BARNSTABLE, Mass. – After 24 years as Cape Cod Baseball League President and 45 years with the league overall, Judy Walden Scarafile has announced her retirement, effective at the Cape League Board of Directors meeting in October.
Scarafile, who first joined the Cape League during the Nixon administration in 1970 as official scorer while an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, has served the league in various capacities including publicity assistant to the late Dick Bresciani, publicity director, vice president, deputy commissioner, director of corporate development and since 1991, as the first female president of the nation’s best collegiate summer league.
“After 45 years in the CCBL and 24 as president, I’ll be retiring at the end of the CCBL year, which will be at the October Board meeting. There are many opportunities I’m excited about that convinced me this was the right time. The Cape League has been a labor of love and it’s been a privilege to be part of the league, when so much was accomplished over those 24 years. It really was an honor to serve as president.”
During its rich history, more than 1,200 Cape League players have gone on to perform in the major leagues, including a record 276 in 2014. The CCBL again led all 35 summer leagues with more than 200 players drafted overall, including 14 in the first round during the 2015 Major League Baseball Player Draft.
“For all of us involved with Major League Baseball, Judy Scarafile is the Cape Cod Summer Collegiate Baseball League,” said Roy Krasik, Senior Director Major League Operations, Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. “Through Judy’s efforts, the league has continued to provide our scouting community elite players to observe during the summer months, while always dedicating herself to attend to the scouts to ensure they have everything they need to perform their job responsibilities.
“Her love for the game of baseball is evident in whatever task she handled on behalf of our clubs and for that she will be sorely missed. However, we are confident that whomever assumes Judy’s role, not to replace, will dedicate themselves to use Judy as an inspiration and as an example each and every day.”
Scarafile became the first woman to be inducted into the Cape League Hall of Fame in 2003 and featured in the in the “Women in Baseball” exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“Judy is the reason Eye Health Services got involved in the CCBL many years ago,” said Randy Shepard, CEO of Eye Health Services. “I thank you for your leadership and always making a sponsor feel extra special each and every day of the year. I’ve enjoyed our involvement with you and CCBL. With success, new doors of opportunity open for great people. Her future will be exciting as these doors invite you to enter. I and the entire Eye Health Services family wish you the nothing short of the best as she moves into the next chapter of her life. She has created a friendship that will last a lifetime.”
In her role as league president, Scarafile oversees administration, finance, league meetings, public relations and marketing and organized the league’s numerous committees.
Scarafile became the first director of corporate development until 2014 and procured more than 50 corporate sponsors and $7 million, enabling the league to produce an annual budget of $550,000. She was named to the Yawkey Foundation Board of Trustees and is chairwoman of its grants committee.
The energetic Scarafile was named Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year, Clara Barton Award by the American Red Cross, National Amateur Baseball Woman of the Year and Mercy Otis Warren Cape Cod Woman of the Year. She serves on the board of the Needy Fund and Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank. She volunteers for Nutrition Mission, a local feeding program, and is a disaster-trained volunteer for the American Red Cross and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). She and her husband, Peter, are both pharmacists and live in Barnstable Village, Mass.
She helped institute a Cape League televised game of the week in 2002, first on College Sport Television (now CBS College Sports) working with Kraft Productions and currently Fox College Sports.
During the past 15 years, the league has enjoyed a radio game of the week on Cool 102, PIXY 103, WXTK and for past five years on 96.3 WEEI Cape Cod, along with daily Cape League reports on WXTK and WQRC.
With advent of social media, the public relations department has grown to six people working with TV, radio, print media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The CCBL has addressed safety issues, such as renting a fleet of buses for player transition, and forming a safety committee dealing with concerns inside the ballparks.
During her tenure, the Cape League Hall of Fame Induction ceremony was established as well as a Hall of Fame exhibit, which is currently housed on the lower level of the JFK Hyannis Museum and eventually will reside at Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich.
Scarafile has successfully urged league officers and individual franchises to get involved with their local communities in such ways as joining their local Chambers of Commerce; and helping with Thanksgiving baskets; ringing bells for the Salvation Army; and continuing the March of Dimes Telethon begun by longtime Cape League volunteer Dick Sullivan.
“In my 29 years with the league there has been no one more dedicated and hard-working to make the CCBL what it is today,” said Bourne GM Chuck Sturtevant, who also served as league vice president and Falmouth GM. “We’ve had many great times and low ones, but she always carried us on her shoulders. I can personally say Judy and Peter have always expressed her concern and love for myself and my wife’s health over the last few years, which was deeply appreciated.”
Other highlights during Scarafile’s administration include three years of clinic scholarships with Seaside Lemans, $1.5 million in matching grants field improvements from Yawkey Foundation II, a rainy-day fund expansion for the league treasury and establishment of the CCBL Investment Account. She has also overseen the creation of the league’s first Shopping Cart on the league website. After years of work, the site now includes team and player statistics dating back to 1965.
“Judy defined excellence of the Cape League and was a driving force making it the nation’s premier collegiate baseball league,” longtime radio news director/anchor Matt Pitta said. “Her influence and lasting contributions are unmatched. It’s impossible to hear the Cape League mentioned and not immediately think of Judy. Filling her shoes will be a monumental task. She played a critical role as volunteer for years in her church, March of Dimes and the Mercy Otis Warren Committee. And I’m amazed at the enthusiasm and energy she brought to every effort she was involved with in more than two decades I’ve known and worked with her.
“Judy worked seamlessly and cooperatively with local, regional and national media in conveying the message of the Cape League and its importance to not only the game of baseball, but to Cape Cod community.”
Scarafile had these comments about her future.
“I am so excited about the opportunities that are just around the corner. I have been on seven national and domestic deployments to Haiti, Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. I am a trained American Red Cross Disaster Volunteer and I would like to do more in the way of helping people who are in crisis. And, needless to say, I have a passion for baseball and who knows where that might lead to now?”
Scarafile will name a nominating committee during the next week to begin the search and interview process to select a new CCBL president.
