Daily Fog: Moving On Up

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Daily Fog: Moving On Up

You can't see it right now since the standings haven't been updated, but last night's games created a quirky little situation in the West. Bourne has 18 wins, Wareham has 17, Cotuit 16, Falmouth 15 and Hyannis 14. I don't really know what to call that. Symmetry?

Whatever it is, it amounts to the parity everyone wants to see.

Because of ties, the points race isn't so symmetrical, and Falmouth and Hyannis are a more distant fourth and fifth than their win totals would indicate. But with the playoffs the way they are, it's not out of the realm of possibility that one of those teams could make a run to the last playoff spot.

They helped their cause last night.

Falmouth continued its occasional blowout trend with an 11-2 victory over Harwich. Brian Fletcher (Auburn) went 5-for-5, B.A. Vollmuth (Southern Miss) hit his fifth home run and Todd Cunningham (Jacksonville State) raised his league-leading average to .397. All in all, the Commodores pounded 18 hits in giving a big cushion to Kyle Winkler (TCU), who went five strong innings.

Over in Bourne, Hyannis staked Tyler Wilson (Virginia) to an early lead and he did the rest. Wilson, who has a scoreless streak of 21 innings and an ERA of 0.86, went seven shutout innings in this game to stop Bourne's four-game winning streak. Ryan Cuneo (Delaware), Ryan Graepel (North Carolina) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (South Carolina) each had two hits to back Wilson.

Elsewhere

In the only other game of the night, Cotuit topped Brewster 5-3. Zach Maggard (Florida Southern) and Zach Cone (Georgia) each hit home runs to pace the Kettleer offense. Jake Buchanan (NC State) won his third game of the summer and kept his ERA under one at 0.84. Daniel Tillman (Florida Southern), who still hasn't allowed a run this year , worked two scoreless frames to pick up his fourth save.

What to Watch For Tonight

Y-D will visit Wareham in a battle of two top teams and, potentially, two top pitchers. Jack Armstrong (Vanderbilt) is scheduled to go for Wareham against either Chris Sale (Florida Gulf Coast) or John Leonard (Boston College).

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as the fog settles in

The left-field sunset has faded. It is chilly now. You slip a sweatshirt on. The stat sheet you hold in your hands almost feels wet, the air is so damp. But the ink doesn't run. You can read it. That kid from LSU is still leading the league in home runs. That pitcher who they say throws 95 -- he's way up on the list in strikeouts.
The game is close, 3-2 through seven innings. You're staying till the end.
You look out at the field. Some fog has slipped in. It settles like smoke, just off the grass in front of the right fielder, like a cloud. When he runs through it to catch a fly ball, it looks almost magical, maybe even spiritual, like he's playing baseball in heaven.
Maybe he is.
The baseball is pure here. The players eager. The fans, maybe some of them don't know what they're seeing, maybe they just heard it was a fun night out, good for the family and everything -- but they know. They know somehow that this thing, this Cape League, is special.
Really, there's nothing like it.
I'm going to try and keep up.

Stop waxing poetic

The Cape Cod Baseball League is the top college summer league in the nation. Plenty of other leagues have cropped up of late, and some are having success, but the Cape League is still the model -- and the pinnacle. In 2006, 198 Major Leaguers had spent time in the Cape League.
The rosters are like a who's who of the best college baseball players. All the top prospects want to spend their summers on the Cape. The only better opportunity is Team USA. There are 10 teams in the league, divided into two divisions. Over the course of two months, they play 44 games. Scouts will watch many of them. They come because of the combination of talent and wood. Unlike college baseball, the Cape uses only wooden bats, providing an accurate picture of what players might do at the next level.
What else? Players live with host families. Some have part-time jobs (Jeff Bagwell worked at Friendly's). There's no admission charge at games. The level of baseball has been compared to Single A.
That should sum it up. If you have never experienced Cape League Baseball, you have missed out.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009