[NOTE: Harwich won the 2008 Cape Cod League championship.]
Around 10 a.m. most mornings this summer, instead of relaxing under the Cape Cod sunshine, Peter Pasquarosa will be helping young collegiate baseball players with some extra batting practice.
And instead of sunbathing, fishing, or doing any of the other activities the Cape provides, Mike Sarno will be priming Harwich's Whitehouse Field for that evening's game.
Working in the Cape Cod Baseball League is hardly a typical Cape summer for Pasquarosa and Sarno, but as long as it involves coaching the sport they love, it's more than worth it.
"It's probably the best summer league in the country - what more can you ask for?" Pasquarosa said.
Both he and Sarno are life-long baseball men and veterans coaches with the Harwich Mariners. Pasquarosa, the former Franklin High baseball coach, first spent his summer in Harwich in 2004. In 2005 and '06, however, while an assistant at Boston College, he ran summer camps in Chestnut Hill. Now an assistant at Babson, he's back to working with the Mariners.
Sarno, who lives in Medway and just finished his first season as head coach at Becker College after 16 at Framingham State, is back for his fifth straight year in Harwich. The allure of the league, despite being away from home for most of the summer, is quite strong.
"It's working with some of the best players in the country, and being on the Cape isn't so bad," Sarno said. "The whole setup is fantastic."
The days are packed. Mornings are almost always spent at the field. Early afternoons are used to grab a quick lunch. And even though games don't typically start until 7 p.m., Pasquarosa and Sarno usually arrive at Whitehouse Field four hours beforehand. They don't get home until after 11 p.m.
"It's not like we're out sailing," Sarno jokes.
Despite their experience as head coaches, their roles are different than during the spring season. The caliber of play on the Cape is well-documented - the league says that 212 CCBL alumni were on a major league roster in 2007. That means the instruction from Cape coaches revolves less around mechanics and instead focuses on repetition and in-game strategy.
"(The players) stay under the same workout programs they have at school - there's money invested in them, so we're not going to come down and change anything they do," Sarno said. "For the most part, they're pretty mechanically sound, so for the short time, we're not going to make any changes. If a kid's getting people out, I don't care if he stands on his head."
But the repetition is important, which is why Pasquarosa works with the infielders hours before gametime on ground balls, double plays and other drills. It's basic stuff, actions these players have performed since T-ball. But it's important to show up early and take that extra batting practice in order to get to the level these players desire.
Pasquarosa points to a young player named Clete Thomas, who came to Harwich in 2004 from Auburn. Now he's manning center field for the Detroit Tigers.
"He was the hardest worker on the team," Pasquarosa said. "You might get kids that feel like they've achieved everything, but Clete was a hard worker, and look, four years later, he's in the big leagues."
Keeping tabs on some of the up-and-coming players is another joy of the job. Since Sarno started in 2004, he's seen former Harwich players like Red Sox reliever Craig Hansen and Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum shine on the big stage.
"It's a lot of fun - you wait until the June draft, you find out who went where," Sarno said.
And maybe one of the best parts for Pasquarosa and Sarno is coaching together. They've known each other for over a decade now, since Pasquarosa coached at Franklin and Sarno would come to his games. They'd then go to Legion games - or even Cape games - together, before they were on the same staff.
Neither knows how long they'll stay in Harwich, although for the time being the atypical Cape summer continues to be appealing.
"I never planned on being down here for five years - it was just something to add to my resume," Sarno said. "But the organization's great, so I just keep coming down."
Beyond the coaches, two local products are playing in the Cape League this summer. Wellesley's Nate Freiman returns for his second season with Orleans - the Duke slugger is hitting .206 through six games so far. And Kevin Scanlan of Lincoln-Sudbury and the University of Maine will be pitching for Chatham. In two appearances totaling six innings, Scanlan has an ERA of 4.50 with seven strikeouts.
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