B.F.C. Whitehouse Field, or Whitehouse Field, is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

venue in

Harwich, Massachusetts Harwich ( ) is a New England town on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 13,440. Harwich exper ...

, home to the

Harwich Mariners The Harwich Mariners are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Harwich, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Mariners play their home games at Whitehouse Fiel ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

(CCBL). Opened in 1969, Whitehouse Field was named for Mr. B.F.C. Whitehouse and was dedicated in July 1969 as part of Harwich's 275th

anniversary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints ...

celebration. The

ballpark A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

was built on land adjacent to what is now

Monomoy Regional High School Monomoy Regional High School is a regional secondary school located in Harwich, Massachusetts, United States, within Barnstable County. Monomoy Regional High School serves approximately 625 students in grades 8-12 from the towns of Chatham an ...

, and features a deep

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball and ...

fence with a symmetrical configuration. It is accessed via an extended

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

trail that opens into the tree-ringed clearing where the field is located. As early as the 1920s, Harwich had a franchise in the CCBL, albeit originally a combined

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

-Harwich team. The Mariners became Harwich's own team in 1930, and prior to 1969 played their home games at Harwich's Brooks Park. At the 1969 dedication ceremonies for Whitehouse Field, Mr. Whitehouse concluded his remarks by stoking Harwich's historic small-town border rivalry, turning to the Mariners players and exhorting, "Now go out there and beat

!"Price, Christopher. ''Baseball by the Beach'', Hyannis, MA: Parnassus Imprints, 1998, p.189. . In 1998, a new

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

was donated by former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

Fay Vincent, Jr., in memory of his father, Fay Vincent, Sr. The commissioner had been a longtime summer resident of Harwich and a fan of the Mariners and the CCBL, and wished to honor his late father who had been the baseball captain at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1931. The scoreboard was dedicated on July 6, 1998 as part of "Fay Vincent Night at Whitehouse Field", and has been billed by the CCBL as being "the largest scoreboard in New England south of

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Base ...

". A 2008 grant from the Yawkey Foundation helped fund major upgrades to Whitehouse that included the installation of a new lighting system and protective netting. Whitehouse Field hosted the CCBL's annual

all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

and

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

derby festivities in 1992, 2002, 2012 and 2018, and has seen the Mariners claim CCBL championships in 1983, 1987, 2008 and 2011. The ballpark has been the summertime home of dozens of future major leaguers such as

Kevin Millar Kevin Charles Millar (; born September 24, 1971) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) and is a current analyst for MLB Network. He played in MLB for the Florida Marli ...

Josh Donaldson Joshua Adam Donaldson (born December 8, 1985) is an American professional baseball third baseman for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, Atla ...

, and

DJ LeMahieu David John LeMahieu (; born July 13, 1988) is an American professional baseball infielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies. The Cubs selected LeMahieu in the ...

References

External links

Harwich Mariners official websiteCape Cod Baseball League official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:B.F.C. Whitehouse Field Cape Cod Baseball League ballparks Buildings and structures in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Harwich, Massachusetts

See also

References

External links