

“Summer ball does mean something,” declared LaPage, who played for Bourne last year. “I think the teams that struggle and the teams that aren’t winning try to write it off and want to go home, but when you’re winning and get a couple of games under your belt in the playoffs, you want it more than anything.”

You don’t have to take his word for it. The post-game surroundings spoke loudest.

The big, burly ball players, some of whom look older than their host dads, turned into kids on Christmas morning the moment the final out was recorded. They rushed the field, did the dog pile in the infield, dumped the obligatory bucket of ice water over coach Harvey Shapiro, hugged, cried and kissed, and even shot pink strands of silly string at each other in celebration.

It wasn’t overdone. It was overdue.

In winning the title, Bourne became the 10^th and final team to capture a Cape League championship, their first crown in the 22-year history of the team – a fact that was lost on no one sitting in the Bourne bleachers.

Mindful of their team’s futile and frustrating history that included losses in the CCBL finals in 2003 and 2005, Braves fans held up signs that read “Believe,” and one overly optimistic backer even brought a broom in anticipation of the sweep.

In other words, don’t tell fans that summer ball doesn’t matter either.

“I mean look at it, our fans are here at three o’clock on a Wednesday,” marveled Kyle Roller, the league and playoff MVP, who hit .342 with 33 RBIs and a league-best 10 home runs during the regular season and .500 with eight RBIs in the playoffs. “You can’t get a better assignment or better environment to play in than that.”

That was obvious the second you shut the car door and stepped into a baseball wonderland, where hundreds of lawn chairs lined the outside of the field and where fans had a hot dog in one hand and a scorecard in the other. All that was missing was Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mantle.

Long before the first pitch, Bourne’s fan base began to cheer, and those sitting in the other stands responded in kind.

“When they say ‘let’s go,’ we’re going to say ‘Cotuit,’” yelled one keyed-up Kettleers fan. “We’re not going to let them out-cheer us on our field.”

Braves’ fans did, but only because they had more to cheer about.

LaPage hit a two-run double down the left field line in the third before he and Scott Woodward executed a rarely seen but perfectly executed double steal to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.

The Braves added a run in the fifth and sixth and were able to hold on thanks to the three-pronged pitching attack of starter Eric Cantrell, reliever Logan Billbrough and closer Kevin Munson, who altogether allowed just eight hits.

Munson shut down Cotuit in short order in the ninth and when the ball sailed into left fielder Stefan Romero’s glove for the final out, Munson jumped into the arms of a teammate and was gang-tackled to the ground.

Undefeated in post-season play, Bourne (29-17-2) finished the regular season with a five-game winning streak. They won the West Division, but few could have predicted they’d be champs given their inglorious history and the fact they faced a 2-0 ninth-inning deficit in their opening round playoff series against Orleans.

But the Braves lived up to their nickname. They stormed back and stole game one with three runs in the final frame, capped by Romero’s game-winning sacrifice fly.

“I think that’s when we all realized that no one’s stopping us,” said LaPage.

They didn’t. They couldn’t.

Over the next two games, balls hit off the Braves’ bats found more gaps than gloves, as the team eliminated Orleans 8-0 and crushed the Kettleers 15-5 in the opener of the CCBL finals at Doran Park.

The momentum clearly carried over the following afternoon, allowing Bourne to hoist the championship trophy and finally bring home the hardware.

“To come together with players from all over the country, bond like we did and play for something we all want was a great experience,” said Roller. “And to be part of the first Braves team to win it all is awesome.”

To see it from the sidelines was pretty special too.

What makes the Cape League so great, besides seeing stars before they become stars, is that it’s pure, a place apart from never-ending steroid scandals and bench-clearing brawls.

It wasn’t a perfect season. Far from it, in fact. There were a record number of delays, rain-outs and fog-outs and a smorgasbord of rescheduled games. But somehow, as usual, it worked out in the end and gave fans a feel-good story even if their team didn’t finish first.

Last year, spectators were fortunate enough to see the Harwich Mariners win their first Cape League title in 21 years. This year, once again, history was witnessed. It was, and is, something to savor. And above all, it’s significant all the way down the line, from the thankless volunteers to the victorious players.

“A Cape Cod League championship is something only a couple of thousand people in the whole world can write home about and tell their kids about when they get older,” said LaPage. “So believe me, it’s something special.”

Former Chatham A’s, Harwich Mariners Making Noise In the Majors

by Eric Adler

CHATHAM — The Cape Cod Baseball League has been a long-established launching pad to the pros, paving the way for such stars as Thurman Munson, Jason Varitek, Frank Thomas and Mike Lowell.

It’s here, in the invitation only wood-bat league, where elite college players get a real feel for what life will be like in the majors, from performing before thousands of fans to playing a demanding six-day-a-week schedule.

Former Chatham third baseman Chris Coghlan, who won the Cape League batting title in 2005, is off to an auspicious start to his major-league career, hitting .286 with six home runs and 29 RBIs for his hometown Florida Marlins. File Photo

The experience of playing on the peninsula has begun to pay off for quite a few Chatham A’s and Harwich Mariners alums, who’ve recently rose through the minor league ranks and are making a significant impact on baseball’s biggest stage.

Among them is former Chatham third baseman Chris Coghlan, a 2005 first-round draft pick, who’s off to an auspicious start to his big-league career, hitting .286 with six home runs and 29 RBIs for his hometown Florida Marlins.

The Palm Harbor, Fla., rookie went 2-for-4 in his pro debut May 8 against the Colorado Rockies. And just this month, he set a team record for consecutive multiple-hit games at eight, breaking a mark shared by Juan Pierre (2004) and Miguel Cabrera (2006).

During that streak, Coghlan collected two hits in a pair of games against the Chicago Cubs, seven in a three-game series with the Washington Nationals, and eight more in a three-game set against Philadelphia, including a four-hit effort in the final game with the World Series champion Phillies.

The only real difficulty Coghlan has faced thus far was retrieving his first home run ball on May 13 after a Milwaukee Brewers fan tried to hold the souvenir ransom.

Coghlan gave the fan, Nick Yohanek, an autographed bat as well as posed with him in a photo after hitting his first homer. But Coghlan claimed that Yohanek used his leverage in an attempt to gain other valuables, such as tickets and signed bats from other Marlins’ players, according to a published report by the Associated Press.

Coghlan was able to get the ball back, though he insisted the initial asking price by Yohanek – a self proclaimed ball hawk who’s nabbed 50 home run balls – was absurdly high.

What’s made Coghlan’s coming out party all the more interesting is that the bleach-blond left fielder has been reunited with his former Chatham teammate, Marlins starting pitcher Andrew Miller, who’s 3-5 this season with a 4.81 ERA and sports a 14-21 win-loss record over his three-year career with the Marlins and Detroit Tigers.

During his all-star season in 2005, Coghlan was red-hot at the hot corner. He won the CCBL batting title with a .346 average, narrowly beating out his A’s teammates Baron Frost (.343), Alex Presley (.341), and even Tampa Bay Rays two-time All-Star Evan Longoria (.299).

Jamie D’Antona is another former Chatham third baseman who’s used the Cape League to catapult his baseball career – just not in this country.

One of the main characters in Jim Collins’ 2002 account of the Chatham A’s “The Last Best League,” D’Antona is playing abroad for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Central League. Through the first half of the season (75 games), he’s feasted on sushi and sliders, hitting .286 with 17 home runs and 59 RBIs.

Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second round of the 2003 draft, D’Antona made his MLB debut last year, getting a pinch-hit single in his first career at-bat against the Cubs, but hit only .176 in 18 games before getting sent down to Triple-A Tucson.

Although D’Antona hit over .300 in the minors (and won the Triple-A home run hitting contest), the Diamondbacks were willing to release the 27-year-old slugger from his contract, opening the door for his overseas experiment.

Another player who used the Cape League as a pipeline to the pros is Jeff Niemann (Harwich ’02, 03), who’s posted a 10-5 record and 3.86 ERA with reigning American League champ Tampa Bay.

Though he wasn’t on Tampa’s World Series roster last year, the six-foot-nine righty has been a mainstay in the Rays’ rotation this season.

Niemann has particularly excelled this summer, going 6-1 over his last 10 starts, which has included a complete-game, two-hit and nine-strikeout shutout of the Kansas City Royals and a seven-hit shutout in a win over the Oakland A’s.

Niemann’s 2003 Mariners teammate, J.A. Happ, is also making a major impact. The Philadelphia southpaw earned his first career win in September, and a month later, a World Series ring with the Phillies.

Happ, who pitched one game of the National League Championship Series, has been a prominent part of the club’s title defense, winning his first six games and is 8-2 with a 2.75 ERA.

On a staff replete with strong-armed aces that includes starters Cole Hammels, Jamie Moyer and newly acquired Cy Young award winners Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez, Happ has stood out.

He tossed a complete-game four-hitter against Toronto in late June and a four-hit 10-strikeout masterpiece in the Phils’ 7-0 win over Colorado earlier this month.

Former Chatham hurler David Huff (’05), who sports a 7-6 record, 6.55 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP (walks-hit-to-inning pitched), has also begun to cut his teeth in the majors as one of the Cleveland Indians’ starters.

Huff’s major league debut didn’t go as planned. He allowed seven hits and seven runs in less than four innings in mid-May against Tampa Bay. But the lefty bounced back to win four of his next six games, including a gem against Pittsburgh in which he allowed just four hits over eight scoreless innings.

After bouncing around in the Diamondbacks and Yankees organizations, it appears that Ross Ohlendorf (Chatham ’03) has found a home in Pittsburgh.

Through three-quarters of the season, Ohlendorf has won 10 games and posted a 4.30 ERA. His finest outing came in late June when he struck out eight over seven innings in the Pirates’ win over the Cubs.

Boston College alumn Chris Lambert (Chatham ‘03), pitched earlier this month at Fenway Park, taking over for starter Rick Procello, who was ejected after hitting Kevin Youkillis, triggering a notorious bench-clearing brawl.

Lambert, called up from Triple-A Toledo, gave up five runs and five hits over five innings in the Tigers’ 7-5 loss.

8/27/09