July 21, 2005
The second Notre Dame summer baseball diary has arrived and again comes from the Cape Cod League, with rising junior righthander Dan Kapala checking in from the Falmouth Commodores. Kapala is one of five Irish players in the Cape this summer and has enjoyed reuniting with his ND teammates several times in recent weeks.
Falmouth (14-15-1) is locked in a four-team battle for the two postseason spots in the CCL’s Western Division, just one game behind the Wareham Gatemen and Cotuit Kettleers (both 15-14-1) while the Bourne Braves sit atop the division at 17-12-1, with 14 games left in the regular season for each team.
Dan Kapala (left) catches up with his Notre Dame classmate Jeff Manship, a member of the rival Cotuit Kettleers.
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Kapala is one of five Notre Dame players currently active in the Cape Cod League and has pitched mainly as a starter for the Commodore, totaling nearly a 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (32 Ks, 11 BB) in 34.2 innings pitched and six appearances (four starts).
Notre Dame’s other current Cape Cod League players include three other juniors-to-be, each playing for the Cotuit Kettleers (RHPs Jeff Manship and Derik Olvey and catcher Sean Gaston), and rising senior outfielder Craig Cooper with the Brewster Whitecaps.
(Note: Danny Dressman will be submitting the next diary, as scheduled, from the Madison Mallards in the Northwoods League. Cody Rizzo and Wade Korpi both were unable to submit their diaries on the scheduled dates during the past week but each may check in later in the summer.)
Cape Cod League players are summer-long celebrities for young and old fans alike.
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Notre Dame 2005 Summer Baseball Diaries – Entry #2 (Dan Kapala; Falmouth Commodores, Cape Cod League)
Greetings from sunny Cape Cod Massachusetts.
This is Dan Kapala checking in from the town of Falmouth. This summer has been a blast ever since the day I got here.
I live with a wonderful host family, Deb and Steve Broklebank, in a beautiful house about 15 minutes from the field. I do not have car here, so my good friend Mike Wagner has been a real sport about driving me around everywhere. Mike went to Vanderbilt for his first two years of college and now he looks forward to playing at Washington State.
In addition to Mike, I have been able to make some really good friends on the team. We have a collection of players from all over the country and we all seem to get along really well. The chemistry of our team is what I believe will cause us to dominate the rest of the regular season and win in the playoffs. We got out to a rough start but we seem to be turning things around lately. It was important to remember in this league that its not who we are, it’s what we do.
Dan Kapala (right) and a Falmouth teammate help sell raffle tickets at a recent game.
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Recently, we were able to string together a couple of big wins against division rivals and we are right back in the playoff hunt with a 14-15 record, one game out of second place. My favorite games are against our most bitter rival, the Cotuit Kettleers. Cotuit is about 15 minutes from Falmouth and it always seems to be a great game, mostly because my ND teammates Jeff Manship and Derik Olvey always seem to pitch against us. Manship already has thrown against us three times and Derik has twice. I usually sit at the end of the bench and give them a hard time but so far it has proved ineffective because Manship, Olvey and their other ND player Sean Gaston seem to have their best games against us. I also enjoy playing the Brewster Whitecaps because I am able to hang out with Craig Cooper before and after the games.
Our coaching staff is great. They really stick up for the players, even though it has caused some drama at a few games. Mainly, they just want the umps to let the kids decide it.
A typical day on the Cape starts at 9:15, when I have to drag myself out of bed to get a hot breakfast and get ready for work. I work for our assistant GM Dan Dunn, who runs a private business auctioning collectibles on E-Bay. He buys and sells pretty much anything you can think of from marbles to pieces of the green monster at Fenway Park.
Work is finished about 1:30 and then I usually work out for an hour or two. After that, it’s off to the field around 4:00 for the game, then back home at 10:00-11:00 depending on home or away games. When we play early games, it is always fun to check out one of the hundreds of mini-golf courses on the Cape or visit one of the many ice-cream shops.
Dan Kapala has compiled nearly a 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with the Commodores.
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Recently, I was able to enjoy a rare off-day. After work I went to the beach with a bunch of guys from the team. After that I met up with Jeff Manship and we drove up to Lowell, Mass., to watch the Lowell Spinners play the Batavia Muckdogs. This was an interesting game for us because former Irish stud and my old roommate Matt Edwards plays for Batavia. It was great to see him and talk about pro-ball and trade summer stories. He looked like he was doing well for himself and having a lot of fun.
Well, it’s time to go now because today is a very special day at the ball field. We have to be there early today because the pitchers get to take batting practice on the field. We earned this privilege by throwing a shutout earlier this week, so I will be putting my ND wristbands and batting gloves to good use today. After that, I will probably just return to goofing around with the other pitchers in the bullpen, “doing nothing to dispel the normal rumors about pitchers” as Sean Gaston put it in his diary … catchers, pfff.
Notre Dame’s recent tradition of producing Cape Cod League players includes another recent pitcher with the Falmouth, as Chris Niesel pitched for the Commodores following Notre Dame’s 2002 College World Series season.
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To all the guys on the team, good luck with the rest of summer, stay tight, and I can’t wait to enjoy another great fall of school and football games. Thank you for all the support from the Irish fans and I am really excited for this upcoming year in Irish baseball.
Knott Hall ’05