Fenway Park has been called the Cathedral of Boston, inspiring a near religious devotion for fans of the team that call it home.

“Like everyone in this room, I am hopelessly in love with baseball,” said Dick Flavin, the park’s public address announcer. “I tell people I was born a Red Sox fan and baptized a Catholic.”

Flavin spoke on Thursday night at the first-ever Gatemen First Pitch Dinner, held at the Rosebrook Event Center. The evening served as a fundraiser for the Wareham Gatemen and introduced members of the amateur summer league to the community.

He recounted being a fan at a young age, saying as an altar boy he would recite the Red Sox batting order during Mass instead of prayers, because the priest was hard of hearing.

“I always thought reciting the Red Sox order was religious,” he said.

Flavin, who is the team’s poet laureate, recalled with fondness the time he, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky visited famed Red Sox slugger Ted Williams in Florida.

At the time, Williams was in poor health.

Flavin, a fan of “Casey at the Bat,” reworked the poem in honor of Williams, renaming it “Teddy at the Bat.” He spoke it out loud in Williams' living room.

“And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout. And they’re going wild at Fenway Park ‘cause Teddy hit one out,” said Flavin.

Many team members, host families and residents arrived for the event which featured dinner, a silent auction, Red Sox World Series trophies and speaker Patrick Pass, a former New England Patriot.

Pass, a member of the Patriots in 2001, 2003 and 2004 when the team won Super Bowls, gave an account of his struggle to play professional sports.

He started as a baseball player, drafted by the Florida Marlins in 1996. But his focus was elsewhere.

“Everyday I would go to the baseball field with a football in my hand,” said Pass.

Eventually, he switched to football full time in college and was drafted by the Patriots. Though he was unsure where the team was located.

“I didn’t know where New England was. I told my friends I was going to London,” said Pass.

At the end of his remarks, he urged the Gatemen to set high goals for themselves and to pursue their dreams.

The Gatemen themselves, along with this year’s coaching staff, introduced themselves individually at the end of the night.

General Manager Andrew Lang said the team’s mission remains the same this year: “Our number one priority is to make them better players.”

The Gatemen’s first game of the season is June 10 at 5:30 p.m. against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox at Red Wilson Field in South Yarmouth.