SABR Digital Library: Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures
Add a new baseball book to your collection from the SABR Digital Library:
Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures
Edited by Mike Richard and Bill Nowlin
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
Foreword by Peter Gammons
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-64-2, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-65-9, $24.95
8.5″ x 11″, 182 pages
The Cape Cod League is the premier amateur baseball league in the United States, and this book presents stories of the people, places, and players who have made it great.
If someone told you an amateur baseball league had produced 18 future major leaguers, it might seem impressive. But over 1,800 alumni of the Cape Cod Baseball League have landed in the major leagues. The “Cape League,” as it is locally known, is far from the only collegiate summer baseball league—over 80 now operate in the US and Canada—but it is the only one to graduate so many players into the bigs. Perhaps just as impressive is how the league was born of, and remains nurtured by, a true community of volunteers rooted in Massachusetts and on Cape Cod.
Every night in the summer months, a small army of volunteers staff several games a night, which are free and open to the public. Volunteers run all ten teams, from the coaches and groundskeepers to the folks running concessions and selling raffle tickets. Many gameday workers are interns who themselves go on to futures in professional baseball scouting, broadcasting, and team operations. On the Cape, players typically stay with host families, sometimes working in family shops or other local businesses, making the Cape League experience truly community based for all.
This book takes a comprehensive look at the Cape Cod Baseball League as only SABR can, encompassing both analytical articles on the importance of the league in MLB development and historical pieces documenting the past and present. Biographies of some important figures in Cape League history, such as longtime president Judy Walden Scarafile, and profiles of alumni such as Derek Falvey, recently president of the Minnesota Twins, sit alongside analysis and features on each team, from the Cotuit Kettleers to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks.
Some 25 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a number of invited guests offer here some of their experiences and perspectives. Former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Dan Evans called his work on the Cape as “the greatest scouting experience of my life.” Peter Gammons now lives on Cape Cod, but still enthuses about being “lucky enough to go to a Cape League game” and in his foreword to the book reminisces about seeing a player he’s never forgotten, embodying the league’s motto: “Where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight.”
Contributors include: Kurt Blumenau, John Whitman Clark, Pranav Chugh, Eric Conrad, Mark Epstein, Sol Gittleman, Donna L. Halper, Humbert Kilanowski, Rebekah Lajoie, Len Levin, Tom Mason, Jack McCarthy, Robert J. McDonough, Mark Morowczynski, Bill Nowlin, Bill Pruden, Steve Rennie, Mike Richard, Carl Riechers, Emily Roberge, Russ Speiller, Mark S. Sternman, Cecilia M. Tan, and Stephen Trimble.
SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Cape Cod Baseball League for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Cape Cod Baseball League paperback edition from the SABR Store ($15.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
Buy the book
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Cape Cod Baseball League for $9.99 from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get the paperback edition of Cape Cod Baseball League from the SABR Store ($29.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
About the SABR Digital Library
For more than 50 years, SABR and its members have led the way in publishing the best baseball historical and statistical research. Our publications program is shifting to take advantage of new methods of publishing. Not only will we continue to publish new books like Can He Play? A Look At Baseball Scouts and Their Profession (2011); Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (2013); Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox (2015); Jackie Robinson: Perspectives on 42 (2021), ¡Arriba! The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (2022); and Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan (2023); which showcase the best efforts of SABR’s members, chapters and committees, but new technology makes it possible for us to bring out-of-print titles like When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Champion Red Sox (2018); Green Cathedrals (2020); and The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World (2021) back again.
Visit SABR.org/ebooks to find all past titles and download your favorites. Books will be available in digital formats as well as paperbacks produced by “print on demand” (POD).
SABR members can download all Digital Library e-book editions for free and save 50% on purchase of the paperback editions. If you’re not a member, click here to join SABR.
Stay tuned throughout the year for new (and old!) titles that we’ll be adding to the SABR Digital Library. To learn more about SABR Publications, contact Publications Editor Cecilia Tan at ctan@sabr.org.
Having trouble downloading our e-books? Click here for step-by-step instructions or a short tutorial video on how to download SABR digital publications.
Originally published: June 1, 2026. Last Updated: May 31, 2026.