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Cape League Spotlight

Pie Traynor
06/23/2020 4:25 AM

Article By: Mike Richard


As of the present day, more than 1,400 former Cape Cod Baseball League players have
made it to the Major Leagues over the years.

Baseball Hall of Famer Harold “Pie” Traynor, who played for both Oak Bluffs and
Falmouth in 1919, became one of the first-ever former Cape Leaguers to play professional
baseball.

As a 21-year old shortstop that season, Traynor led the Falmouth team to a 9-2 record
with an amazing .447 batting average. He also played for Oak Bluffs that summer where his
average dipped to .240. His stats for the season included one home run, 21 runs scored, five
doubles, 12 stolen bases and a combined batting average of .322.

The following season, Trainor began his 17-year major league career playing his entire
career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was considered by many the greatest third baseman in
Major League Baseball history.

He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948 and into the Cape Cod
Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Here is a look at several other baseball players who got their start in the Cape Cod
Baseball League in the 1920s and 30s, and went on to Major League careers.

Freddie Moncewicz (Hyannis 1923-27)

Freddie Moncewicz, a native of Brockton, played baseball and football at Boston
College. From 1923-27, he played for the Hyannis entry and led the team to a pair of league
titles; the co-championship with Osterville in 1926 before winning it outright in 1927.
After his 1928 graduation from Boston College, he signed a contract with the Boston Red
Sox and played three games with them that season. He had a total of one at bat, a strike out,
while also playing in another game as a defensive replacement and the final game as a pinch
runner.

He returned to the Cape to play for the Hyannis and Barnstable teams through 1933 and
later graduated from Boston College Law School. He served as a lieutenant commander in the
U.S. Navy during World War 2.

Danny MacFayden (Osterville 1924; Falmouth 1925)
Truro native Danny MacFayden pitched for the Osterville team in 1924 where he posted
a 9-2 record and led them to the championship over Falmouth in the playoffs. In 1925, he
returned to the CCBL with Falmouth.

In a 17-season career, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox (1926–1932), New York
Yankees (1932–1934), Cincinnati Reds (1935), Boston Braves (1935–1939, 1943), Pittsburgh
Pirates (1940) and Washington Senators (1941). He had a 132–159 career record with
797 strikeouts and a 3.96 earned run average.

He was inducted into the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame in 2012.

Frank “Shanty” Hogan (Osterville 1924)
A native of Somerville, Massachusetts, Hogan was a catcher and played with MacFayden
on the Osterville team in 1924. That season, he batted .385 and was named team MVP.
According to the Falmouth Enterprise, he reportedly hit the longest home run ever seen at
Osterville's West Bay Field.

A major league catcher, he played for the Boston Braves (1925–1927; 33-35), New York
Giants (1928–1932) and Washington Senators (1936–1937).

Haskell Billings (Falmouth 1925-27)
Haskell Clark “Josh” Billings played college baseball at Brown University and during the
summers of 1925-27, pitched for the Falmouth in the Cape Cod Baseball League. He was named
team MVP in 1925.

He had a three-year career pitching for the Detroit Tigers from 1927-29 where he had a
10-15 lifetime record with a 5.02 ERA and 67 strikeouts.


Joel Sherman (Hyannis 1906-13; 1927-31)
Born in Yarmouth, Sherman attended Barnstable High School and pitched for the
Hyannis town team from 1906-13, prior to the formal organization of the Cape Cod Baseball
League in 1923. His pro career lasted one week, pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics between
Sept. 24-30 in 1915, where he had a 1-0 record in 15 innings pitched.

After a 14-year, hiatus he returned to play again for Hyannis in the newly-formed league
from 1927 to 1931.

Danny Silva (Wareham 1927; Osterville 1928-30)
Silva played for and managed Wareham in 1927 before joining Osterville for the next
three seasons, leading them to the 1928 title. In 1930, when Osterville and Hyannis joined forces
to become Barnstable, Silva managed the team from 1931-33. After that, he became a longtime
umpire in the league.

Prior to his Cape League career, he appeared in one game for the Washington Senators in
1919 before settling in the Boston area and becoming a physical education teacher and coach at
Everett High School for 24 years.

In the early 1960s when the Cape Cod Baseball League reorganized, Silva was chosen to
become the first league commissioner of the modern era. He served in that capacity from 1962-
68 and lived for the remainder of his life in Barnstable before his death in 1974.
He was among the inaugural inductees into the Cape Cod Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.


Ed Wineapple (Osterville 1928-30; Orleans 1931)
From 1928 to 1930, Wineapple was a pitcher as well as an exceptional hitter with
Osterville, before playing for Orleans in 1931.

His lone major league appearance came on September 15, 1929 for the Washington
Senators where he pitched the final four innings in relief, giving up four runs on seven hits,
walking three and striking out one against Detroit.

Vito Tamulis (Osterville and Hyannis 1929)
In 1929, Tamulis played for both the Osterville and Hyannis town teams in the Cape Cod
Baseball League. In a Major League career that spanned six seasons, he had a 40-28 record
pitching for the New York Yankees (1934-35), St. Louis Browns (1938), Brooklyn Dodgers
(1938-41) and Philadelphia Phillies (1941).

Ed Conley
Ed Conley was born in Sandwich and did not play in the Cape Leagues, toiling rather for
a semi-pro team in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. While there, he was signed by the Providence
Grays in 1884 and pitched in eight games with a 4-4 record and a 2.15 ERA in 71 innings
pitched. Prior to his pro career, he was a fine pitcher at Holy Cross College. He died at the age of
30 of tuberculosis in 1894.


Mike Richard is the official historian of the Cape Cod Baseball League  and can be
contacted by email at [email protected].