14 July 2008

Major Leaguers who Played on Cape Donate
Items for Jimmy Fund Auction at Vineyard
Game July 22 between Wareham and Falmouth

FALMOUTH, Mass. – When the Baltimore Orioles left Fenway Park Sunday night after being swept by Boston, they left the Red Sox in first place in the American League East.

     Five of the O’s players left even more.

     Kevin Millar, Luke Scott, Mark Roberts, Jay Payton and Lance Cormier, all alumni of the Cape Cod Baseball League, have donated several items to be auctioned for the Jimmy Fund on Tuesday, July 22, when Wareham and Falmouth meet at the new “Field of Dreams” ballpark on the campus of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in Oak Bluffs.

     “It was a very nice gesture,” proclaimed Falmouth general manager Dan Dunn. “We did very nicely with a silent auction at our Hall of Fame Game in Brockton back in June and we decided to do it again when we play next week on the Vineyard. Every penny taken in will go to the Jimmy Fund to help in the battle against cancer in children.”

     In fact, Dunn said, a few items that went unsold in Brockton will be offered again at the Vineyard game, as will several of the lavender bats that were used by the Commodores in the Brockton game against Yarmouth-Dennis.

     The bats were actually the idea of Y-D’s GM, Jim Martin, who decided on lavender because it is the color associated with cancer awareness.

     Only a few dozen of these special bats were ordered, said Martin. “Not only are they unique, and very collectable, but the winning bidders will be helping a wonderful organization, the Jimmy Fund.”

     Dunn, an auction expert, will oversee the island sales although he will not be directly involved because of his duties that day with his ball club. “We’ll assign several interns to handle things,” he said. “We hope island residents and those coming over from the mainland for the game will check out the auction because they will have a rare chance to bid on items personally used, signed and donated by Major League players who got their start on the Cape.

     The game itself will be the last of four “off-Cape” games to be played by Cape League teams this summer. It is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and will be preceded by impressive opening ceremonies.

     Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School baseball coach Gary Simmons, who has been handling many of the arrangements, promised that the field will be at its best for the game which matches two West Division clubs still clinging to hopes of making the playoffs.

     Simmons urged fans to “bring your checkbooks for the auction.”

     He pointed out that this will be a rare opportunity to acquire items that were donated by members of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles. “Everything was personally autographed by these very generous ballplayers,” Simmons said, adding that “there are even some things from Japan,” referring to a baseball cap, program and DVD that were donated by former Texas Rangers and New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine.

     Valentine, who has now achieved near legendary status in Japan as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines, played at Yarmouth in 1967 as a 17-year-old high school star out of Stamford, Conn. He was recently featured on an ESPN special, “The Zen of Bobby V.”

     Here’s a partial list of the donated items that will be available in the silent auction:

From Los Angeles Dodgers
     One Jeff Kent (Cotuit 1988) signed bat
     One Mark Sweeney (Chatham 1988; Y-D 1989 & 1990) signed bat

From Chicago Cubs
     One Ryan Theriot (Wareham 2000) signed game-used bat
     One Mark DeRosa (Bourne 1995) signed bat
     One Reed Johnson (Brewster 1998) signed bat

From Baltimore Orioles
     One Luke Scott (Falmouth 2000) signed game-used bat
     One Kevin Millar (Harwich 1992) signed bat
     One Lance Cormier (Wareham 2000) signed Orioles cap
     One Lance Cormier (Wareham 2000) signed MLB baseball
     One Jay Payton (Orleans 1992 & 1993) signed game-used bat
     One Brian Roberts (Chatham 1998) signed game-used bat

From Chiba Lotte Marines (Japan)
     Three-item lot includes: One official team cap signed by Manager Bobby Valentine (Yarmouth 1967), one official team program/yearbook (all in Japanese!), and one Bobby Valentine Sony DVD.
 

Joe Sherman, CCBL Public Relations Staff (jws02673@aol.com)
 

Interns: Chris Blake, James Chandley, Ashley Crosby, Phil Garceau, Stefanie Marini, Laura Rasmussen