Ranking The 25 Best Players In Cape Cod League History

The Cape Cod League on Friday announced the cancellation of its 2020 season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

“Following CDC guidelines and medical recommendations, the league determined it would be impossible to guarantee the safety of players, coaches, umpires, host families, volunteers and fans during this unprecedented health crisis,” the league said in a statement.

The Cape is college baseball’s premier summer league and has a long, storied history. The league can trace its roots to the 19th century and has been annually contested since 1946, making a baseball-less summer on the Cape nearly unthinkable.

Here, we rank the 25 best players in the Cape Cod League’s modern history (since 1963, when the Upper and Lower Cape Cod leagues merged to make the league we recognize today). Players primarily are ranked on their performance in the league, with some consideration given for the rest of their baseball career.

Notably, the Cape has used wood bats throughout its existence, except for a brief period using metal bats from 1974-84. That distinction is important while evaluating individual seasons and careers.

1. Jason Varitek, C, Hyannis. Varitek is one of college baseball’s all-time greats and that greatness followed the Georgia Tech star to the Cape. He played for Hyannis in 1991 and ‘93, sandwiching his time on the Cape around a summer with Team USA. He was a solid player in his first summer, but really stood out in 1993. He hit .371/.514/.552 and won the league’s MVP and batting title.

2. Buck Showalter, OF, Hyannis. Showalter put together an excellent season on the Cape in 1976. He was named MVP and hit .434 to win the batting title and post the third-highest average in league history. He added 13 doubles and 35 runs.

3. Thurman Munson, C, Chatham. Munson in 1967 was named MVP and won the batting title as he hit .420 with four home runs and 23 RBI. The Cape annually honors its batting champion with the Thurman Munson award. 

4. Eric Milton, LHP, Falmouth. Milton had the best season by a pitcher in Cape history in 1996. He went 5-1, 0.21 to set the league ERA record, breaking a mark that had stood for 31 years. He struck out 61 batters in 43.1 innings and threw a no-hitter, later becoming the first player to throw a no-hitter in both MLB and on the Cape.

5. Cory Snyder, OF, Harwich. Snyder is the Cape’s single-season home run king. In 1983, he hit 22 home runs, a modern Cape record that still stands, and batted .321 with 50 RBI and 47 runs, the third-best mark in league history. He is the only Cape player to twice hit three home runs in a game and is the only Cape player to ever homer in four consecutive at bats.

6. Ken Voges, OF, Chatham. In 1963, Voges batted a stunning .505, going 55-for-109 at the plate. He is the only player in modern Cape history to hit .500.

7. Mark Smith, OF, Wareham. Smith is the last player for 15 years to hit .400 on the Cape when he batted .408 in 1990, winning both the MVP and batting title. He added six home runs, 14 doubles and 33 RBI.

8. Sean Manaea, LHP, Hyannis. Manaea put together a spectacular 2012 season with the Harbor Hawks, going 5-1, 1.21 with 85 strikeouts in 51.2 innings. He was named the league’s pitcher of the year.

9. Terry Steinbach, 1B, Cotuit. Steinbach put up a record-setting season with Cotuit in 1982. Not only did the Minnesota standout hit .431 to lead the league, but he set the record for hits (75), RBI (54) and doubles (18).

10. Jeff Reardon, RHP, Cotuit. Reardon went on to become one of the best relievers in the big leagues, but from 1974-76 he served as the Kettleers’ ace. Along with Frank Thomas and Mo Vaughn, he was in the Cape’s inaugural hall of fame class in 2000.

11. Andrew Miller, LHP, Chatham. Miller had an outstanding two-year run in Chatham from 2004-05. He went 2-0, 2.03 with 48 strikeouts in 40 innings his first season and was even better in 2005, when the big lefthander went 6-0, 1.65 with 66 strikeouts in 49 innings. He also lost one of the great Cape pitching performances to Chatham’s famous fog, when his 12-strikeout no-hitter was called after the fourth inning due to poor visibility. 

12. Kevin Newman, SS, Falmouth. Newman, an Arizona product, is the only two-time batting champion in the history of the Cape. In 2013, he led the circuit with a .375 average, 25 points better than the next highest mark, and then improved on that by hitting .380 the very next year. 

13. Dave Bush, RHP, Chatham. Bush had a remarkable two-year stretch on the Cape from 2000-01. In 2000, the righthander posted a 0.84 ERA and saved 11 games. He followed that up by going 1-1, 0.34 the following year. In 48 innings over those two seasons, he struck out 63 batters and allowed just two earned runs. 

14. Craig Hansen, RHP, Harwich. Hansen was a dominant closer for Harwich in 2004, just like he was during his college career at St. John’s. He went 1-1, 0.00 with 10 saves and struck out 41 batters in 22.1 innings.

15. Frank Thomas, 1B, Orleans. Thomas went on to hit 521 home runs in the big leagues and people around the Cape still talk about his prodigious power displays in 1988. He won the league’s home run derby and helped Orleans reach the championship series.

16. Mo Vaughn, 1B, Wareham. Like Thomas, Vaughn was one of the stars of the 1988 Cape season. The pair developed a friendly rivalry that went all the way to the championship series, where Vaughn helped Wareham to the title and was named playoff MVP.

17. Ron Darling, RHP/OF, Cotuit. Darling is best known for his exploits on the mound, but he was a two-way player in college and impressed in both facets of the game for Cotuit in 1980. He hit .336 with six home runs and 26 RBI, and also went 4-3 as a pitcher to earn MVP honors. In the all-star game at Yankee Stadium, he came within a triple of the cycle and earned the save.

18. Ed Baird, RHP, Chatham. One of the early stars in the modern history of the league, Baird pitched for Chatham from 1965-67, putting up a career 16-2 record and 1.89 ERA. His 0.45 ERA in 1965 was a record that stood until it was broken by Milton in 1996. 

19. Mitchell Jordan, RHP, Orleans. Jordan dominated the Cape like few pitchers have before on the way to being named the 2015 pitcher of the year. In eight starts, the Stetson righthander went 6-0, 0.21 ERA to match Milton’s record and 46 strikeouts compared to just six walks in 43 innings.

20. Mickey Morandini, INF, Yarmouth-Dennis. Morandini in 1987 hit .376 with 15 doubles, 46 runs and 43 stolen bases, the third most in league history. He won both the MVP and batting title.

21. Bobby Kielty, OF, Brewster. Kielty in 1998 hit .384 with six home runs and 45 RBI. The Mississippi slugger won both the MVP and batting title.

22. David Aardsma, RHP, Falmouth. Aardsma provided a peek into his future in the big leagues with a standout season in relief in 2002. The Rice product saved seven games, had a 0.68 ERA and collected 45 strikeouts in 26.2 innings of work.

23. Casey Close, RHP/OF, Harwich. Close’s first stint on the Cape came as a two-way player, when he hit .329 with six homers and 36 RBI and put up a 3.19 ERA. By the time his second season rolled around, he was focused solely on hitting, and it paid off with a massive summer featuring a .284 average, 11 homers and 30 RBI, earning him all-star honors for the second summer in a row.

24. Nick Gonzales, SS, Cotuit. Any thoughts that Gonzales was simply a product of a hitter-friendly home environment at New Mexico State were put to rest with his performance for Cotuit in the summer of 2019, when he hit .351 with seven home runs and 33 RBI and came away with the league’s MVP award. 

25. Zane Carlson, RHP, Chatham. Carlson enjoyed a standout three-year run with Chatham from 2001-2003 after spending his first summer as a college player pitching for Team USA. After the 2003 season, the Baylor righthander left the Cape as the league’s all-time saves leader, with 34, while striking out 91 in 65 innings.