Back to the Cape

The Cape Cod League on a summer evening... happiness.

Reason why my wife is the best wife in the world No. 2372 ... as we were leaving the gym last Friday night, out of the blue, she suggested going to Cape Cod for a baseball game the next night.

Needless to say, I required no convincing.

We chose Falmouth's game against Orleans at Guy Fuller Field, in part because we like going there and in part because it was the game closest to where we live outside of Boston, and we didn't want to hit any more traffic than we had to, although it still took us 90 minutes to get there. (Coming back, it took an hour.) Also, due to repairs to the lights, the game started earlier, meaning we wouldn't get home late.

Just chillin'

My wife and I used to live on the Cape, and while there are a lot of things I don't miss about it, Cape Cod Baseball League games are near the top of the list of what I do miss. 

Not only is it a chance to see some of the best college baseball players in the country for free, the atmosphere (for the fans, anyway, but probably not the players) is relaxing, almost like a picnic where there's baseball being played. 

All the fields are at schools or other municipal parks, and while there are bleachers, if you want to hang out by the fence, walk around, go get some food or grab some space in a lawn chair, go ahead. 

When I worked in Orleans, one of my favorite things was how on nights the Cardinals (now the Firebirds, thanks to the copyright issue that also turned my Hyannis Mets into the Harbor Hawks and the Chatham A's into the Anglers) played at home, fans came out early in the morning to put their lawn chairs, blankets and whatever else they needed to claim spots on the terrace at Eldredge Park and left them there all day. (Eldredge also hosts a summer pops concert where spectators who aren't at a table near the stage do the same thing.)

With the exception of a couple sports, Falmouth isn't as good for bring-your-own-seating, but we like the small bleachers near the third-base dugout, so we settled down to watch the game there. Fortunately, I did not meet the same fate as a couple years ago, when an ill-timed wind gust combined with walking past the Commodores' flag-bearer resulted in me wearing my ketchup-covered French fries.

Some days you play ... some days you handle the 50/50.

As for the game, Orleans jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and was cruising along up 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh when Falmouth's Sam Gillikin got hit in the arm hard enough to have to leave the game.

And thus began the saga of Boomer White.

Boomer when in to pinch-run -- and as I noted to my wife, you don't see a lot of pinch-runners named Boomer -- but given the time it took for him to get to first base after Gillikin was removed, it's almost like he wasn't expecting to play that day. Cape League rosters aren't that big; it's not like there were a ton of other options to play the outfield.

We quickly became fascinated with Boomer, and a quick search on my phone revealed that he's quite good, so good that his impending transfer from TCU to Texas A&M was kind of a big deal in college baseball circles, to the point where rival fans actually speculated about the reason.

Falmouth rallied in the bottom of the eighth, and had tied the game at four when our man Boomer strode the plate with the go-ahead run on base. It was your basic 29-hopper through a drawn-in infield, but he got a single to put Falmouth up 5-4 during what wound up being a five-run rally and a 6-4 lead.

After a top of the ninth where Boomer appeared to be tossing something in the outfield to keep himself amused (gum, maybe?) Falmouth held on to win 6-5.

Our hero ... Boomer White