Birth of the Brewster Whitecaps

The Town of Brewster has always had fervor for baseball, going back as far as 1937. Town teams played Sunday afternoons through the 1940s, and after World War II, continued into the early 1950s as the Brewster AA team. The rosters of those teams carried the names of many of the town’s principal families -- Latham, Gage, Taber, Hooper, Crocker and Clark. It was the town teams‘ heritage, spirit and love of the game that inspired the birth of the Brewster Whitecaps.

The Whitecaps were conceived in 1987, and we can trace the team’s inception back to the Brewster recreation commission. At that time, the commission was trying to establish a first-class baseball facility to accommodate the burgeoning PONY League and Babe Ruth League youth baseball programs. The town fathers were approached for funds to build a new field with the suggestion that a Cape Cod Baseball League franchise might be secured if such a facility were created.

The Cape Cod Baseball League was interested because a group from Bourne had also applied for a franchise at about the same time. Together with Brewster, the expansion would form a perfect 10-team league, providing a larger stage for showcasing the nation’s most talented college players and bringing top-flight family sports entertainment to more residents and visitors on the Cape.

A “founding group” was created the Brewster Baseball Club to sponsor the application for a league franchise. I am proud to have been a member of that hardworking, community minded group:

After more than one year of planning and preparation by our group, the league approved our new team by a vote of 33-2.

Our group was, to say the least, ecstatic!

With the understanding that a new field initiative was underway in Brewster, the league allowed the team to play its 1988 inaugural season at Cape Cod Tech in the Pleasant Lake area of Harwich.

Brewster had its Cape Cod Baseball League team, but the team needed a name. A town-wide contest was held. William Turkington described the wind marching the waves steadily across Cape Cod Bay and submitted the name “Whitecaps.” The name fit perfectly, and so did the colors of navy blue, white and sea foam green.

The one-year agreement to play at Cape Tech was extended for a second year, two years became six, and ultimately, the Whitecaps were based there for 18 years -- including 2000 when the team hosted the All-Star Game and captured the Cape Cod Baseball League championship.

In 2006, after several years of remarkable community support in the form of donations and volunteer site work, the new field at Stony Brook School was completed and the team “came home to Brewster,” where the Whitecaps have been proud to play ever since.

The Brewster Baseball Club, parent organization of the Whitecaps baseball team, is extremely excited to celebrate a quarter century of Cape League baseball. The years have flown by, and the team has earned its place as one of the most valued assets in the town. Nowhere is there a finer demonstration of baseball in its purest form than right here in Brewster.

When I watch a Whitecaps game today, I still fondly recall those first meetings of our small, enthusiastic founding group. And I remember as if it were yesterday, June 11, 1988, at 5 p.m., when the sweet sound of “play ball” echoed through the ballpark, and the Brewster Whitecaps began what would become a 25-year journey as a proud member of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League.

Barry Souder
Director and Founder
Brewster Baseball Club