The Lobster Trap is quintessential Cape Cod — lobster rolls, fried clams and takeout, outdoor and indoor seating and a crowded bar in the section of Bourne known as Monument Beach, on the Back River leading out to Buzzards Bay. Matt Shaw and Evan Sleight, two Massachusetts prep school kids playing this summer for the Bourne Braves, were having lunch there before the opener of the summer league playoffs against Falmouth, as the days wind down before they return to college (Sleight at Rutgers, Shaw at Maryland).
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If the first steps up baseball’s professional development ladder often begin with whether a young player loves to play the game, then they are the models for these roles.
“This has been the best summer of my life,” said Sleight at one point; Shaw, earlier in the summer, had expressed disbelief that some players don’t talk about the joys and the technicalities of the sport — he could only imagine analytical and appreciative players like Mark Mulder, Mark Kotsay, Mark DeRosa, Kevin Youkilis or Brandon Inge who played in Bourne before him.
And now that Shaw has been named MVP of the Cape Cod Baseball League, his chances of someday being considered a peer of those cerebral, talented players is rising.
This is a significant summer in this pair’s baseball careers. The Cape is where so many of us watched Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Mulder, and Mark Teixeira. It was here where Buster Posey was the best shortstop there was, where Evan Longoria hit twice as many homers as any other player, where Barry Zito’s curveball hypnotized hitters and where, five summers ago, I sat behind home plate and watched a catcher who batted .162 with two extra-base hits prompt me to blurt out “he’s going to be catching the seventh game of a World Series someday.”
And I’m even more confident now that Adley Ruschman will do just that.
So much in baseball is about opportunity, even in a modern game that has evolved to the point where showcases televise young baseball players doing long jumps. Even still, what matters are the games, those learning experiences where future winning, star major-league players like Brandon Crawford or Pat Burrell hit under .200 on their paths to World Series rings. Or where a kid from Haverhill, Mass. and Northeastern University named Carlos Peña could come out of nowhere and the next June be the 10th pick in the draft. Or where 30 years ago an undersized lefty out of Division III Ferrum College could arrive as an unknown — and yet today Billy Wagner is recalled as one of the best to ever pitch in this league.
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Shaw came here to Bourne and Monument Beach from a Western Massachusetts town of 3,500 called Brimfield, known for antiques. Matt’s father had built a batting facility for his sons and helped feed the hitting fanaticism of a 13-year-old kid. Current Red Sox hitting coach Peter Fatse came by to help hone the young hitter, and Shaw later worked with Fatse’s University of Connecticut teammate and workout mate Nick Ahmed.
One has to understand that when you come from those parts of Massachusetts west of Springfield it can seem as if you aren’t going to be noticed, or taken seriously. When Ahmed was looking at colleges, he was told at Boston College that he could try as a pitcher, but that he couldn’t play the field in the ACC; after hitting .325 for Bourne in 2010, he’s gone on to play 781 games in the majors at shortstop and win two Gold Gloves.
It simply happens that when you grow up playing baseball in an antiques town of 3,500 you can miss out on the big dollar showcases and be overlooked. Shaw went to Wilbraham & Monson Academy, then Worcester Academy, he hit .342 at the age of 18 in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, but essentially had a choice only between Northeastern and the University of Maryland. There was no press conference or signing ceremony when he decided on Maryland; he was training in a boxing gym when he called the Maryland coaching staff to tell them he was coming.
At Maryland, he has worked with Terps hitting coach Matt Swope, who was a significant help in the careers of LaMonte Wade, Jr. and Brandon Lowe. On Swope’s biography page, it also mentions working with “All-American Matt Shaw.” Swope happens to be a close associate of Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc.
This year, Shaw has been the best player in the Cape League, just as Carlos Peña was when he walked on looking for a chance to play. Shaw led the league in hitting at .360, was second in homers with five, stole 21 bases, was second in doubles, third in hits. He was an outstanding high school soccer player with an opportunity to attend several major programs, and one sees that athleticism — like previous generation high school soccer stars like Cal Ripken, Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Bagwell — in his footwork and ability going back on pop flies.
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“He shows up at the ballpark, works diligently on his defense and in the batting cage, wins,” says one scout.
Disciplined? To the max. Does he love to play? He and Sleight thanked me for loving the game. “For me,” says a major-league scout, “that should be one of the first things we look for. Major-league games aren’t showcases. Look at Brandon Crawford, whose career is highlighted by relays he connected in winning two World Series rings. And as we know, he connected because he worked so hard at relays.”
Think about that.
The summer Pete Alonso played for Bourne, he wasn’t considered a legit prospect; he didn’t hit a homer his summer playing for the Braves. But he practiced tirelessly and clearly loved playing the game. Darin Erstad was, like Shaw, the Cape Cod League Player of the Year in 1994, but after the former Nebraska Cornhuskers’ starting punter got his kicks in every afternoon on the Falmouth Field, he’d spend hours power shagging and hitting.
When Baseball America listed its 2023 draft prospects, Shaw was included as the No. 70 prospect for next July’s draft. That was before his full regular Cape League season, and his league MVP finish. Yes, teams like drafting tooled-up players, like the Angels’ first-round picks Jo Adell and Jordan Adams in 2017-18. Adell is 23, played parts of three major-league seasons, batted .217 with a .267 OBP and a 139-23 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Adams has batted .239 in parts of five minor-league seasons.
Shaw, like them, is an extraordinary athlete, something we can see in his soccer ability. More than that, though, Shaw is a baseball rat who can play baseball. In 105 college games, his numbers are .308/.393/.578/.978. In the Cape League .360/.432/.574/1.006.
Enough said.
It’s hard not to be fascinated by Mychal Thompson and his family. Go back to when he moved from the Bahamas to Miami’s Jackson Senior High School and then on to the University of Minnesota, where his play made him the first pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Fast-forward to his and his son Klay’s careers, one of five father-son combinations to win NBA championships — Klay’s most recent coming this spring as he helped the Stephen Curry-led Warriors (cousin of former A’s pitcher Reggie Harris) defeat the Celtics in six games.
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What particularly fascinated me was when brother Trayce Thompson first made it up with the White Sox in 2015, and his stories about the games the Thompson boys played. Trayce and Klay played chess. Klay was a shooting guard and quarterback. Brother Mychel played hoops. Trayce was, he acknowledges, “a baseball junkie, watching ‘Baseball Tonight’ almost every night.”
There were the games they all played in the backyard virtually every night. Mychal, who had retired from the NBA, pitched with a tennis ball. Klay was more a shortstop and pitcher. Trayce could hit.
Trayce Thompson. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)And they had a friend named Kevin Love — yes, that Kevin Love, son of former NBA player Stan, who was the brother of Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love.
“Kevin was the monster,” says Trayce. “He is still the most intimidating pitcher I’ve ever faced (and Trayce has more than 750 major-league at-bats). “At 12 he weighed 80 pounds. He was always intimidating, whether we were in the backyard or high school.”
In his baseball pursuits, Trayce Thompson became a close friend with a future Hall of Famer, Nolan Arenado, whom Trayce often referred to as “brother.” They grew up in Orange County and were the 51st and 61st picks in the 2009 draft. They worked out together in the off-seasons, and the first time they met in a Dodgers-Rockies game in Denver, their mothers flew in to see the game.
Trayce came up with the White Sox, and in 2015 played in 44 games and hit .293 with an .896 OPS. The following winter he was traded with Frankie Montas to the Dodgers, and began a checkerboard career. “I brought a lot on myself,” says Thompson. In 2017, he ended up back in the minors, batting .212. He played in the A’s, White Sox and Cubs organizations, then this spring signed with the Padres after the lockout. That didn’t stick and he was later signed by the Tigers, then eventually got back to the Dodgers, where Dave Roberts believes he’s found a home.
At 31, Trayce Thompson may have re-established himself as a Dodger after his team swept the Padres last weekend and had the best record in the game. “I’m taking in every moment,” he says. “When I drive into Dodger Stadium, and I take the stairs up the eight floors. I stop at the seventh floor every day at the opening and look out at the sight of Dodger Stadium. It means that much to just take it all in.”
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It’s fun to think back to Dell Curry throwing to his two sons in their backyard; the elder Curry was drafted in the 14th round of the MLB Draft in 1985, even if he didn’t sign a baseball contract. It’s easy to think about Curry and cousin Reggie Harris, who turned down a hoop scholarship to Virginia Tech to sign as a first draft choice of the Red Sox, playing Wiffle Ball and one-on-one in their backyards. Then think about Klay and Trayce hitting a tennis ball off Kevin Love and father Mychal Thompson.
It’s all what it’s supposed to be: fun, fun, fun.
The impact of the death of George Floyd and the social movement that moment spawned may not be fully clear for some time, especially in the city of Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed by police in 2020. But as someone who lives a thousand miles away, I have the greatest of respect for Twins owner Jim Pohlad, president Dave St. Peter and vice presidents Derek Falvey and Thad Levine for the goal they set out to re-establish going into the 2022 season.
“We were told as an organization that we needed to bring the people back downtown, feeling safe, being happy and enjoying the Twins,” says one Minnesota scout. “They were passionate about it. They genuinely care.”
Carlos Correa. (Jordan Johnson / USA Today)So on the baseball side, they signed Carlos Correa. They made trades, for pitchers like Chris Paddack. And when they reached the trading deadline with a legitimate shot at the playoffs, they were one of the most active teams in the market. They traded prospect pitchers like lefty Steve Hajjar to Cincinnati to get Tyler Mahle, who offers rotation stability now and with a high ceiling. They traded four pitchers, including Cade Povich, to the Orioles for reliever Jorge López, who had shined in Baltimore and is industry respected professionally and personally. They got Michael Fulmer from the Tigers. They are fighting for the Central Division crown, and the crowds are back at Target Field.
“There’s a very strong feeling about and for Minneapolis in our ownership,” says Falvey. “We all feel it living here. They want to be part of the revitalization. Because of them, we all want to be a part of the heartbeat.”
All those trade deadline moves grabbed headlines, but it’s one less-heralded acquisition that resonates with me: when they acquired veteran catcher Sandy León from the Guardians to guide those pitchers and give Gary Sanchez a chance to hit and relax. Last January, when Colombia won the Caribbean World Series, Red Sox manager Alex Cora sent me a text at 6:15 the morning after their victory with two words: “Sandy León.”
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“He genuinely cares about other people, especially the pitchers,” says Guardians president Chris Antonetti. “They know it. He’s special. I don’t want the Twins to beat us out, but he deserves to play there.”
There are analytic darlings to whom pitchers prefer not to pitch. Then there are the likes of León and Martin Maldonaldo; if you’re hung up on their batting averages, go talk to Justin Verlander and Dusty Baker.
Baseball is every day, and it is a heartbeat in its own way, a metronomic consistency that is perhaps felt the loudest when events outside the lines seem the most uncertain. When Mike Piazza hit that homer after 9/11, damn right many of us had tears in our eyes. When Derek Jeter played Mr. November, as well. When David Ortiz walked out onto Fenway’s infield that April Saturday after the Boston Marathon bombing, grabbed the microphone and said “this is our (bleeping) city” he became a cross between Sam Adams and Ethan Allen. It means something.
The Minnesota Twins are a baseball team with a civic soul, from ownership to the front office down to a manager, Rocco Baldelli, who is one of the finest human beings I have known in 51 years in baseball. Of course, this is about winning, but it is about winning for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and bringing joy to its residents. If they play baseball in a Minnesota October, there will be reasons to come into town. They’ll remember Kirby Puckett, they’ll remember Jack Morris and Gene Larkin’s single that ended that 1991 Morris-John Smoltz Game 7 we shall never forget. And they’ll make new memories to join those sacred ones.
(Top photo of Matt Shaw: Gail Burton / Associted Press)
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