Former Cape Cod Baseball League batting champion Lance Berkman (Wareham, 1996) is calling it quits.

Carlos Pena (Harwich, 1996; Wareham, 1997) has played for eight teams in a 13-season big league career, along the way collecting 1,138 hits, 285 home runs and 816 RBIs, winning a Gold Glove (2008) and a Silver Slugger (2007) and playing in the 2009 All-Star Game.

     Despite a last-place finish in 2013, the Chicago White Sox showed confidence in manager Robin Ventura on Friday by rewarding him with a multiyear contract extension. Ventura’s original deal would have expired at the end of the 2014 season.

Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame pitcher David Aardsma (Falmouth, 2002; HOF class of 2010) is back in baseball.

     The American Baseball Coaches Association has selected Cotuit Kettleers field manager Mike Roberts of the Cape Cod Baseball League as one of its inductees into its Hall of Fame Class for 2015.

     The Cape Cod Baseball League is currently accepting resumes and letters of interest to fill the full-time, year-round Corporate Development Fundraising position.

     When John Farrell attended the 2013 Hot Stove event, put on by the Falmouth Commodores, he spent much of the evening fielding questions about how he would turn the Boston Red Sox around as their newly appointed manager. 

     Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters (Orleans, 2005) and Boston Red Sox pitcher Andrew Miller (Chatham, 2004-05) have not yet reached agreement with their respective teams on new contracts for 2014, and arbitration hearings are looming next month if they fail to do so.

     For the second consecutive season, the Falmouth Commodores belted a grand slam with their Hot Stove Panel Fund-Raiser at the Sea Crest Motel on Thursday. 

     Chris Coghlan (Chatham, 2005), a former Cape Cod Baseball League batting champion and the National League’s 2009 Rookie of the Year, has signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs with an invitation to spring training.

      Twenty-four former Cape Cod Baseball League players, including two CCBL Hall of Famers, are among the 146 players who filed for arbitration on Tuesday under the system agreed to by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.

     With Frank Thomas about to become the third Cape Cod Baseball League alumnus to take his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, it’s interesting to note that he was a teammate of  Carlton Fisk's for four seasons – 1990-93 – with the Chicago White Sox.  

     Slugging Frank “Big Hurt” Thomas became just the third Cape Cod Baseball League alumnus voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, joining Harold “Pie” Traynor (Falmouth, 1919) and Carlton Fisk (Orleans, 1966).

     It’s been a challenging offseason for fans who enjoy following the big league careers of their favorite Cape Cod Baseball League graduates. 

     Another former Cape Cod Baseball League player will head to Korea in an effort to kick-start his stalled Major League Baseball career. 

     Former Harwich Mariners and MIT baseball coach Fran O'Brien has been named recipient of the Ethics in Coaching Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association.