Falmouth Commodores Coach Jeff Trundy on Cape Cod League Cancellation, Coaching Adley Rutschman
Image credit: (Photo by Meghan Murphy/Falmouth Commodores)
On Friday, the Cape Cod Baseball League Executive Committee unanimously voted to cancel the 2020 season, meaning that this summer will be the first time since 1946 that the league hasn’t played.
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Along with the announcement of the cancellation, the league released the following statement:
“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.”
Falmouth Commodores coach Jeff Trundy, who was preparing to enter his 22nd summer coaching the team, has seen a lot in his time on the Cape, but this situation is an altogether new one for everyone.
Living in the northeast, Trundy is keenly aware of the threat posed by coronavirus, so while he and his colleagues on the Cape were holding out hope that the season could be salvaged, he wasn’t surprised by the decision to cancel and supports it fully.
“I think a lot of us expected it,” Trundy said. “I think we still had hope, but we expected it, and we knew the virus had been in Massachusetts and Boston and the Cape, and the Cape was getting hit pretty hard. But even though we expected it, it’s still, I’ve found it to be, quite painful and quite numbing, to be honest. It was almost just like a shock at first. Since then, obviously, it has been on our mind. So many people are disappointed, but it was the right decision to make to protect everybody that was involved.”
For those involved in the league, those who have competed in the league and those who simply love the league, the last few days have been spent thinking about all that will be missed while the Cape’s fields sit empty this summer. For Trundy, he’ll miss the people first and foremost.
“My first thought went to people. I’ve always said the Cape is about people,” he said. “So I’m going to miss the people that I see on a regular basis down there every single summer. The people that are volunteers, the people that work with our team through the league, and obviously I’m going to miss the kids.”
The Cape Cod League really is unique in the world of sports. It’s a league that creates a one-of-a-kind setting, taking the very best players college baseball has to offer, many of them one year away from signing contracts for life-changing amounts of money and just several years away from being among the most famous baseball players in the world, and puts them in a competition fully run by volunteers, on high school fields, in front of fans who get in for free.
There’s truly nothing else like it, in baseball or otherwise, and that’s what makes this feel like such a loss. It also helps the league’s place in the hearts and minds of baseball fans that it happens to take place where it does.
“It’s a beautiful area,” Trundy said. “It’s a great location to have what we have, we’re so fortunate. You have ten teams in a small space that obviously is a very attractive area. It’s great in the summer, it never gets too hot. The kids, I think, are always surprised at how packed the teams are together.”
While baseball fans are still in the mourning phase of dealing with this announcement, there is reason to be optimistic moving forward. As a non-profit entity run by volunteers and without the need of ticket revenue to keep individual clubs afloat, there is no risk of the Cape Cod Baseball League losing teams ahead of the 2021 season or going away altogether.
They’ll be back next summer, and by then, having been handed what amounts to a 22-month offseason, it seems a safe bet that the league will be better than ever.
“I know we talked to our coaches, and other people I’ve talked with, (about) how thankful we’re going to be next year,” Trundy said. “We’re always thankful. At least I’d like to think we are. We’re always appreciative of the fact of the opportunity that we’re presented each summer down there to be able to do what we do, but next summer, it’s going to be magnified exponentially, because I think with everything, once you lose something that you love, and you’re able to get it back, it just makes you appreciate it that much more.”
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