Father Knows Best
John Wylde: Patriarch of the Wareham Gatemen…
Past, Present, and Future

4 August 2007


 


By MATTHEW M. BURKE

     John Wylde, 69, and his wife Patty never had kids of their own, but the Wylde’s have had hundreds of children over the years, from Maurice “Mo” Vaughn to Diallo Fon (Arizona).

     Wylde has been the patriarch of the Wareham Gatemen ever since 1983, when he decided to take over the team somewhat reluctantly as General Manager and Treasurer - with financial backing from both he and several friends - after a dispute between the former financial supporter of the team, John N. Decas of Decas Bros. Wholesale Fruit in Wareham, and the league, led Decas to pull his support.

     The Gatemen franchise was summarily thrown out of the league after refusing to participate in the league’s playoffs that year due to the dispute over their number of roster spots and their future remained uncertain: Enter John Wylde.

     “Its kind of funny,” he said of his start in the league. “I sort of came in the back door. Along we came and sort of picked up the pieces [of the Gatemen franchise].”

     Wylde grew up outside of Boston and went to work for his father in the ocean shipping business, not as the owners of ships, but as steamship agents, which he said was almost like insurance agents, handling ships when they would come into Boston. He said that he was first introduced to Wareham in 1942 when his family began summering there; his father loved the ocean and fishing.

     Wylde married Patty, a Chatham native, in 1962. He soon transformed her into a Gatemen fan. Nine-years later he was a full-time resident of Wareham, renting at first, until his home was built two years later. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ll die here,” Wylde said affectionately of the town that has become his home.

     Wylde first became acclimated to the talent and quality of baseball in the Cape League in 1981 after his family’s Boston-based ocean shipping company purchased the Chicago based Howe News Bureau “somewhat by mistake,” and moved the company to Boston.
Wylde knew that the company was doing the statistics for the Central Illinois Collegiate League, so he put together a proposal for the local boys of summer, the Cape Cod Baseball League. This opened his eyes to the level of play in the league as he began to attend Gatemen games, meeting Decas at one point. 

     Despite summering in Wareham and knowing numerous former players, he had never been to a CCBL game before the purchase of Howe. The Howe News Bureau was the predecessor to the PA SportsTicker, who still has the Cape League’s statistical contract.
Although Wylde got his start in the Cape League in 1983 when he took over for the Gatemen, today, he has many posts and jobs within the league administration. His beginnings were humble however, mostly working for the Gatemen, improving Spillane Field, which he agrees was deservedly regarded as the “worst field in the league.” He put up the wooden sheets around the field and painted them, long before the left field bleachers at Spillane were switched from wood to metal.

     In 1986 he took over supervising the league’s statisticians to fill a vacancy and around the same time he got involved in the league tryout, which is today called the Frank Finn Invitational Tryout, which was designed to give local players, perhaps from smaller schools, a chance to make a CCBL roster. He also took over duties as the Gatemen’s PA announcer at home games and is responsible for their numerous sponsorships.

     Wylde has built the Gatemen franchise from the ground up, eventually garnering field improvement funds from the Yawkey Foundation to turn one of the “worst fields in the Cape League” into a fun family park, complete with t-shirt tosses from the players, and a place where the kids can keep the foul balls thanks to sponsors. Wareham’s Spillane Field has come a long way, and will host this summer’s All-Star game.

     Not to mention the fact that Wylde has turned the league’s statistical information into the most comprehensive in the baseball world. All of the stats from the day are funneled through him, and he helps the statisticians get every call uniform. He said that their system is widely regarded as the most accurate in all of baseball. He also does the transactions report and does the statistical studies for the league, calculating how many former Cape Leaguers are on Major League rosters.

     Wylde’s quote/un-quote, children, have repaid their father by winning titles in 1988, 1994, 1997, 2001, and 2002. The Gatemen have been a perennial playoff contender and have incorporated Wareham’s blue-collar mentality into their dirt dog playing style, gritting out victories over more talented teams over the years. 

     However, all is not well for Wylde and his Gatemen. Their current situation has Wylde worried about their future as he mulls retirement. He said that after 2008, he will be year to year, with both the league and with the team.

     “The absolute dream would be to be able to ensure that the Wareham Gatemen could exist as something that we’d all be proud of for many years after my death,” Wylde said of the future. “That would really be the ultimate dream…[But] I’m not sure how one can achieve that dream. We’ve had a very disappointing summer with the board of selectmen.”

     On this day, Wylde is his usual happy self yet he is uneasy when talking about the team’s future. He loves Wareham but fears that the team could get run out of town by the current board of selectmen, who he said kicked the team off the town website without warning, and in some cases have been outwardly hostile. He said that he feels they do not appreciate the economic impact of the team. 

     So with the Gatemen’s future in limbo, Mr. Wylde worries about “his children,” namely the hundreds of ballplayers who will come to Wareham in the future, after he is gone. He hinted that if the political climate did not change in Wareham soon, he would be in favor of a move to New Bedford, something he said he is not alone in feeling, amongst team officials.

     Wylde says that he is perhaps in the twilight of his Cape League career, and the future of the Gatemen remains uncertain once again. He said that not only does he want to set up a trust for the team to take care of them after he is gone, but he also wants to make sure that they are in a stable community, one that truly appreciates them and wants them there.

     “I look at New Bedford and I look at Scott Lang (New Bedford’s Mayor),” Wylde said, adding that Lang has a “burning desire” to get a CCBL franchise. “He recognizes what that would mean for the city of New Bedford and its just so disheartening to have the Wareham public officials attitude, and then contrast that with Scott Lang and New Bedford.”

     Wylde said that he is also tired of coming under attack from the media. He said The Wareham Observer newspaper had written stories about the team, hinting that the Yawkey Foundation funding used to benefit Spillane Field, was illegal; something he says is not true. He also said that a recent story of theirs said that Mr. Wylde and team officials accept perks and have “cushy deals,” something he also denies is true. He said that he couldn’t understand why the team has come under attack.

     “I seem to be on the enemies list,” he said. “That’s why the dream at the moment is in the trash can. The future I would have to say is definitely uncertain.”

     Because of Wareham’s blue-collar roots, Mr. Wylde said that there just isn’t the money available to the team from the community as there is in Orleans and Chatham, something that has not made him jealous, it has just meant that Wylde himself has had to pay for the team himself over the years, including travel expenses to and from the Cape for each player, something he promised Decas when he took over the team. 

     But Mr. Wylde is a true baseball fan, and he is happy to dip into his own pocket to the tune of $125,000 each year. He said it wouldn’t be possible if he had biological children, so the Gatemen have become his children. He considers it his way to get the kids prepared for Major League Baseball, something that cannot be equated to a price tag. He just worries what will happen when he is gone. 

     With retirement on the horizon, this modern Cape League founding father, is concerned about future financing for the club.

     “Its my interest in life,” he said in conclusion. “So the only way I could see to make it go for the future would be to leave in effect a trust to the Gatemen, so at the time I die, they still had, maybe not that much income, but income from the trust that would give them a huge step forward, but I’m just scared to death that if I do that, and I’m gone, you’ll get the town officials,” and possibly school officials, trying to dip into the trust meant for the team. 

     “Our number one objective is to prepare kids for pro baseball,” he said in conclusion. “The challenge is to keep doing that.”
 


 


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