CAPE COD BASEBALL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
QUARTERFINALS
Orleans at Brewster, 3 p.m.
Harwich at Y-D, 3 p.m.
Wareham at Bourne, 7 p.m.
Cotuit at Falmouth, 7 p.m.
Brewster at Orleans, 7 p.m.
Y-D at Harwich, 7 p.m.
Falmouth at Cotuit, 3 p.m.
Bourne at Wareham, 7 p.m.
Orleans at Brewster, 3 p.m.
Harwich at Y-D, 3 p.m.
Wareham at Bourne, 7 p.m.
Cotuit at Falmouth, 7 p.m.
It seemed as if opening day in the Cape Cod Baseball League was only yesterday.
It was seven weeks ago, and after 220 regular-season games, the new, expanded playoffs begin today. All those games were played to eliminate just two teams — Hyannis and Chatham — and the eight left standing are ready for the quarterfinals, the first step on the road to the championship.
The eventual champion will need to win three best-of-three series.
Today’s action starts with a pair of 3 p.m. games in the Eastern Division — Harwich at Yarmouth-Dennis and Orleans at Brewster. The Western Division features two 7 p.m. contests — Wareham at Bourne and Cotuit at Falmouth. The teams will flip sites for the second games on Saturday. If a third game is necessary in any series, they will be Sunday back at the Game 1 site.
“It’s exciting,” said Yarmouth-Dennis manager Scott Pickler, whose team won the East and had the league’s best record at 27-17. “The level of play picks up, the intensity picks up. These guys are baseball players. They know that. They’ve got a week to do something really special.”
Pickler should know. He has won three titles with Y-D, the last in 2007 with a team that included Buster Posey, Gordon Beckham and Jason Castro, all now in the big leagues. That was the third championship in four seasons for Y-D, which has won five division titles in the last seven seasons.
Bourne is champion of the West, and at 24-20 are the only team in the division with a winning record.
Last summer Bourne won the franchise’s first-ever title since starting play in 1988, and the first for the town since Sagamore won it all in 1965 under the guidance of Lou Lamoriello.
This isn’t last year, but Bourne looks ready. When Coastal Carolina outfielder Scott Woodward fractured a bone in his foot three days before the All-Star Game, the last remaining player from 2009 took leave.
“It’s a different team,” said manager Harvey Shapiro.
Maybe, but the Braves look to have the same determination that fueled last year’s run. They cemented the division title in the final week with a couple of walk-off wins and a 10-inning victory at Yarmouth-Dennis. It makes you wonder if the Bourne fans will dust off the “Believe” signs they carried through the 2009 postseason, or if fans of another franchise will take a ride on their team’s own magic carpet.
If you’re a gambler betting on recent form, it might be wise to pick Falmouth. The Commodores haven’t won the championship since 1980, the league’s longest drought. But Bourne last year and Harwich, which won the first time in 21 years in 2008, overcame their history by beating Cotuit in the finals.
“If you want to win the championship, just play Cotuit,” Kettleer manager Mike Roberts joked at the league’s preseason brunch.
Mired in a six-game losing streak, the Kettleers don’t appear destined for the 2010 finals, but the thing about the Cape League playoffs is you just never know. A key player may leave to go home, a pitcher may shut down because he’s reached his innings limit, and suddenly the team you thought was the favorite is packing its bags for the season.
That’s why Falmouth manager Jeff Trundy can look at the West having just one team with a winning record and say, “I don’t put much stock in that.”
Having won six straight, you can understand why he feels that way. But will the momentum carry over into the postseason?
“I’ll let you know,” Trundy said. “We’re playing well and that gives us confidence. But, like always, you’ve got to pitch and play defense.”
Wareham manager Cooper Farris said his team was banged up the last week, when it slid back to fourth place. But the Gatemen should have everyone back, and look more like the team that overcame a brutal 4-13 start to the season.
Brewster manager Tom Myers should be as lucky. He’s seen his pitching staff drop to a precarious nine hurlers. “We’re going to have to gut it out,” he said.
There is a lot of sentiment among managers that this new playoff format is not the best. Instead of eight out of 10 making it, another option could be to take all 10 and have the fifth-place and fourth-place teams meet in a one-game play-in for the right to play the division’s top team. The way it’s set up now, there’s no reward for finishing first.
“I have mixed feelings,” said Orleans manager Kelly Nicholson, who guided his club to the 2005 championship. “I liked it when the top two teams in each division went at it. This does add interest and gives everybody a shot. But three series is a lot for these kids. You have to have a lot of arms and you have to be healthy.”
Then Nicholson issued this reminder: “Everybody’s pretty even. I know Y-D has the best record, but it’s not the best team that wins, it’s the team that plays the best.”
Cape League commissioner Paul Galop acknowledges the sentiment of the managers, and said one manager told him, ‘You could put everybody in the playoffs and not tarnish the regular season.’
“We’ll see how it goes,” Galop said. “People like to see more baseball.”
Starting today, they get that chance.
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baseball players, bourne, hyannis, m games, seven weeks, yarmouth
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