Coronavirus forces Cape Cod Baseball League to scrap 2020 season

Add the Cape Cod Baseball League to the ever-growing list of things canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Cape League’s Executive Committee voted unanimously to cancel its 2020 summer season Friday, citing the CDC and its own medical team’s recommendations concerning the potential spread of the coronavirus. The vote came a day after the league’s general managers voted 6-4 in favor of canceling.

“We all wanted to play, there’s no question at all, but we have to face reality,” said league president Chuck Sturtevant. “It was a tough decision, and thank God it was unanimous by all 10 teams, because they’re the ones that run the league.”

The Cape League Board of Directors had initially planned to vote on May 6, which would’ve followed meetings by Major League Baseball and the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball, of which the CCBL is a member. Sturtevant said Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker’s decision earlier this week to keep schools closed for the remainder of the academic year, plus the medical team’s push to cancel the year, prompted the early vote and decision.

“All of them sent letters begging us to not have the season, and I think that really helped us make a decision medically,” Sturtevant said. “We’re the No. 1 league in the country, and people look to us, and now they don’t have to worry about trying to get here to play. ... When we talked to the Alliance prior to the meeting and said what could happen, everyone else in the alliance said, ’By you guys taking the first step, they’re going to probably make some decisions a lot faster.”

Both Sturtevant and commissioner Eric Zmuda said keeping people safe and healthy was at the heart of their decision. Players regularly come into contact not only with each other and their coaches, but also umpires, host families, children at daytime baseball camps or after games, and other members of their community at off-day events.

Without the ability to ensure everyone’s health, Zmuda said, a summer season became impossible.

“You have a unique demographic in the Cape area that skews towards older folks, myself included,” Zmuda said. “You can’t have a season if you can’t guarantee safety.”

Cotuit general manager Bruce Murphy, whose Kettleers won the league title last summer, was among those GMs who voted in favor of canceling the season Thursday. Murphy is the Health Director for the Town of Yarmouth, and said his own experiences over the last month quickly made it clear the league couldn’t even have a delayed start.

“When you just look at all these coupled things, it didn’t make sense to play with these concerns,” Murphy said. “We’re just trying to keep everybody healthy.”

The Cape League’s previous summer without a season was 1945, the last in a six-year stretch in which the league disbanded due to World War II. The league, which formed in 1923, had operated continuously since 1946, a stretch of 74 straight years.

“I kind of had a suspicion that the season might not happen, but then once the decision came down it still had a very numbing and painful effect on me,” said Falmouth manager Jeff Trundy. “With me, it’s not being able to see the people on a daily basis that I look forward to every summer, and be around the kids and see them having fun and develop and become a team.”

Brewster manager Jamie Shevchik has now had two seasons lost to the coronavirus. Shevchik had to send his Keystone College players home when the spring season was canceled in March, and will now have to do the same with his Whitecaps roster.

“Those guys got hit pretty hard, and then they got hit again, and who knows where we go from here,” Shevchik said. “I’ve been involved with baseball for my entire life, and to have it taken away in the spring and now again, it hurts. It really hurts.”

The loss of the summer will likely ripple into future years as well. New MLB first-year draft rules shortening the total number of rounds could result in more high-level players at the collegiate level, but now they’ll be competing against current college players who are a year older and granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA.

“I’ve been training as if we were sure going to play, but I think I had a pretty good idea this was going to happen,” said Biola University infielder Robert Anthony Cruz, who would’ve played for Wareham this summer. “A little bummed. Obviously it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The Cape League brings in more than 300 players each summer.

Some may try to come back next summer, but it’s unlikely rosters will be identical to what they would’ve been this year.

“These kids have heard about the Cape League since they were being recruited by all the four-year colleges, and that was one of their goals,” said Yarmouth-Dennis manager Scott Pickler. “I’m sad for the people in Yarmouth and Dennis, because they would’ve had a wonderful relationship with so many neat young men.”