Cape Cod League: Dan Johnson, Club President, Hyannis Harbor Hawks
This article was written by Humbert Kilanowski
This article was published in Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures (2026)
Dan Johnson with daughter Jordynn Johnson. (Courtesy of Dan Johnson)
While the Cape Cod Baseball League is known for several team officials who have served in their positions for decades, several teams have leaders who offer a new perspective. The Hyannis Harbor Hawks are one such club, with a new slate of leadership that has assumed the positions of president, general manager, and head coach all since 2022. Dan Johnson, the club president, graciously agreed to speak of his history with the team and his new-school leadership style.
Johnson, a Cape Cod native and 1985 graduate of Barnstable High School, first became involved with the club in 2010. The retiring team president, Jack Aylmer, who founded both the Hyannis and Bourne clubs, noticed Johnson wearing a hat of the Hyannis Mets (the team’s former name) at the local miniature golf course, Steve and Sue’s Par-Tee Freeze, and recognized him as his son’s high-school classmate. Aylmer asked Johnson to replace him on the board of the Hyannis Athletic Association, to which Johnson gladly agreed. The board then elected him as team president in 2022; as this was written he was in his second two-year term. While the office of president is a volunteer position, Johnson finds that during the season, he devotes 30 hours per week both to the team and to his usual job at the landscaping company that he owns.
Prior to his presidency, the Harbor Hawks had finished in last place in the league each of the two previous seasons and three of the past four. Since then, however, the team’s resurgence has been one of the league’s most inspiring stories, as Hyannis has notched three consecutive winning seasons, including a Western Division championship in 2024. Dan credited this turnaround to the team’s simultaneous hiring of Nick Johnson (no relation) as general manager, whom Dan described as a “savant” with a passion for the game, who has made a point of developing an analytics program.
After hiring Johnny Davis, a pitcher and data-science major at Assumption University, as an intern in 2022, the club expanded to a staff of several interns in the analytics department, while Davis has worked both as an assistant coach for the Hawks and a major-league analyst for the Toronto Blue Jays. Out of all the teams on the Cape, the Harbor Hawks have the most extensive analytics team, and they have led the way in using modern methods of data science to build and manage a winning team.
Another important move was the hiring in September 2023 of new head coach Mitch Karraker from California, who aims to provide stability to improve upon the coaching carousel of recent years. Johnson describes Karraker as a “players’ coach” who selflessly gives his time in various ways, working on maintaining the ball field, recruiting players, and helping his current players prepare for a professional career.
In addition to serving on the board, Johnson has opened his home to Harbor Hawks players since 2011, a role that he considers the most important aspect of his work with the team. Both of his daughters have embraced the task of being part of a host family as well. Jordynn (University of Vermont) has worked as an intern for five-plus years, most recently as a photographer, and serves as her father’s “eyes and ears,” while Camrynn (Providence College), who is not interested in baseball, nevertheless is devoted to the upkeep of the home for the visiting players.
Out of all the players whom the Johnsons have hosted over the years, the one who stands out most to Dan Johnson has been Cameron Smith, a third baseman from Florida State, who played for the Harbor Hawks in 2023 and won the league’s Outstanding Pro Prospect Award. Johnson and Smith forged a strong bond during the summer, often enjoying the local ice cream parlors in the area, and Johnson was excited to call Smith to congratulate him on being drafted, as the Chicago Cubs selected him in the first round on the day of the interview.1 Smith has since risen quickly to the majors, as he now starts in right field for the Houston Astros.
In contrast to the smaller towns around the Cape, the village of Hyannis presents a unique challenge, for while summer baseball may be the largest draw among evening activities in most towns, Hyannis offers a bustling nightlife, with shops, bars, restaurants, and a live music venue, the Melody Tent. This city-like atmosphere not only competes with the Harbor Hawks for fans but also can be a distraction for the players. Yet despite this competition, Johnson credits a group of about 50 diehard fans who travel to every game, plus several hundred more from the working-class community who show up on a day-to-day basis.
Johnson aims to capture the lively, party-style ambience of Hyannis at the games as well, and this infectious joy trickles down to the players. At McKeon Park during the games, one will often hear dance party music from the disco era to the present day (after a Hawks win, the PA system often plays the song “Rock & Roll Band” by Boston, whose second verse begins “Dancin’ in the streets of Hyannis”), and during the fifth inning, the pie-eating contest (between a young fan and a Harbor Hawks player) entertains the crowd.
The concession stand sells items that cannot be found at any other ballpark, such as the “walking taco” and pizza from Regina in Boston, and one may see former league President Judy Walden Scarafile, for whom the field is named, working behind the counter. Overall, Johnson aims to make the summer baseball experience an enjoyable one not only for the fans, but for the players as well; he laments how other coaches around the league may micromanage their teams to the point of squeezing the fun out of the game. As a host family, Johnson understands the importance of making memories for the players and building relationships with them, as well as the current challenge of finding housing for all the players who come through during the summer, and that shows in his approach to running the team. “My involvement as president for Hyannis has given me so much back in terms of lifelong connections with players and coaches,” says Johnson about his experience. “I would say baseball is just a means to an end with me, trying to be involved with my community and give them a venue to watch the best amateur baseball in the country free of charge.”
Therefore, both on and off the field, Dan Johnson shows that it is possible to manage a winning team and still have fun while doing so. As one of the newest presidents of a team with a new general manager and coaching staff, he strives to lead a youth movement that will continue to add life to the team and the league for years to come.
Fr. HUMBERT KILANOWSKI is a Catholic priest of the Dominican order and an associate professor of mathematics at Providence College in Rhode Island. He began his work in sabermetrics as the statistician for his high-school baseball team in 1997 and completed his doctoral studies at The Ohio State University. Since the 2019 season, his primary area of mathematical research has involved evaluating collegiate players in the Cape Cod Baseball League using the methods of data science. A member of the Lajoie-Start Southern New England chapter of SABR, he considers it a lifetime penance to live as a Yankees fan in the midst of Red Sox Nation.
NOTES
1 Author interview with Dan Johnson on July 14, 2024. Johnson’s second term in September 2025. He continues to host players during the summer.