All-Star Game, future MLB stars come to Wareham this Saturday
Once a year, the laid back summer evening attitude of the Cape Cod Baseball League is transformed when thousands of fans, dozens of Major League scouts and usually a few Major League players descend on the CCBL All-Star Game to watch the future stars of professional baseball.
This Saturday, July 25, it all happens at Spillane Field.
The day-long affair gives fans the chance to meet the best players in the league, take pictures, get autographs, watch the Home Run Derby and, of course, the All-Star Game.
The last time the All-Star Game was in Wareham was in 2007, when the East division All-Stars beat the West 3-2. Pitching a scoreless inning for the West in that game was former Gatemen and current Red Sox starting pitcher Wade Miley. Sitting in the opposite dugout, the starting catcher for the East team was three-time World Series champion and 2012 Most Valuable Player Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants, back then with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
Miley and Posey are a mere fraction of 276 CCBL players who are currently playing in the Major Leagues.
In 2007, 5,591 fans came to out watch the stars at Spillane Field. Wareham Gatemen President Thomas Gay said it’s tough to estimate how many people will be in attendance this year, but they’ll be ready.
“It takes a lot of work [to play host],” Gay said.
He said a team must apply to Cape League officials two years in advance to host the game and that a joint committee made up of League and Gatemen officials have teamed up to put on Saturday’s event. Gay said there will be 100 volunteers on Saturday, doing everything from selling tickets to running concessions, parking, security and more.
“Without the volunteers there is no league” he said.
Gay said he’s excited for a game between what he thinks will be two equally matched sides.
“There’s some really great talent this year, both pitching and on offense,” he said.
The Home Run Derby should be particularly entertaining, according to Gay. He referenced the League workout the teams did at Fenway Park earlier this summer, saying that some of the players were hitting balls over the Green Monster.
“[At Spillane Field] we could see a few of them hit the Multi-Service Center,” he said, with a laugh.
The hitters might not hit any dingers that far, but they can aspire to hit one as far as Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Thomas hit one in 1988, when he played for the Orleans Firebirds.
"He hit three homers against us one night in Wareham. The last one cleared the old press box by the football field. I didn't think it would ever come down," said Joe Jordan, who was the hitting coach for the Gatemen in 1988, and is currently the director for player development with the Philadelphia Phillies.
That summer produced legendary baseball players, such as Thomas, Jeff Kent, Jeff Bagwell, and Mo Vaughn, who played two years with the Gatemen.
It’s possible 2015 could turn into a summer just like that one.
The All-Star festivities start at 2 p.m. with batting practice, autograph sessions and warmups leading up to the Home Run Derby at 5 p.m. and the first pitch of the All-Star game at 6:05 p.m.