Massachusetts

Chasing the Dream | Cape Cod Baseball League

For the best college baseball players in the country, summer on Cape Cod is no vacation; it’s an audition that could change their life. Photographer Alex Gagne shares scenes of summer with the Cape Cod Baseball League.

By Mel Allen

Jun 21 2021

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Infielder Tanner Murray (#41) and his fellow Orleans Firebirds run out to start the inning at Eldredge Park, their home field in Orleans, Massachusetts. A standout at UC Davis, Murray was drafted last year by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Photo Credit : Alex Gagne

When Alex Gagne began hanging out with the Orleans Firebirds in 2010, he was only a few years older than the players he followed with his camera. The Massachusetts-based freelance photographer had come to Orleans that summer to produce his first folio with master printer Bob Korn, an ardent supporter of the hometown team, one of 10 in the Cape Cod Baseball League. When Korn connected Gagne with the Firebirds, it began a project to document the moments beyond hits and runs, wins and losses, in the most acclaimed amateur proving ground in the country. “I wanted to show the process of being a player,” Gagne says.

They come from across the country, welcomed by host families. They live here for eight weeks, playing 44 games on pretty, small-town fields. They know the legend: More than 1,200 former Cape League players have gone to “the show” since 1960. Nearly one in every seven players in the majors has memories of twilight games in ocean-swept towns. But for many Cape hopefuls, their dreams may end in a minor-league town, far from the bright lights. Or their summer competing against the very best may reveal weaknesses in their game, and no professional team even offers them a chance.

Most of the photos in these pages come from 2019, the last season before the pandemic. “I was there at the first practice [that year],” Gagne says, “to let them know I was going to be there. To build the relationship, I photographed everything. I followed them everywhere. I spent so much time with them, I might as well have been on the team.”

Gagne has shot tens of thousands of images. “I’m not interested in the action. I am drawn to the details,” he says. He has found beauty in a bucket of baseballs, wooden bats against a dugout wall, the sun setting on a field of fresh grass, a child asking for her ball to be signed. He was there when players stopped into a convenience store for sunflower seeds, when they went for pizza, when they hung out with their host family, when they coached children in the basics they, too, had learned long ago.

“I’m going to keep going back,” Gagne says. “In 10 or 15 years, I’ll look back at all these pictures when they were young, when the dream was alive.” —Mel Allen

Infielder Tanner Murray (#41) and his fellow Orleans Firebirds run out to start the inning at Eldredge Park, their home field in Orleans, Massachusetts. A standout at UC Davis, Murray was drafted last year by the Tampa Bay Rays.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Kamron Fields, a pitcher from the University of Texas (he later transferred to Texas Southern), in a quiet moment before an away game against the Brewster Whitecaps.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Orleans players hang out in the clubhouse before the start of a home game. Cape League players and coaches take on many roles beyond the boundaries of the game—they maintain the fields, from watering the grass to raking the infield dirt, and yes, they even clean the dugouts.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Baseballs bearing the unmistakable patina of batting practice.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Orleans Firebirds player Max Troiani, who came to the Cape League from Massachusetts’s own Bentley University, with his host family, Gary and Theresa Lane. Some Cape Cod families have been opening their homes to these young athletes for years, and it’s not uncommon to see hosts hugging their former Cape players turned major leaguers during games at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Orleans residents cheer a parade float filled with Firebirds, a traditional part of the town’s annual Fourth of July celebrations. Founded in 1885, the Cape League today gives a much-appreciated boost to the regional economy, to the tune of about $3 million in a typical year.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Robert Emery (#22), a catcher hailing from San Francisco, ices his ankle while helping athletic trainer Kallie Hannon work out another player’s back muscle cramp.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Before kicking off an away game against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks, the Firebirds line up for the playing of the national anthem. At the front is Jay Banfield, who served as assistant coach while on sabbatical from his executive career in San Francisco. .
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
The Firebirds’ home turf, Eldredge Park, set on the grounds of Nauset Regional Middle School, is considered one of the best town fields in the country. Its signature feature is a multi-tiered hill on the first base line, where diehards will lay out blankets and lawn chairs in the morning to ensure they’ll have a prime perch for the game.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Zach Daniels, a Houston Astros draft pick in 2020, at batting practice. The Cape League was the first college league to switch to wooden bats, in 1985, which is important because major league scouts need to see how young hitters do with wood—used by pros—after growing up using aluminum.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
A young Firebirds fan gets a ball signed by catcher Robert Emery, who would go on to be signed by the San Francisco Giants.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Zach Britton of the University of Louisville high-fives his teammates after hitting a home run; he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2020.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne
Orleans Firebirds pitchers sit on the stage of the Eldredge Park bullpen, out in right field. Much like the Cape League itself, it’s a place where they can study, strategize, and just soak up the experience before being called into action.
Photo Credit : Alex Gagne