Cape Cod Times Sports

By BRUCE HACK

    Let’s go once around the infield as we take a look at some different happenings in the early part of the 2007 season Cape League season.
Human Targets

    Bourne’s Kevin Hoef (Iowa) did not take long to place his name in the Bourne Braves and Cape Cod Baseball League Record book. At Bourne’s home opener Hoef was hit by a pitch four times by Falmouth pitchers. He bettered the Bourne record of two accomplished many times, last by Andy Goff (Wake Forest) on June 22, 2005. The league mark was three, last accomplished by Tom Shanley (Chatham) on July 20, 2004 against Orleans.

    To give perspective to Hoef’s accomplishment he would have broken the major league record of three accomplished many times. He is one short of the NCAA Division I and III record, and would have equaled the Division II mark.

    Getting plunked is not new to Hoef. He led Iowa this spring with 14 HBP’s in 51 games, which was tied for second in the Big Ten Conference.

    The Braves were hit eight times in the game, also a team and league record. The mark for both was five and last accomplished by Bourne on June 17, 2004 against Cotuit. No individual Commodore pitcher set a record. The team also set a record when they where plunked three times in the 5th inning by Falmouth.

Alumni Achievements

    June 27th was a big day for two former Cape League players. Frank Thomas (Orleans, 1988) hit his 500th career home run while playing for Toronto. He becomes the 21st player to accomplish that in major league history and the first Cape League alumni to reach that mark.

    Not to be outdone, long-time Houston Astro Craig Biggio (Y-D, 1986) had five hits including the 3000th of his career. He is the 27th major league player to reach that plateau and the first Cape League alumni to accomplish the feat.
Managerial Milestones

    Chatham A’s skipper John Schiffner began the season needing 22 wins to pass Don Reed (334 wins in 13 seasons) and become the league’s all-time win leader. The veteran manager, he is in his 14th season, needs 19 wins to pass long-time A’s manager Ed Lyons (331 wins) and move into second place. Schiff began the season with a record of 313-267-12. He has guided his teams to two league titles, four East Division first-place finishes and into the playoffs nine times. His overall record (regular season and playoffs) is 337-285-12, good for third place behind Reed (363-236-19) and Lyons (350-302-21). In the playoffs he is 24-18 the fourth most wins in post-season action. He trails Reed (29-22), Bill Livesey (28-15) and Jack McCarthy (26-16-1). Chatham’s fifth game this season was the 600th game of Schiffner’s Cape League career, making him only the third manager to reach that number.

    Schiffner is not the only manager moving up the all-time charts.

    Y-D’s Scott Pickler not only won his second title last year, but with the Red Sox 26th win last season (8-4 vs. Chatham on August 2nd) he became the eighth manager with 200 wins in the Cape League. He started this season with 202 wins with nine more now is in seventh place all-time with 211 wins, two behind former Cotuit manager and Cape League Hall-of-Famer George Greer. Bourne manger Harvey Shapiro started the season needing only 11 wins to become the ninth manager with 200 career wins. The Braves great start has him at 198 wins through 29 June. Shapiro now needs 14 more wins to become the first Bourne manager with 100 career wins. Pickler and Shapiro also reached the 400 games managed earlier this season becoming the sixth and seventh managers to reach that plateau. They currently are fifth (Pickler, 409) and sixth (Shapiro, 404) in games managed.

    Falmouth skipper Jeff Trundy with 165 career wins through June 29 needs nine more to move into 10th place all-time. While Brewster manager Bob Macaluso at 95 wins through June 29 needs five more to become the 30th manager with 100 career wins.

    This season marks the first time in modern-era history (since 1963) that all of the league’s managers (in this case 10) have returned for a third consecutive season.
Streaks

    Y-D opened the season with six straight wins, the first time a team has done that since 1996 when Wareham began 6-0. It is the best start for the Red Sox. The previous best was 5-1 to begin the 1990 season. Their mark of 8-2 is a team best for 10 games, bettering the 7-3 start in 2001.