Chatham Townies, Orleans Postseason Sluggers Among Six Inducted To Cape League Hall Of Fame

EAST HARWICH – The Cape Cod Baseball League inducted six new members into its Hall of Fame, including a postseason record holder for Orleans in 1986 and a player whose .432 average for Chatham in 1957 was just one early detail at the outset of a fascinating life. 

William Walker (Chatham 1957-58), Gary Alexander (Orleans 1986), Nick Gonzales (Cotuit 2019), Travis Jankowski (Bourne 2010-11), Pat Pinkman (Wareham 1999-2000) and Bob Stead (manager, commissioner and Hall of Fame founder) joined the league’s shrine to its greatest contributors as the class of 2025 in a ceremony at ​Wequassett Resort and Golf Club on Sunday. 

Walker hit .432 in the summer of 1957 for what was then the Chatham Townies playing in what was then the Lower Cape League. The flannel uniforms were uncomfortable and hot. The fields were rough. In the season’s first game against Orleans, Walker hit two home runs and a double, he recalled.

“And I kept on hitting all summer long,” he said Sunday. “Nearly every ground ball found a hole. Nearly every line drive found green grass or was over the fence. It was a magic year. Nobody could get me out, and I treasure the memory, and I have always treasured it, and it's something that has been in my mind and is a part of my persona all these years, 68 years at this point, since that time.”

After finishing at Wesleyan University, Walker signed with the Baltimore Orioles organization. The Orioles released him after one season, ending his professional baseball career. 

“And it was not the worst thing that ever happened,” said Walker, who has a real case for being the most interesting man in the Cape League Hall of Fame. The induction’s master of ceremonies, Scott Wahle, said as much, calling Walker “our most distinguished inductee.”

Walker eventually went on to serve in the Nixon and Ford administrations, working with Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Under Ford, Walker was named a deputy special trade representative, conducting international trade negotiations as an ambassador. He’s written five novels, is a member of Virginia’s rugby hall of fame and has a tournament-winning plaque at famed Winged Foot Golf Club in New York. He’s also a descendant of Chatham founder William Nickerson.

Also inducted Sunday was Gary Alexander, who came to the Cape from the University of Arizona and hit three home runs for the Orleans Cardinals in the first game of the final series, a league record, on the way to the 1986 championship. In fact, Alexander hit a home run in his first at-bat the next game, too, according to Wahle, making it four home runs in four consecutive at-bats to begin the championship series. He was named the Most Valuable Player of that year’s playoffs.

“Baseball was pure love, but it continued with determination, perseverance and ignoring other people's opinions about me,” Alexander said.

During the regular season, Alexander hit .316, shared the league lead for home runs with 12 and led the league with 37 runs scored. He was drafted and signed with the Texas Rangers in 1987 and spent six seasons playing minor league baseball. 

“It's places like [the Cape Cod Baseball League] that give us opportunities to hone the skills, to get life experiences, to build relationships and know what it takes to make it to the next level, and I will be ever so grateful for this opportunity I had to play in the Cape,” he said.

Nick Gonzales, who’s spent the last three MLB seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was inducted in absentia. He won the league’s MVP award and a championship with the Cotuit Kettleers in 2019 as an infielder from New Mexico State University.

Pat Pinkman, a pitcher from Virginia Tech, was one of the league’s top performers for two summers in 1999 and 2000 with the Wareham Gatemen. He put up earned run averages of 1.34 and 2.05 in those two years. In 1999, he was named an all-star and the league’s Outstanding Pitcher, in addition to all-league honors. He said the Cape League “community” is what he’ll carry with him “more than any statistic or award.”

“I will cherish this not as a recognition of my baseball success, but as a reminder of the incredible people, the dynamic relationships, and the unique place that gave me a chance to fall in love with Cape Cod, not just the Cape Cod Baseball League,” he said.

Bob Stead, who died in 2019, was the Cape League’s commissioner from 1999 to 2003. He managed the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox from 1975 to 1978 and the Bourne Braves from 1995 to 1996. He was also a founder and chair of the league’s Hall of Fame committee in 2000 and worked as an amateur scout for the New York Yankees and New York Mets.

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball,” his son Doug Stead said. “Baseball has marked the time. This game is part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. God bless America and the Cape Cod Baseball League.”

Travis Jankowski, an outfielder from Stony Brook University, won the league MVP in addition to all-league honors in 2011. He played in MLB as recently as 2025 and was hired on Nov. 12 as the first base coach for the Texas Rangers, where he won a World Series in 2023.

He said, via Zoom, that the Cape League fans reminded him “every night that baseball at its core is about one thing: joy.”

“When I reminisce on my time on the Cape, the thing that sticks out to me the most is the growth I made, not just as a player, but as a person,” Jankowski said. “I learned how to face pressure, how to make adjustments and how to embrace competition at its highest level. But most of all, I learned that baseball is a gift. Those summer nights on the Cape reminded me why I fell in love with baseball in the first place. This league helped shape my career and shape who I am. I carry those lessons with me every single day.”