WHITECAPS FINALLY COME TO BREWSTER
After eighteen years, the Brewster Whitecaps finally have a field in the actual town limits of Brewster. For those who don’t know, the Whitecaps have been playing at Cape Cod Technical High School in Harwich, off Route 134. Although some argued for the charm of the hill along the third base line where the fans would sit, Cape Cod Tech was a horrible place to play.
If you live (or vacation) in Brewster, the Cape Cod Tech field could be more than fifteen minutes away. Orleans was just as close for people in East Brewster. The new field is right off of Main Street, on Underpass Road, and better yet, directly on the bike path. The Cape Cod Tech field was also inn rather poor condition, lacking the drainage the present field has, and usually burnt out by mid- July. The dugouts, (admittedly more of a problem for the players than the fans) were straight out of the nineteenth century. The situation, until this year, was not good.
The new field (as yet unnamed) is a much better investment of your vacationing, ball- watching, evening- spending time. It is located on the grounds of the Stony Brook School on Underpass Road. Do not confuse this with the Eddy School on Main Street, which is nearby. If you’re driving up Underpass from Main Street (Route 6A), it’s just after the post office on the right. Besides being right in the middle of Brewster, accessible to everyone, the new field is a more enjoyable operation all around. Those with small children will appreciate the fact that there is a playground directly behind the first base seats, covered by a net to prevent foul balls from bonking the kiddies on the head. The concessions, still reasonably priced, are set up behind the third base side seats. There is ample parking, or you can ride your bike right up the bikepath.
In addition, the Whitecaps have trotted new white uniforms, which unfortunately, they don’t always wear. When they wear the old blues, and the other team shows up in their colored jerseys, it can look like a softball game. In baseball, the home team wears white, period. The whites look good. We can only hope that the blues are consigned to road games, where they belong. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the new scoreboard, which is a real, professional thing that conveys all sorts of information, including the running linescore.
From all appearances, the public agrees that the new field is a boon to Whitecap viewing, since attendance is up from last year. This brings us to one of the few shortcomings of the new facility- not enough seats. There are only four rows situated between the dugouts on either side of home plate, with the press tower in the middle. While some might argue that there is a hill behind the first base side, and another past third base from which one can see the game, it should be on the "to- do"’ list to add a couple hundred more seats. I believe that the original plans for the field included lights, which apparently didn’t make it into the budget. This causes extra inning games to turn into ties, and makes it tougher to play in the overcast conditions.
Since the games start at 5:00 p.m., they are generally over early enough for the kids to stay to the end, or for a late dinner out after. Since the list of evening family entertainment located in Brewster ends with the miniature golf course (also on Underpass Road), bringing the Whitecaps home has doubled Brewster’s evening activities. The new field, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing. Now it just needs a name.
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