Cape Cod Baseball League 2007 Achievements

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The Cape Cod Baseball League is the premier collegiate summer baseball league in the country. John Garner of CCBL forwarded us a press release on some of the accomplishments during the 2007 season.

FROM PRESS RELEASE

MANAGERIAL MILESTONES: Chatham’s John Schiffner became the leagues winningest manager on August 2 when the A’s beat Bourne 10-1 for his 335th career victory. He finished the season with a record of 338-283-15. His 636 games are second to Hall-of-Fame manager Merrill “Red” Wilson’s record 663 games managed.

Schiffner was not the only manager in 2007 to register significant achievements. All four of the men leading the playoff teams reached milestones and all four are in the top ten for career wins.

Y-D skipper Scott Pickler moved into sixth place on the all-time win list with a mark of 233-198-9.

With three championships in four seasons, Pickler is tied for third with Don Reed and George Greer with three titles. Only Bill Livesey (6) and Jack McCarthy (5) have won more. He is now seventh in playoff wins with 13 and is fourth in winning percentage at .684 (13-6).

The Braves manager Harvey Shapiro made history when he won his 100th game with the Braves. He joined Hall-of-Fame manager Ed Lyons (124 wins with Wareham, 163 wins with Chatham) as only the second manager to reach 100 wins with two teams. Shapiro has 102 wins with the Braves and won 112 games with Falmouth. His 214 career wins moved him into seventh place all-time with a 214-212-9 record.

Jeff Trundy guided Falmouth back into the playoffs and moved into 10th place on the career wins list with a record of 183-203-9.

RETURN OF THE OFFENSE: The league batting average of .245 was the highest since 1995 when the league hit .252. The .245 average snapped a streak of eight straight seasons that the league had hit under .240. The last time the league hit over .240 was in 1998 when the 10 teams hit .242. The .341 slugging percentage was also the best since 1995 (.342). The 1858 runs scored was the most scored since 1999 (1910) and the 3489 hits was the most since 1995 (3568). The league hit 213 home runs, the third straight season with 200 plus home runs, the first time that was accomplished with wood bats. The record is seven consecutive seasons from 1978-84 when the league used aluminum bats.

RED SOX DYNASTY, CAPE LEAGUE VERSION: Y-D won its third title in four seasons. Only Falmouth (1968-71) and Cotuit (1972-75) have won four straight. Both of those teams won five times in six seasons. The Sox 31 wins is a franchise record and they are the first team since the 1992 Chatham A’s to win 31 games. The 31 wins are two short of the league record (Hyannis, 1979) and tied for the second most in a season. The 63 points are a team record and tied for the second most in modern-era history (67, Hyannis, 1979). In the last two seasons Y-D has won 59 games, tied for the third most in two consecutive seasons. The Sox have won 25 or more games four times in the past seven seasons. From 1963 to 1999 they only won 25 or move games once, 28 in 1989.

THIS AND THAT: Bourne improved by 16 wins from 2006 (9) to 2007 (25) which equals the biggest gain in wins. The number was first achieved by the Hyannis Mets in 1977-78 when they went from 15 to 31 wins. The Braves set the mark for biggest increase in points with a gain of 32 from 2006 (20) to 2007 (52). The record of 28 was accomplished by Chatham in 1975 (33) – 1976 (61). It was equaled by Hyannis in 1977 (34) – 1978 (62). It was the third time in the Braves 20 seasons that they went from last to first in a season. Over that same time only one other team, Chatham 1990-91, accomplished that feat. With its 7-6 win over Orleans on July 6 Cotuit won its 1000th game of the modern era joining Chatham as the only teams to reach that plateau. The Kettleers record since 1963 is 1005-796-80 for a .556 winning percentage. Chatham is 1038-813-37 for a .559 winning percentage, best in the league.

FROM THE WHERE ARE THEY NOW DEPARTMENT: The Lexington Blue Sox of the Intercity League won the 2007 league championship and were led by former Cape Leaguers. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five finals the Blue Sox came back to win the last three games. The title clinching game was won by former Cotuit (90) and Y-D (91) hurler Mike Kotarski (Duke), who pitched a 3-hit shutout as the Sox won 7-0. Kotarski was throwing to former Wareham (2000) catcher Brian Lentz (Harvard). The Blue Sox are managed by Rick DeAngelis (Holy Cross) who played for Cotuit (1968) and Harwich (1969) and hit the first home run at Harwich’s Whitehouse Field.