Every summer, the best college players from across the country come by invitation to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League. I have been reading about the league since a client turned me onto the book, “The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream.”

After returning from an afternoon on the beach, I settled into watching The Red Sox hammering the Astros back in Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Ironic, eh? But, a sound outside lured me out on to the deck: the clap of a bat and sound of applause that could only be a baseball game. The glow of outfield lights above the treetops behind our hotel confirmed my suspicion: it had to be a Cape Cod League game.

I strapped on my Tevas, grabbed the camera and followed the sound and lights to find the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the top of the 8th inning against the Wareham Gatemen. The 9-5 score told me the game was pretty much in the bag for Hyannis. The play-by-play announcer, pictured here doing the Internet broadcast, pretty much confirmed that conclusion. But, in baseball as in life, it’s not over till it’s over. So, I stayed for the remaining inning-and-a-half.

These guys are watching closer than most. They’re professional scouts looking for talent. Chances are some of the players they’re watching will next play in major league baseball. These are the stakes for the talented ones chosen to spend a summer playing baseball on fields like the one behind our Cape Cod hotel.

I will admit it: this is the meal I was looking forward to while planning our trip to Cape Cod. Clam roll. Pure comfort food. Fit foods be damned.

Best of all, since we didn’t arrive till nearly 4pm, we didn’t have to pay for parking. Free beach. Just like it ought to be. After all, if it’s free, it’s for me.

A trip back to the Cape without coming down to Woods Hole would be like skipping the beach.

Last time I was here John was a toddler and Kate an infant. We dined here at Landfall with Caki. It makes perfect sense, then, that we return again to dine with her and the kids again.

Probably Tracey’s closest friend of all, she loved seeing the kids and how they’ve grown up. Sweet reunions like this are a big reason why we came. Of course, beach time ranks right of there with the kids too.

Filed Under: Roadtrip 2011

My former radio home back in 1985. Today it’s part of a radio group based in Hyannis. Nothing left but the tower and transmitter. The station itself is just another computer-driven jukebox. Then again, it was just a human-driven one back then.

Here’s the view in the front door. Those were the production and on air studios just inside on the right. Looks like they left a while back.