To everything there is a season. This can be said of aging, of life, and even of sports. Last weekend marked the close of another season for the Cape Cod Baseball League. 

Even as Wareham and Y-D were duking it out for the top spot, players from other Cape teams had packed their bags and were heading off-Cape, returning home after a long summer away.

How different was their departure compared to their arrivals, particularly for those new to the League. In early summer they arrived, fresh-faced and eager to impress coaches, scouts and the host families with whom they were staying. Those host families became an integral aspect of those players’ summers. 

The rosters of Cape League teams read like a true cross-section of America, with young men coming to play baseball here from all corners of the country. They come from places as close as Harwich and as far away as California, Hawaii and even Alaska. 

For most the trip here means bidding goodbye to family and friends to summer in a strange and unfamiliar place. Although not children, these young men certainly feel a pang of anxiety at stepping outside of the confines of their comfort zones. 

Enter the host families. Since the modern-era of the Cape League, host families have been one of several backbones of the organization. They open their homes and hearts to the boys of summer, providing safe havens and, truly, homes away from home. 

The host family experience is a facet of the CCBL experience that is as unique as it is special. Throughout the sometimes-too-long, yet inevitably too short, summer, players and the families form bonds that remain strong long after the players move on to graduate school, AAA ball, the Major Leagues, but oftentimes just life. 

Terri DiGiovanni and her husband Tino, president of the Hyannis Athletic Association, which supports the Hyannis Mets, housed three Mets players this summer: Charlie Furbush, Matt Mangini and Ramon Corona. 

Relishing her role as mother hen, Terri was pleased to dote on the boys, keep them well fed, and keep them in line on occasion. The rapport was apparent to anyone who happened by for a visit and saw their friendly ongoing banter.

Rich and Joni Petze hosted Reese Havens of the Cotuit Kettleers, becoming his biggest fans, attending every game with their sons, Dominic and Anthony. By the time the All-Star game rolled around, Reese seemed an extended member of the family, a brother to the boys.

When the season came to an end, emotions were bittersweet regardless of team standings. While players like Mangini, Furbush and Havens were happy to be reuniting with their families before heading back to college, leaving their new families on Cape Cod was tough.

With heavy hearts and knots in throats, rooms were cleaned out, duffel bags were tossed into backseats, and last hugs were offered. Sturdy, burly ballplayers and the families that had come to love them fought back tears, sometimes unsuccessfully, as they waved until their cars were out of sight.

For a while the host homes will seem strangely empty, each feeling as if key family member is missing. Soon, however, the first of many letters will arrive, school will begin, and the life will establish its familiar rhythm. 

Beneath it all lies the gleeful anticipation, the knowledge that everything has its season, and the boys of summer won’t be gone forever. 

By Kathleen Szmit Manwaring
kmanwaring@barnstablepatriot.com