The Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox, or Y-D Red Sox, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Red Sox play their home games at Red Wilson Field on the campus of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.
The Red Sox most recently won the CCBL championship in 2016 when they defeated the Falmouth Commodores two games to one to win the best of three championship series. The title was the team's third consecutive and sixth in a 13-year span. Since the club's inception, over 100 players have gone on to play in Major League Baseball.
History
Pre-modern era
Early years
Baseball in the town of Yarmouth dates back to the early days of the sport on Cape Cod. The Yarmouth Mattakeesetts were organized in 1867 and battled the "Barnstable Cummaquids" on at least three occasions that year. After splitting their first two recorded contests, the seemingly evenly-matched teams met for a highly anticipated third game, this time as an attraction at the Barnstable County Fair. The Cummaquids took the lopsided match, 30–13, and with their victory secured the prize of a "beautiful silver mounted carved black walnut bat costing $15."Morris, Peter. Cummaquid Base Ball Club of Barnstable in Baseball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game, Peter Morris, et al, eds. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013. pp.316-17. .
In 1877, Yarmouth split a pair of games against the "Sandwich Resolutes". In a July 4 contest the following year, the Resolutes defeated Yarmouth, 14–2, but the teams played a much more closely contested game when they met once more in 1879. The Yarmouth team met up with a team from Barnstable again in 1883 for a July 4 contest that had become an annual event. The 1883 Yarmouth team featured pitcher Fred Tenney, principal of Yarmouth High School, who went on to play in the major leagues with the Washington Nationals and the Boston Reds of the Union Association.
In 1886, the Yarmouth Grays dropped a July 3 contest to the Brewster town club, 11–9, in a game that saw Brewster turn a rare triple play. The Grays fared better that season against teams from Barnstable and Harwich, defeating those clubs by decisive margins of 31–3 and 19–7.
In 1891 and 1892, Harvard University's Frank Hallowell was player/manager for the South Yarmouth team. Hallowell was a two-time gridiron All-American for Harvard, and also played center field for the Crimson nine. While at South Yarmouth, he was praised for his "fine work, and especially his system of coaching."
The early Cape League era (1923–1939) In 1923, the Cape Cod Baseball League was formed and initially included four teams: Falmouth, Chatham, Osterville, and Hyannis. This early Cape League operated through the 1939 season and disbanded in 1940, due in large part to the difficulty of securing ongoing funding during the Great Depression. During this period, teams from various towns moved in and out of the league each season. The Yarmouth Athletic Association did not enter a team in the Cape League during this era, but played instead in the Cape Cod Twilight League.
The Upper and Lower Cape League era (1946–1962)
The Cape League reorganized in 1946 after a hiatus during World War II. The Yarmouth Indians and Dennis Clippers played in the Lower Cape Division. The Indians played at the John Simpkins school in South Yarmouth, while the Clippers' played home games at the Ezra Baker school in South Dennis. The neighboring towns developed a heated rivalry throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
Dennis Clippers The Clippers were the first in the Lower Cape league to play home games at night, as lights were installed at Baker Field in 1949, and the field also boasted an electronic scoreboard. The Lower Cape teams held their annual All-Star Game under the Baker lights in 1949, the Dennis diamond being considered one of the finest in the Cape League at the time.Price, Christopher. Baseball by the Beach, Hyannis, MA: Parnassus Imprints, 1998, p.219-20. . Skipper Bren Taylor's Clippers reached the CCBL title series in 1956, defeating Orleans in the semi-final playoffs, but losing out to Sagamore in the finals. The Clippers teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s featured hard-hitting infielder Jim Cross, an ice hockey star from Boston University, and CCBL Hall of Famer Bill Livesey of the University of Maine. The Clippers withdrew from the league and disbanded after the 1961 season.
Yarmouth Indians CCBL Hall of Famer Cal Burlingame pitched for the Indians in the early 1950s, tossing no-hitters for Yarmouth in 1953 and 1954. The Indians of the late 1950s and early 1960s were skippered by John Halunen, and starred CCBL Hall of Famer Merrill "Red" Wilson, who joined the club in 1956. He became a seven-time all-star catcher for Yarmouth, and led the Indians to CCBL championships in 1958 and 1960, defeating the powerful Sagamore Clouters for both titles.
The 1958 Indians featured star hurlers Bob Sherman and Jack Silver, as well as CCBL Hall of Famer Jim Hubbard, an outfielder who went on to manage Cotuit to four consecutive Cape League titles in the 1960s. Yarmouth met perennial league powerhouse Orleans in the best-of-three 1958 Lower Cape title series. The teams split the first two games, with the Indians taking Game 1, 3–0, but dropping Game 2, 5–1. In Game 3, Yarmouth broke out the big bats against Orleans hurler and future major leaguer Art Quirk, the Lower Cape's Outstanding Pitcher of the season. The Indians piled up seven runs on Quirk, and Sherman made it stand up for a 7–5 series-clinching victory. The Indians moved on to face a powerful Sagamore team in the Cape League finals. In Game 1, the Indians shut down the Clouters' attack with a three-hit gem by Silver for a 2–1 victory. Sherman took the mound in Game 2, and the Indians came away with the 4–3 win to sweep the series and claim the team's first Cape League crown.
In 1960, Halunen's boys were at it again. After dispatching the Dennis Clippers in the first round of the playoffs, the Indians faced Harwich for the Lower Cape title. The Indians got a three-hit shutout performance by Ron Normand in Game 1 to win, 6–0. Game 2 was a pitcher's duel between Harwich's Dick Mayo and the Indians' Ned LeRoy. LeRoy no-hit Harwich through 6 2/3 innings, and finished strong in the 1–0 series-clinching win for Yarmouth. In the Cape League finals, Yarmouth again met up with Upper Cape champ Sagamore. Yarmouth took a rainy Game 1 by a score of 7–6. Games 2 and 3 were played as a doubleheader. The Indians dropped Game 2 at Sagamore, but came back to win the crown before a home crowd in Yarmouth.
In 1961, Red Wilson was named Lower Cape league MVP, and teammate Dick Cassani was the league's Outstanding Pitcher. The Indians were dominant in the regular season, and met up with Orleans for the Lower Cape finals. Cassani no-hit Orleans to win Game 1, 3–0, but Orleans answered by taking Game 2. Orleans looked to have the decisive Game 3 in hand, up 6–1 in the ninth, but the Indians staged a dramatic rally to take the game and the series. Yarmouth went on to face Cotuit in the Cape League championship series, but was downed two games to one.
Modern era (1963–present)
In 1963, the CCBL was reorganized and became officially sanctioned by the NCAA. The league would no longer be characterized by "town teams" who fielded mainly Cape Cod residents, but would now be a formal collegiate league. Teams began to recruit college players and coaches from an increasingly wide geographic radius.
The league was originally composed of ten teams, which were divided into Upper Cape and Lower Cape divisions. Yarmouth joined Harwich, Chatham, Orleans and a team from Otis Air Force Base in the Lower Cape Division.
The 1960s and 1970s
Yarmouth's 1965 team featured Colby College hurler Joe Jabar, who went 7–4 for the Indians on the season. He pitched nine complete games and fanned 74 batters in 14 starts, and was named the Lower Cape Division's starting pitcher at the 1965 CCBL All-Star Game. Jabar went on to pitch two more stellar seasons in the CCBL with Chatham, and was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2003. His playing days with the Indians now behind him, Merrill "Red" Wilson became the club's skipper in 1966, and served in that role for 16 of the next 21 years.
In 1967, Yarmouth was managed by CCBL Hall of Famer Lou Lamoriello. A former all-star player in the league, Lamoriello had managed Sagamore to the league title in 1965. He recruited a rising high school senior from Connecticut to play for his 1967 Yarmouth team, and the 17-year-old Bobby Valentine proceeded to bat .294 against the Cape League's elite collegiate pitching that summer, while leading the league in runs scored. Valentine's performance impressed the Los Angeles Dodgers, who made him the 5th overall pick in the following year's MLB draft. Valentine's roommate at Yarmouth was CCBL Hall of Famer Dan DeMichele, himself a three-time CCBL all-star who had played on Lamoriello's championship 1965 Sagamore squad.
In 1968, manager Red Wilson returned to his position after a one-year hiatus, and the team became known as the Yarmouth Red Sox. Beginning in the early 1960s, the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce had annually invited Boston Red Sox players, officials, and their families to take an all-expenses-paid getaway to Yarmouth during the MLB All-Star break, an event that had been billed as "Yarmouth Red Sox Day". The 1968 decision to change the team name "[recognized] the remarkable success of the annual visit to Yarmouth of the Boston team...which has established a special relationship between Yarmouth and the Red Sox," and capitalized on local excitement surrounding the Boston team's 1967 "Impossible Dream" season.
In 1973, the team's home games were moved from Simpkins Field to the Dennis-Yarmouth High School baseball diamond, and Yarmouth proceeded to make its first appearance in the league championship series in the modern era. The team featured future major leaguer Dave Schuler, who was the winning pitcher in the league All-Star Game that year. Despite posting a losing record in the regular season, skipper Red Wilson's Red Sox upset regular-season champion Chatham in the semi-final playoff series. Yarmouth went on to drop the championship series in five games to a Cotuit team that was in the midst of a string of four consecutive league titles.
From 1975 to 1978, the Red Sox were led by CCBL Hall of Fame skipper Bob Stead. In 1977, the team name was expanded to take in the town of Dennis. With the name change, the Red Sox continued to call D-Y High School home, although plans originally called for the team to play a limited number of home dates in Dennis at Ezra Baker School field. In a repeat of 1973, the now Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox defeated Chatham in the playoff semi-finals but fell to Cotuit in the championship series. Y-D was led by future New York Yankees slugger Steve Balboni. Balboni hit 13 home runs for Y-D in 1977, and clobbered another two over Fenway Park's Green Monster in the annual CCBL All-Star Game. He was named league MVP and Outstanding Pro Prospect, and was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2006.
The 1980s and 1990s bring back-to-back championships