Post-Championship Notes

Well. That was fun, huh?

Wareham’s comeback in game three of the Cape League championship was so epic and so special that it didn’t leave a whole lot of room for extra words in the immediate wake of it. Heck, with the picture on the previous post doing the talking, I don’t know if I needed to say anything.

We’re a few days out, and we can add a few things.

The first thing: it really was awesome. I started doing this blog in 2007, and I’ve been going to Cape League games since the 1990s. Never have I been to a better game than this year’s game three. I’ll remember it for a long, long time.

A few other notes:

I did the power rankings all year, and I think every week, I wrote some variation of “If Wareham’s pitching ever comes around, look out.” And you know what? It finally did come around. Ultimately, it wasn’t the dominant storyline — hello home runs — but quality starts set the stage. Barrett Astin pitched great against Aaron Blair in game two, and Fred Shepard more than held his own in game three. Both those guys had struggled in the regular season, but on the biggest stage, they shined. Wareham couldn’t have done it without them.

The performance of Wareham’s big four — Kyle Schwarber, Tyler Horan, Daniel Palka and Mott Hyde — was going to define the series one way or another. For a while, it looked like Y-D might shut them down — and win the series as a result. And then came the ninth and 10th innings, when Schwarber, Hyde, Schwarber again and Horan turned game three into a home run derby. Kudos to those guys for finishing out great summers in style.

And speaking of the home runs, I haven’t seen anything official but I’m going to go ahead and assume that Wareham’s 15 playoff homers are a Cape League record. Prior to the current playoff format, the most games a team could play was six, so that’s part of it (although Wareham did it in seven games). But also, going back to 2000, the previous playoff high was seven by Falmouth in 2004, so not even close. To even things out, the best home runs per game total since 2000 is the 2007 Y-D Red Sox’s 1.4 (six in four games). Wareham’s mark was 2.1.

As CapeMan mentioned in a comment on the previous post, this Wareham team seemed to have that extra bit of chemistry that is often the difference in a league full of all-star teams. If you checked out Twitter after the championship, you saw a lot of “Best summer of my life” comments from the Gatemen.

Schwarber was an easy choice for Playoff MVP after his game-three heroics. If they were giving a Playoff Most Outstanding Player — and ignoring the championship outcome — then Robert Pehl would have walked home with a trophy. Pehl batted .357 with four home runs in seven playoff games. Though his team didn’t take the crown, it was a great finish on a terrific summer for Pehl. Interestingly, both Pehl and Schwarber are just rising sophomores.

Unrelated to the championship but still noteworthy, Hyannis star Sean Manaea was named Perfect Game’s Summer Player of the Year. The story is a good read. Perfect Game also unveiled its Summer All America Teams, which include 11 Cape Leaguers.

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for reading and commenting this summer. This was the most fun I’ve had in six years of doing this. It was a great summer. I’ve got some cool stuff planned for the next few weeks and months, so keep coming back.