The 2022 Cape Cod Classic Baseball Tournament is set to take place over Labor Day Weekend, Saturday, September 3rd through Monday, September 5th in beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The 27th annual tournament will feature a total of 18 teams from Greater Boston and across New England. The teams will be split up into an age 28+ division and an age 45+ division, with each division consisting of 9 teams.

Each team will play a minimum of three games (weather permitting) over the long weekend, with the potential to play as many as five games. Pool play is on Saturday, playoffs begin on Sunday, and the Championship takes place on Monday.

Games will be played on baseball fields used by the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), including:

• Eldredge Park - home of the Orleans Firebirds
• Stony Brook Field - home of the Brewster Whitecaps
• Veteran's Field - home of the Chatham Anglers
• Whitehouse Field - home of the Harwich Mariners

A Brief History of Baseball on the Cape

As early as the 1860s, baseball teams representing various Cape Cod towns and villages were competing against each other on the diamond. The earliest newspaper account is of an 1867 game in Sandwich, MA between Nichols Club and the visiting Cummaquid Club of Barnstable.

In 1923, the CCBL was formed as a collegiate summer league, consisting of four teams: Falmouth, Osterville, Hyannis, and Chatham. Almost a century later, the CCBL has added teams from Orleans, Brewster, and Harwich, and is widely considered the premier amateur baseball league in the world, boasting over one thousand former players who have gone on to play in the major leagues.

What makes the CCBL unique is the exclusive use of wooden bats, since ballplayers around the country swing with metal during their collegiate seasons. Swinging with wood is a new concept for these ballplayers, yet provides a taste of what may come if they make it to the major league level.

The Cape Tradition Continues with Leadership from the BMBL

When the Cape Cod Classic Tournament began in 1995, most amateur baseball leagues were also using metal bats. Amateur baseball players' Pete Beck and Alex Masel wanted to create a wood bat tournament where amateur players had the chance to play on Cape fields and live the CCBL experience.

They formed the "Cape Cod Wood Bat Classic" tournament, now known as the "Cape Cod Classic". The tournament enters its 27th year, but this year's tournament almost didn't happen. Here's how the Cape Cod Classic was saved.

Heading into the 2022 season, Beck and Masel were ready to hang up their cleats after successfully running the tournament for 26 years. Per an email from Beck sent to all prior participating tourney managers:

"I will not be organizing the 2022 Cape Cod Classic. Over the past several months, I have been hoping to find whatever it was that kept us going for the past 26 years. Last year's tournament took whatever that was with it. I hope that someone will step up and keep this going. I will give you any information on the websites and contacts I have."

That someone was the Boston Metro Baseball League (BMBL).

The BMBL quickly assembled a crack team of ballers to handle every detail and continue the tradition that Beck and Masel started 27 years ago.

• Chris Currie, Commissioner of the BMBL MetroWest Division, and Dan Field, Webmaster for the BMBL, will serve as co-commissioners of the tournament.
• Brett Rudy, Commissioner of the BMBL Age 18+ Division, will serve as Operations Manager.
• Omar Ortiz, Commissioner of the BMBL Age 28+ Division, will be responsible for strategic advising, graphic design, and merchandising.

The BMBL is excited to have the opportunity to continue a tradition that was started decades ago. The Cape Cod Baseball League is the journey to the big leagues. The Cape Cod Classic allows our members to live vicariously through these future stars.

Not all heroes wear a cape. But many of them will play baseball there.